United LHR- New York in F $100 return

[mandja]

BTW I never got the ETicket. Hossein, did you get the cancellation mail?

 

[mandja]

Just to be on the safe side , I have now lodged my DoT complaint online...took 5 minutes

 

[smit0847]

UPDATE !

Seems that DoT has already begun

Just read this on their website

"[h=1]United Airlines mistaken fare[/h]The Department of Transportation is aware of an issue involving mistaken fares on United Airlines’ Danish-facing website. The Department's Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings has begun looking into this matter, including speaking to United and reviewing consumer complaints. That Office will gather all the relevant facts before making a determination as to whether United is or is not required to honor the mistaken fares.



Updated: Thursday, February 12, 2015 "


Keep all fingers and toes crossed (in Hossein's case crescented?)

As I said above, I think the huge volume might be the straw that breaks the camels back

 

[JohnK]

I read this on a news website yesterday. Surprised it didn't get the coverage on AFF but then again it is United.

 

[hossein_au]

Keep all fingers and toes crossed (in Hossein's case crescented?)

Had never heard that before lol... crossed they have been and shall remain

 

[hossein_au]

BTW I never got the ETicket. Hossein, did you get the cancellation mail?

I went to the web site about 3-4 hours after placing the order and got it to email me the eticket. Yes, I have received the dreaded email.

 

[hossein_au]

Just to be on the safe side , I have now lodged my DoT complaint online...took 5 minutes

Same here, I have lodged complaints with both DOT and with California's Office of Attorney General (I used to live in SF and still have an address there).

 

[elogic]

The DOT website is still crashing trying to upload my complaint has anyone else had trouble

 

[anat0l]

The DOT complaint form didn't seem to want to play nice when I used Firefox. I ended up having to load it in Internet Explorer.

Without attachments, it'd probably work fine.

 

[hossein_au]

The DOT website is still crashing trying to upload my complaint has anyone else had trouble

The site is very poorly implemented. Either try it without any attachments, or fill out the form completely (including all radio buttons) BEFORE attaching any document.

 

[burmans]

It seems in this case that the loaded fares themselves were not incorrect, but the third-party currency conversion system had a problem.

Misfiled exchange rates was the underlying cause of the RGN fare issue too (from memory the Kyat was devalued about 100% overnight), once again by a third party. Not sure they can make that argument this time when it failed last time.

 

[QPProletarian]

Interesting to see Lufthansa petitioning the DOT to change the rule....

http://www.airlineinfo.com/ostpdf91/622.pdf

For example, British Airways sold tickets from the U.S. to India for $40 (excluding taxes and fees).Although British Airways almost immediately realized its error and removed the mistaken fare withinminutes from its own website, it remained on the websites of on-line travel agents for nearly two hours,resulting in bookings by approximately 2,200 passengers. The fare, which DOT recognized as“erroneous,” was nearly 20 times lower than the lowest U.S.-India fare being offered by British Airwaysprior to the mistake. Press Release, U.S. Dep’t of Transp., “Department Ensures British AirwaysOffers Reimbursements Following Erroneous Fare Offer,” DOT 183-09 (Nov. 30, 2009). Although thecarrier cancelled the bookings of all passengers who purchased the erroneous fare and offered eachof them a $300 voucher, following a DOT investigation, it agreed to reimburse passengers forexpenses, including fees for cancelling flights, hotels, rental cars or other ground arrangements, andadditional costs incurred in rebooking flights, resulting from consumers having relied on the erroneousfare.

DOT is considering a revision to its post-purchase price regulations to address the issue of“mistaken fares.” 79 Fed. Reg. at 29991. Under 14 C.F.R. Section 399.88, sellers of airtransportation are prohibited from increasing the price of an airline ticket to a consumer whohas purchased and paid for the ticket in full. DOT has previously indicated that this ruleapplies even when the fare is a “mistake.” 79 Fed. Reg. at 29991. In some cases, DOTeffectively has required air carriers to honor mistaken fares (regardless of the economic costto the carrier) or potentially face substantial civil penalties.

 

[QPProletarian]

Also past honouring of AZ mistake

Your correspondence to the U.S. Department of Transportation regarding a recent Alitalia Japan Web site promotional discount code has been forwarded to us for response. Under the redemption rules, this particular code was only valid on Tokyo and Osaka flights. Unfortunately, Alitalia’s online reservation system erroneously permitted the discount to be applied to all Alitalia flights booked through the Japan Web site. After carefully considering this matter, Alitalia has decided to honor all tickets purchased with the promotional code, provided the transaction entailed a charge of more than one (1) euro cent. If you made such a purchase but were notified that your transaction had been cancelled, you should have received, or will soon receive, a confirmation email reinstating your ticket at the original purchase price, using the credit card information provided during your initial booking.

[Gone] AZ: 320 discount on Alitalia operated flights (.JP) - Page 97 - FlyerTalk Forums

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It will be interesting to see how the DOT rules on this one.

Under ordinary contract law, passengers would almost certainly not have a valid ticket (contract).

Their potential protection in this case comes solely from DOT regulations which prohibit fare increases on mistake fares.

However, it seems fairly clear the intention of those regulations is not to protect active participants in mistake fares, but rather to protect 'innocent' passengers from unscrupulous airline practices (should they arise).

The DOT has already exercised its discretion to protect airlines in the RGN case (LX) where it decided that tickets 'to/from/within the USA' would require a stop of at least 24 hours in the USA in order for the regulations to apply. This is not stated in the regulations.

The possible get-out here might be that passengers had to change their billing address to Denmark in order to buy the fare. Most customers probably did not have this, but had to fake it.

Had customers not made this change they wouldn't have been able to buy the fare.

If DOT carves out on this basis, it would still leave those people with a valid Danish billing address, who would seem to have a case.

DOT is potentially looking to modify its position with regard to mistake fares, especially those which are knowingly snapped up and disseminated via blogs.

 

[burmans]

It will be interesting to see how the DOT rules on this one.

Under ordinary contract law, passengers would almost certainly not have a valid ticket (contract).

Their potential protection in this case comes solely from DOT regulations which prohibit fare increases on mistake fares.

However, it seems fairly clear the intention of those regulations is not to protect active participants in mistake fares, but rather to protect 'innocent' passengers from unscrupulous airline practices (should they arise).

The DOT has already exercised its discretion to protect airlines in the RGN case (LX) where it decided that tickets 'to/from/within the USA' would require a stop of at least 24 hours in the USA in order for the regulations to apply. This is not stated in the regulations.

The possible get-out here might be that passengers had to change their billing address to Denmark in order to buy the fare. Most customers probably did not have this, but had to fake it.

Had customers not made this change they wouldn't have been able to buy the fare.

If DOT carves out on this basis, it would still leave those people with a valid Danish billing address, who would seem to have a case.

DOT is potentially looking to modify its position with regard to mistake fares, especially those which are knowingly snapped up and disseminated via blogs.

Not that it helps us but DOT is not the only regulator here. It's noted elsewhere that EU regulations prohibit discrimination of price by location for EU companies and citizens so I think they may well have to settle a bit wider than just Danes. It would be ironic if UA claim that only Danes can use this fare to have that used against them in EU jurisdiction!

 

[Shanye2233]

I'm happy I got 7 or 8'tickets all with eticket numbers and I also paid the expensive fare back to Sydney so keep those fingers crossed for one of Aff

 

[Alanslegal]

I'm happy I got 7 or 8'tickets all with eticket numbers and I also paid the expensive fare back to Sydney so keep those fingers crossed for one of Aff

No doubt the 'expensive fare back to Sydney' is fully cancellable / refundable / no cost

But once you land in the UK and get quizzed by the immigration agent why you are there ... and things start to get hairy ... do not tell the agent to 'go get some cold water to splash over their face'. You might not only get in trouble, but fined a monetary penalty bigger than a fine being in possession of two granny smith apples.

 

[docjames]

I'm happy I got 7 or 8'tickets all with eticket numbers and I also paid the expensive fare back to Sydney so keep those fingers crossed for one of Aff

7 or 8 (?) for you or for you and others as well?

 

[Shanye2233]

All my tickets I brought are non refundable . Going back and forth a few times then to gig , HNL , auh and to ewr for the new year , 9 tickets in total .

in regards to the pears in akl to assist you Alan I only mentioned some cold water when both agents and their supervisor told me we were getting the maximum penalty for bringing fruit from upstairs . It wasn't my first response after they took our passports and separated my family to make sure our stories added up.

 

[anat0l]

Can we cease the off-topic ramble now and get back on topic about these fares. Don't really need to drag the quality of this thread down to the same standard as that of the FT thread, where the moderators are holding onto about 2 - 2.5 strikes for maintaining the thread being open.

If you want to slice old wounds take it outside.

On an on-topic note, I wonder how long it will take DoT to decide. They have realistically had barely a day to start contemplation on this; I suspect it will take at least a week or two. Some people with cancelled fares within that timeframe will be inevitably affected.