sethb

I can believe that you would, if you aren't a stockholder in Macy*s.

The Lurkers Support Me in Email.

Craig6z

A public company the size of Delta would essentially self-insure for this type of exposure. E&O insurance is typically best as a mechanism for reimbursement of legal defense costs. If Delta did have E&O (or "Cyber Liability" coverage) that would cover this type of peril, that would have a fairly sizable self insured retention to contend with. A self insured retention ("SIR") is somewhat similar to a deductible, however with a SIR the policy holder has to first pay out an agreed to amount on the claim before the insurance company chips in. Comparing-a-self-insured-retention-to-a-deductible

Another potential issue if Delta had E&O or Cyber liability coverage that might kick in is the indemnity amount of the loss. I doubt Delta could convince an insurer that the sale of a first class ticket to Hawaii for $80 vs. the $1,680 intended tariff is a reimbursable loss of $1,600.

davetravels

I was also thinking that the insurance company might argue that DL would hafto prove that they actually lost money - - ie: They might have to prove that those same people were going to buy the exact same tickets, thereby showing a loss - with the insurance company potentially arguing, that many of those tickets might have either been purchased on another carrier, or not purchased at all, if it wasn't for the mistake.

FlyDeltaJets87

I've made that same argument in the threads where DL downgraded a passenger from BE to Y because DL oversold BE and DL's mere response is "all we're required to do is refund you the 'applicable difference in fare'.", which isn't even defined (yes, before anyone says anything - I do know that's what the DOT regs say as well - I don't agree with those either). If I really wanted Business Class and knew DL wasn't going to honor it, I could very easily make the case that I would have purchased a similar product from another provider and not the Y product DL was forcing me in to.

Given the fees the airlines are imposing these days and the crap people deal with from airlines - for example, if the airline can get away with saying "That A fare you bought was really a Coach 'UP' fare so sorry there's an IROP but here's your middle seat in Economy and we don't owe you anything" or "Yea sorry we oversold Business Elite so here's a downgrade to Y and oh by the way, we only owe you the difference in mileage and nothing else; be happy you got a seat" - I doubt too many people are going to have much sympathy for the airlines in this case. I'd feel differently if this was a business that regularly displayed honesty and integrity towards its customers (such as a small, local business), but that's hardly the case with the airlines. With the way airlines seem to look forward to screwing you over, hard for me or many others to feel any sympathy when their mistakes costs them (if this is even going to cost them at all - as other pointed out - the free publicity they're getting out of this may be worth more than what they're losing on the 'mistake' fares).

javabytes

Even you know that's a ridiculous analogy.

If I find a sweater at Macy's that has a $15 sticker over the $100 sticker, and I take it to the cash register, I don't expect to pay $100 for it.

Firewind

Just received this email from TripAdvisor:

This is a first. And at the weekend. I suggest that it's because they are concerned that they have exposure, because The Man, whoever that might be, has teeth and is willing to use them.

abelman

Appears that Delta is now honoring even third-party reservations that were not ticketed:

http://bostonherald.com/business/bus...onor_man_s_tix

Firewind

It's amazing to me that there are so few posts and hits about this mistake fare, and after all the attention in the popular media. FTers where are you? Normally this would engender an order of magnitude, at least, more attention. It's got to be the date - everyone is out saving money in other ways ... or perhaps it's like settled law by now, after the recent similar instances, and no big deal anymore?

davetravels

There's a long thread - currently 916 posts - in the Mileage Run forum here::

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...oss-board.html

I'm also a little disappointed, as I was posting here that day, but never went to the MR forum. I didn't know about it til I saw it on the evening news!

javabytes

While there was a lot of buzz in the media, I think the number of people that actually booked tickets during this time is actually lower than you might think. I'm someone who booked a flight from FlightNetwork, which was subsequently "auto cancelled" by Delta before ticketing. FlightNetwork published a statement saying this happened to 56 people, and that they were "fighting hard" on behalf of their customers to get them restored. In the end, FlightNetwork got no results, but a friendly and enthusiastic HIBRES agent reinstated the itinerary and ticketed it when I called Delta directly. I would have thought the number would have been a bit higher than 56.

This is what I posted on the other thread about the whole episode:

tcook052

Yes, there is a very active thread in MR forum but there are other threads elsewhere on FT as a result of this deal including several "meet-up" threads in the Community forum. I would not agree that this error went unnoticed here on FT.

LemonThrower

Just curious -

1. how frequently do airlines have these sort of pricing glitches. I don't fly as frequently anymore but i seem to recall hearing about these occassionally. would you say once per year? once every few years? several times a year?

2. does anyone know if this was an across the board glitch or just certain routes?

3. how long do these sorts of glitches last - i thought i saw a reference to 20 minutes only but i can't find it.

4. what would be a good way to identify such a glitch - travelocity fare watcher? how frequently does travelocity scan for new fares? any similar serices?

MSPeconomist

I was on a DL international flight at the time, without WiFi. I'm not sure what I would have done if I had known.

To me, it was surprising how few bloggers picked it up at the time. When I learned about the glitch, I half expected that that would have been the hot-breaking blog topic that morning, with the resulting screams about whether the bloggers had "spoiled" it for everyone. Even a couple days later, few blogs seem to have discussed it, although IIRC a few bloggers (including some who normally avoid DL) report having bought multiple tickets at the glitch prices.

LaserSailor

Simple fix here would be for airlines to declare in SkyMiles T&C that any fare declared a 'fare mistake' before travel will not accrue any benefits to the SM program.

While people still may travel on the fares to actually get somewhere they want to go, my guess is you would eliminate a lot of demand from MR.

MSPeconomist

To some extent, the MQD requirements do this. The glitch fares will only help on status for those who also fly a lot of expensive fares--or who get the AmEx spend or foreign address waivers. For instance, a few glitch trips to Hawaii would potentially help a segment qualifier to reach a higher elite level using MQMs rather than MQSs.