Originally Posted by BigFlyer

Once upon a time airlines filed tariffs with the government. In theory, these tariffs were open to inspection at any airline ticket office. Because they were filed with the government and you had the right to inspect them, passengers were bound by the terms of those tariffs. These terms were incorporated by reference into every ticket.

Now, the airlines have contracts of carriage that are available on their websites. However, these are general rules, and not specific fare rules.

So, my question - what is the legal basis for passengers being bound by the fare rules that the airlines now have, which as far as I know are internal, not open to public inspection, and not filed with the government. In fact, recently Delta took steps to make it more difficult for members of the general public to find these rules by demanding that Expertflyer remove all Delta information from it's publicly available database.

In short, how can a passenger be bound by a fare rule which is not filed with the government, not open to public inspection, and generally not available to the passenger before the passenger books the ticket?