Ugh, if I am reading the DL complaint correctly (
http://media.jrn.com/documents/deltaclassaction.pdf ), it is complaining that on certain routes (say JFK-ATL-SEA) DL publishes T inventory JFK-ATL and T inventory ATL-SEA but no married-segment T inventory JFK-ATL-SEA. That's baffling. That's like filing a lawsuit against a boutique law firm because they say their junior partners cost $800/hour but you've seen the paystubs and they're making more like $200/hour.
This is not, like, some grand conspiracy — this is a standard airline-industry practice that carriers use to set prices for journeys in markets using the tools they have available (fare buckets, fares, and married segments). If they weren't using antiquated decades-old fare bucket technology, this lawsuit would make no sense. This practice is not some dark industry secret — try reading the Lufthansa rules for travel agents some time and you'll see that they say they will publish debit memos for travel agents who force individual-segment inventory to break married-segment restrictions!!
Now, there is an airline whose Web site allows you to "force" individual-segment inventory while using a married-segment fare — it's united.com, and
sbm12 has written a blog post complaining about how the practice allows clever people to avoid married-segment logic (although IIRC the blog post in question calls the practice intentional and a deliberately deceptive business practice). I wonder whether there is a class-action lawsuit coming there, too?
(The LH language for anyone who's curious, from
http://www.lufthansa-usa.com/downloa...N-20121109.pdf ::
Lufthansa strictly forbids the practice to “un-marry / divorce” flight
segments to circumvent the
Married Segment Control Logic. The applicable compensation fees for
proven manipulations of
reservations (as of August 2011) are listed below and are related to
broken/cancelled
segments (in EUR or equivalent in local currency):
Economy Class (short-haul or continental flights)
EUR 150 per passenger and per broken segment of the O & D
Economy Class (Intercontinental flight)
EUR 250 per passenger and per broken segment of the O & D
Business Class (short-haul or continental flights)
EUR 250 per passenger and per broken segment of the O & D
Business Class / First Class (Intercontinental flight)
EUR 400 per passenger and per broken segment of the O & D
)
I can't see why a frivolous lawsuit over this standard industry practice would lead ExpertFlyer to do anything in response except maybe force customers to agree to a wacky disclaimer like the united.com expert mode disclaimer that customers routinely ignore.