garykung

That's my experience. Among all class action settlements I have ever received, only 2 of them are over $100.

moondog

I now have this "do you want to accept our cookies" widget on pretty much every website I visit now. I can't imagine that litigant #1 incurred damages north of $100k.

Until the OP started this thread, clarity in the fare rules arena honestly wasn't on my radar at all because: 1. I typically buy close-in one way flights; 2. I make a concerted effort to read them wrt semi-complex bookings.

But, now that I think about it, standard plain English fare rule disclosures is a pretty good idea.

rucksack

(delete)

bedelman

Many people have this perception. It is not my view. Granted, I am a lawyer who previously worked on this kind of case. But in the AA bags class action I worked on, for example, litigation led to $7m+ refunded to passengers -- 100% of the amount overcharged plus 5% annual interest, for most of the overcharges and most of the passengers who filed claims to request payment. Counsel were paid, collectively, a fraction of that amount -- despite working for years, advancing case expenses (court fees, mediator fees, any required experts, travel expenses, salaries for junior attorneys, etc.) with no guarantee of payment.

Suppose it turned out that passengers got $7 million, and attorneys got $2 million, so 2/9=22% to attorneys, but nonetheless 100% refund of the overcharge that passengers incurred. I'd be proud of that result. I think that would be inconsistent with the quote above, that only attorneys profit from efforts like this.

bedelman

I share your view that this is out of line. AA really shouldn't call a ticket "fully flexible" if it has a penalty to refund, because one important aspect of flexibility is the right to refund without restriction or penalty.

This thread began with the observation, right in its title, that litigation could be appropriate about this problem. I think that observation was correct. A necessary first step is someone who was affected (who personally incurred such a loss) wanting to serve as class representative. Centurion, it sounds like that problem hasn't happened to you, and I can't tell whether you'd want to serve in this capacity if it did happen to you. As a practical matter, AA is likely to continue this practice unless they're sued, or unless a regulator tells AA to stop. It's up to all of us to build the world we want, not just accept things as they are.

rucksack

Also important to note is that the threat of class action lawsuits helps deter companies from misleading or unfair practices in the first place. Whereas before any individual litigant didn't have the power or resources to go up against a company, now consumers represent a credible threat to corporations.

StevenSeagalFan

Right but that 7 million sounds huge, but how big was the class? If lawyers got 2 million and each class member got $32.50 I would say the lawyers were the big winner, no?

bedelman

StevenSeagalFan, I don't think about it that way. Class members didn't have to do much -- fill out a claim form, either on paper or in a web browser, maybe 2 minutes of work. Versus lawyers spent literally thousands of hours on this case, and invested at least of tens of thousands of cash-out-of-pocket plus paying salaries for junior attorneys.

The public documents from the case do not say how much the largest-claiming class member got. Broadly it depends on how much each person was overcharged. A person who paid one first bag fee once was overcharged $25 (the then-applicable bag fee) so received that amount plus interest. A person who paid lots of incorrect third bag fees ($150-$200 each) would have a much larger loss, hence more to claim thorough this litigation.