DOT: U.S. Airlines Are No Longer Required to Honor Mistake Fares
Jeff Edwards May 12, 2015
A new ruling by the DOT means U.S. airlines will no longer be required to honor low fares sold erroneously.
There is an undeniable excitement that comes from stumbling upon an airfare that’s too good to be true. Historically, thanks to strict government regulations, even ludicrously low fares posted by mistake had to be honored by the airline once the lucky traveler’s transaction was complete.
Those days are over.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued an official notice that the agency will no longer enforce provisions of a rule that required airlines operating in the U.S. to honor paid fares regardless of whether or not the fare was priced in error. Airlines will instead be obligated to repay passengers any out-of-pocket costs incurred as a result of so-called “mistake” fares, and although the airline must attest that the fare was priced in error, it will no longer be legally compelled to honor those tickets.
In February, United Airlines bucked a long-standing precedent of honoring paid tickets by refusing to honor a fare posted on its website in error as a result of a mistake calculating currency exchange rates. The DOT ultimately backed the airline’s decision before making the rule changes official this week.
The decision preserves language that prohibits airlines from raising the price of a ticket once the purchase has been completed and makes an exception solely for erroneously priced fares. The DOT says the change in enforcement is only a temporary ruling and it will consider comments “received in the rule making process” before making a permanent policy covering mistake fares.
[Photo: iStock]
'Airlines will instead be obligated to repay passengers any out-of-pocket costs incurred as a result of so-called “mistake” fares' Does this mean if I book a non-refundable flight to catch the mistake-fare flight, the airline has to reimburse me if they cancel the mistake-fare flight?
I don't think people understand what mistake fares mean. The LHR-US was an actual mistake fare because of currency conversion issues. The price for the flight couldn't even cover the mandatory government surcharges. The D.C.-PEK fare had 0$ base charges. These are the mistake fares that don't have to be honored. 500$ to HKG? 500$ to CPH? They have around 100$ base fare and all mandatory surcharges included, these are fair game.
Already discussed elsewhere. The rule simply says that airlines need not honor mistake fares, but must still report mistake fares as such. So the regulation of mistake fares is not going away, it's just changing. Thus it's still not up to the airline to classify anything it wants as a "mistake fare" for any purpose, because they'll still have to explain to the DOT why they cancelled all those tickets.
Wow. I wonder when the "mistake" fare gets cancelled because the airline realized it could get a better pice down the road?