Originally Posted by
Often1
Clarity is easily achieved. It is simply that the mindset of the lawyers who write contracts is to simply add words rather than explaining concepts. Plain English (or French, German or Urdu) is not hard. But, many lawyers find it so.
Without discussing the policy implications of hidden city or segment order, a provision which states:
"The terms of this ticket require that you fly each and every segment in the order issued. The failure to do so may result in a different ticket price with the difference due to BA."
With that language, if someone buys a ticket A-B-C and asks, "what happens if I choose not to fly B-C" or "what happens if I skip A-B and then want to fly B-C," the answer is crystal clear and contains no language beyond the intellectual means of a reasonable non-lawyer.
Whilst I applaud your attempt at clarity, would this really reflect the position an airline would want to be in?
Your last paragraph implies that failure to fly A-B will only result in a reprice, whereas in reality under many airlines' current T&Cs it would result in cancellation of the whole ticket.
I thought the LH response to one of the German cases was to offer a fare where the sectors could be flown out of order or not flown at all. Such a fare was priced higher than standard fares to reflect the added flexibility.
Obviously BA could do the same, but that introduces added complexity by creating another fare class, which does little to make the purchasing process clearer for the customer. On the other hand, I doubt many airlines would wish adopt as a standard term the ability to drop sectors and reorder coupons.
If you introduce "cancel or reprice" the ticket, it then becomes unclear who determines which, robbing it of clarity.
In many ways clarity is in the eye of the beholder. Something may be clear because it is very simple, you view through the prism of your expert knowledge or you fail to see the complications and pitfalls.
Don't get me wrong - the quest for clarity is commendable, but not necessary easy to achieve.