Originally Posted by
acregal
Mistake fare or not, legally, one of the big questions is whether sufficient consideration has changed hands - while something like a $5 fare would almost certainly not pass muster a $900 fare (including taxes, so perhaps $650 or so?) almost certainly would.
Moreover, tons of businesses are using IT to flag unusual things - if Delta has such a feature, it is obvious that it either was ignored (which happens) or the fare was within the bounds set.
Precisely. For all of the "passenger should have known", there should be equal weight on "the airline should have known".
"Error fares" aren't exactly unheard of. The airlines have had an opportunity to set their systems up to audit/monitor these. If one gets through, it is their own fault.