orbitmic

The PR/competition element is really interesting. On the face of it, when it comes to fares airlines deem to be mistakes, the collective action problem means that airlines have an incentive to stick together as they all have a common interest to ensure a broad interpretation of the "manifest error" principle. I am happy to be told I am wrong, but to my knowledge, there has been no breach of that solidarity to date on either obvious or sufficiently likely error fares.

This time, Wizz and VS have made an explicit choice to ridicule BA, and my sense is that they do so because their interpretation is that BA's stretch of the concept is beyond credibility. In other words, BA's attitude is a sufficient outlier (and it seems, from the point of view of competitors, sufficiently absurd and self-defeating) that they have choose to break from habit and have a go at BA on that new front (don't take me wrong, VS happily targets BA and vice versa, but as far as I know, not on the handling of error fares).

On the other hand, the "pledge" by VS that if they do make an error, they will honour the fares is an interesting and a brave one. Obviously, like all other sellers, they are protected by law in case of genuine manifest errors (unlike this one), and this tweet could be read as their seemingly volunteering to recuse such protection in the future should they ever need it. Of course, if they have a true manifest error, they might "forget" their pledge, but if so I'm sure that BA will not hesitate to use this against them. Or maybe they have made a commercial decision that they want to be seen as the "fair" British airline (fair play, after all, is seen across the world as an eminently British quality and British Airways is proving once again that this is a part of the tradition that they do not consider theirs in any shape or form) and that they would indeed honour mistake fares if they ever occur. If so, I too would love to be a little fly in the room having heard the discussion that took place before they chose to include that little footnote.

Ldnn1

I don't think it's BA so much as customers that would use it against them. At the risk of pouring fresh fuel on our already burnt out legal discussion (), that tweet has the strong whiff of a unilateral offer. As a customer I'd be pretty confident relying on it, at least within a year or so.

orbitmic

I agree. I meant that customers will likely forget (unless it happens super soon) but BA will take it upon themselves to remind the public of the 'pledge'!

subject2load

Ldnn1

One thing's for sure - FT won't forget.

Woodbinerich

Just checking it's ok with you now this is up to 30 pages?

simons1

Well the Tel Aviv do should be fun

Woodbinerich

I'm in! oh wait. Anyone up for the Wizzair TLV do??

orbitmic

Remember that ghastly, childish, sinister "kick in the balls" bet between Walsh and Branson? The protagonists are still rather powerful and I see not reason to believe that they have become any more mature!

subject2load

onobond

The intended BA TLV Mini-Do has passed the micro-do level and is now bordering on nano grade

Lux Flyer

Or maybe VS has safeguards in place to ensure a 'manifest error' fare never gets published? It baffles me, for all the technology advancements we have today that some airlines don't have safeguards in place to flag these mistake fares and catch them before they go out. I understand their booking system could potentially be from the 60s, but whatever software RM is running their optimization models on could surely be retrofitted with a short piece of code to flag an abnormal fare before it communicates with the booking system to file the fare.

orbitmic

I agree that BA's self-evaluated record on that front is abysmal and suggests some truly sloppy work from the fare input team (and even more inexcusable if it apparently affects fares in major currencies including your own according to them), but I think that any company feeling certain that it will never make any error would be dangerously arrogant.

Ldnn1

I think the big financial risk for VS here is not seats its own flights – which is probably a fairly manageable risk – but a misfiled interline fare that allows customers to book very expensive long-haul J/F seats on other carriers.

Alitalia had one of those a year or so ago where people could book pretty much any airline and any route they wanted. If VS were to face something like that, and have to honour it, it would I imagine be pretty expensive.

VictorSierra