Moderators: jsumali2, richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
| Quoting DocLightning (Reply 18): It's been an ongoing discussion. Unless you travel an awful lot for work, there is little point to focusing on your FF accounts. |
| Quoting nonrevman (Reply 49): Just like you, my big worry would be buying a vacation package for my family months in advance, and then a couple of weeks before the trip, getting a call from the airline that the fare was a "mistake", and I have a choice of paying $2000 more for the tickets, or they could refund the trip. |
| Quoting bobnwa (Reply 51): Boy, does this topic bring out the basic differences between liberals(democrats) and conservatives (republicans) |
| Quoting HPRamper (Reply 52): |
| Quoting DDR (Reply 16): Agreed. The 24 hour rule should apply to both the passenger and the airline. That would be fair for everyone. |
| Quoting CHA5departure (Reply 46): I wish! It sickens me how much cheaper my German relatives can purchase Europe-USA-Europe tickets on pretty much any airline website compared to what it costs to purchase USA-Europe-USA tickets on the US site for the exact same arlines. We are talking hundreds of dollars cheaper. |
| Quoting flyingturtle (Reply 23): 1. Mistakes should be impossible, in principle, because fares are not calculated by salesmen anymore, but by computer algorithms. Oh, we gave away tickets for $10? It was a mistake done by the computer! Let's crucify, quarter and burn those who sold us the computers! You can feed average loads, cost factors and whatever into your algorithm, and use that as a safeguard against giving away tickets too cheaply. They big legacy airlines might just ask U2 or FR how they prevent losses, as they routinely sell extremely cheap tickets. Their safeguards are obviously working. So airlines should demonstrate the price was in error. I look forward happily to the that "demonstration" which necessarily divulges at least some of their company secrets. |
| Quoting ikramerica (Reply 55): Computers aren't self aware and they are programmed by HUMANS. |
| Quoting flyingturtle (Reply 56): |
| Quoting billreid (Reply 58): It remains very very very sad that the government needs to protect UAL from its own stupid mistakes. |
| Quoting billreid (Reply 14): I am so disillusioned by airlines and their management. Quite simply the airlines obviously work with the DOT who licenses them through the FAA. So there is a complete and utter conflict in interest. Under the law if someone makes a mistake and sells a Rolex in a garage sale for $5 the sale stands, yet if the airline makes a mistake because they are poorly managed they are protected by those in government they work with. How do you spell corruption? LOL |
| Quoting FlyPNS1 (Reply 15): Your analogy doesn't work. The person selling a Rolex for $5 in a garage sale is underpricing purely out of ignorance of the value of the product, not a mistake. The airlines have a pretty good idea of the value of their product and they know a J/F seat on a transatlantic flight is worth a lot more than $100. I would argue that the airlines should get the same protection as passengers. They get 24 hours to correct fare mistakes. If they don't catch by then, then they have to honor it. With more sophisticated software systems, tracking down and fixing errors should be easier. |
| Quoting steex (Reply 1): Assuming it isn't a mileage run, I can't help wondering if this will create a loophole where an airline won't cancel your ticket simply because it's a worse financial decision for them. If I find and book an $80 SFO-NRT-SFO trip on UA and quickly book two weeks of nonrefundable hotel stays, I can't see them wanting to shell out potentially thousands of dollars in cash to reimburse me for the right to void an $80 ticket that was supposed to be $800. |
| Quoting ckfred (Reply 62): In contract law, for a contract to exist, there must be an offer and an acceptance. I learned in law school that a price tag isn't an offer. It's an invitation for the shopper to make an offer, which the store is free to reject. So, if an item is mismarked, the clerk can tell the customer, in effect, that the offer is rejected and an invitation to make an new offer, at the correct and higher price, would be entertained. |
| Quoting ckfred (Reply 62): In contract law, for a contract to exist, there must be an offer and an acceptance. I learned in law school that a price tag isn't an offer. It's an invitation for the shopper to make an offer, which the store is free to reject. So, if an item is mismarked, the clerk can tell the customer, in effect, that the offer is rejected and an invitation to make an new offer, at the correct and higher price, would be entertained. Of course, a smart retailer will sell the good at the mismarked price, since that will heighten the store's good will. Now, there are various laws and regulations about what happens, if a retailer has the wrong price listed. A retailer may have to sell the item at the marked price. Then the retailer will correct the price for future customers. For a price listed in a newspaper ad or flyer, the retailer may have to display the correction in the front window or by the register, as well as buy ad space announcing the correction. But, based on contract law, a very low (and incorrect) fare offered by an airline is merely an invitation to make an offer. Now, if a carrier is smart, it honors those incorrect fares while getting it's IT department to correct the fares in the system ASAP. |
| Quoting ckfred (Reply 62): In contract law, for a contract to exist, there must be an offer and an acceptance. |
| Quoting mjoelnir (Reply 64): That may be the reading were you learned contract law and applying in the USA or where ever. In most European countries the advertised price is the offer by the seller. |
| Quoting jbflyguy84 (Reply 48): |
| Quoting airlineecon (Reply 66): Quoting jbflyguy84 (Reply 48): That's a cop out excuse that doesn't justify "mistakes." |
| Quoting bennett123 (Reply 67): Do airlines make so many mistakes that they need to be protected. |
