Originally Posted by
thexfactor
You yourself noted the DOT chose not to intervene on the LX fare, a fare which, as ticketed, did not have the USA as the origin or destination.
However, 1) that isn't the case here, and 2) $400,000 in legal fees, while apparently sufficiently large enough for you to prove that the airlines aren't simply going to lay over, is all but immaterial.
$400,000 / $25,000 is a whopping sixteen tickets. Some on here have booked that many alone. Even a conservative assumption of 100 tickets being booked on this EY "mistake" makes that $400,000 legal fee bill look like "dinner and movie" money.
So, again, if the DoT chooses to intervene here, there is only one real choice for EY: Reinstatement (or some other settlement with consumers).
Two mistakes in your logic:
The DOT rule states "scheduled air transportation within, to or from the United States..." A ticket that routes ZRH-JFK-YUL, clearly is TO the USA, yet the DOT decided to read it differently. So the DOT could have acted, but chose not to.
Secondly, a first class ticket CMB-DFW today can be had for $5700
Fare Basis Airline Booking Class Trip Type Fare Cabin Effective Date Expiration Date Min / Max Stay Adv Purchase Req
ARTLK EY A Round-Trip 5719.00(USD) F -- / 12M
RRTLK EY R Round-Trip 6590.00(USD) F -- / 12M
FRTLK EY F Round-Trip 10495.00(USD) F -- / 12M
Naturally, it does not cost EY even close to that to transport an additional passenger.
The actual cost for EY to transport you or me is less than $1K.
So unless there were 400+ tickets issued and EY can be sure that won't get hit by a DOT fine, they are better off honoring the tickets. Your 16 ticket calculation is incorrect.
Why do you choose to completely ignore LX's actual decision to fight this and further ignore the possibility that EY may choose to do the same?