Originally Posted by iahphx
Good luck getting your money back from AMEX. Really, when you buy a ticket for zero -- especially to fly to a foreign country -- it is not wise to rely on the law to justify your position. A fact finder could easily conclude that a reasonable traveller would know the fare was a mistake, and issues of estoppel would not apply.
Based on the fact that most people who made reservations for these free or nearly free tickets deals have traveled on them over the past 2-3 years, I'm not so sure.
Further, and more importantly, Air Pacific would have already saw my tickets at LAX and told me that they were acceptable for travel - otherwise I wouldn't have gotten to Fiji in the first place. How could estoppel not apply in that situation? The fact that they would have put me on the flight at LAX would give any reasonable person reason to believe that he'd get back home without any further payment. Getting on the first plane would have been sufficient consumation.
Kind of like if a car dealer had a price of zero on a website inventory for a Mercedes, would you really expect to be able to get the car for just the registration fee, and could you reasonably rely on consumating that purchase?
The parallel situation would be if the dealer gave you the car, transfered the title over and sent you on your way, then showed up a week later with the repo men and said, "pay me sticker price or we're taking the car." To make it a closer parallel, they'd have to do it while I was on a road trip 10+ hours away from your home. Yeah, in the situation I laid out I'd fully expect to keep the car for free after the dealer - being fully aware that I'm paying $0 for it - gave me title and the keys and sent me on my way.
This would be just like the moving company that packs all your stuff up into their truck and then demands $10,000 or says they're going to drive away with your stuff.
I'd be more inclined to agree with you if the demand for additional payment took place before I did any flying. But once they sent me to Fiji it's a pretty clear sign that my tickets and the contract we have are fully acceptable to both parties.