Amazing all the justifications that come out when people feel guilty when asked to be ethical. These same people wouldn't get their panties in a wad when someone calls the airline - if it's ethical, what's the problem in calling? I agree FT has changed but it represents the general moral decline of the United States.

To Moderator - wrong thread ?
 

Dear moderator.
Seems to me that I posted the above in a wrong thread.
Please move it to a thread you deem to be more appropiate for the subject.
Thanks
Michael

EXACTLY !! and well said...and I might add that going on a vacation by yourself is no fun so why not take your whole family with to enjoy !!!! And if I can get them the same deal...why not?

When was the last time a corporation let you get you with a mistake you made?

Come on, there has to be another lawyer on this forum...

Don't the airlines simply get to resort to the legal defense of "unilateral mistake," to avoid having to honor the mistaken fare (regardless if the price has been "accepted" via tender of payment)?

Given that buying mis-priced airline tickets is such a threat to the moral foundation of our country, I'm going to lobby for the creation of a "Mistake Fare Czar." We need someone to make public service ads so we can combat this destructive behavior. Parents, talk to your kids before they get hooked! After all, you might think it's harmless, but buying mistake fares is the gateway to more extreme and dangerous cost-saving behavior--like hijacking or hiding in wheel-wells. Those desperate enough for their "fix" might even resort to using MILES to gain a free ticket!

:rolleyes:

I'm not commenting on what anyone should or shouldn't do, but reading this I wondered how many times airlines have made mistakes that resulted in a higher price being charged than what should have been? (I know, I know, basically all fares are higher than they should be!) Do you think the airlines refund the difference? I doubt they have any system tracking these fares.

Well, United always gives full credit (in a voucher) if there is a lower fare. I also think that air fares, as a whole, are less expensive (relatively) than they used to be. I remember in the mid '80's, I thought getting a r/t BOS-ORD for $299 was a bargain. Today, $299 sounds expensive.

United refunds the fare if you notice and call them or ask for a reprice on their website.

You don't simply get a refund back on your credit card. They could do it if they wanted, but the real purpose of the offer is too entice you to buy tickets earlier and not wait around for a fare sale. Getting you to commit to a ticket earlier is definitely advantageous to the airline.

United doesn't want to give you the money back if it's a mistake and you pay more than you should have, they just realize being stubborn about it will lose them customers. If they could take advantage of the situation without you noticing, I'm pretty sure they would.

Wow. Great post from a newbie. Ditto. Could not have said it better myself.
 

Sorry, I respectfully disagree with this thread
 

More over what exactly is a "mistake" fare????

Airfare pricing is so illogical and subject to extreme variance.

Very often an aggressive promotion is due to a retaliatory move against a competitor.

I as a simple consumer am suppose to interpret the MOTIVES behind pricing fluctuations and use speculative deduction to pass on services offfered by an experienced seller who changes pricing all the time to satisfy the "ethical" concerns of the OP:td::td:

Yes, it is worth that, if that's what the market will bear.

The laws of supply and demand have nothing to do with ethics. It's silly to call a business charging customers the most that they will willingly pay "unethical." You can choose to buy or not buy the fare, and you have just as little right to call the airline unethical for charging that price as you do to call the person who buys that fare unethical.

I agree with the hesitation to take advantage of mistake fares, especially as a loyal customer of a particular airline. Contrary to some of the implications on this forum, there is an obvious distinction between a sale and a mistake. If something were supposed to cost $99 in a store, and the bar code actually rang up 99c, I think that's absurd to expect the store to honor that price.

With airfares, however, I ultimately come down on the side of going for the mistake fares, because the airline ultimately has the decision to honor them or not -- if an airline does honor them, great; but if not, then I can't really begrudge them or complain.

>>Mistake fares: I pledge to to be ethical >>

Screw that. The Airlines will hose you at every given chance. Why not hose back. I made an online mistake booking SNA-DFW, when I meant SAN-DFW, and when I noticed it a couple weeks later, they told me to get lost, even though SAN_DFW had plenty of seats available and the fare was the same. Another time, I was given a first class seat upgrade when a passenger didn't show. As the door was closing, the passenger showed up and I was shown the exit door because they had already assigned my coach seat to someone else. Ethics needs to be a two-way street. Oh, and then their is the ethics of the airlines not paying my travel agent a commission when she books a flight for me. (PS I've never cashed in on a fare mistake booking.)

Here is a list of all currently-published UA fares between New York and London. Could you tell which one is the "supposed" price? Also, does UA think that it would be "absurd" to charge the $3054 (Vs. $286) fare for the same economy-class seat?

[KVS Availability Tool 2.8.3/Platinum - Sabre: Fares/ZUJ/AU-USD]

Let me purposely go off topic on business ethics and say that had just the filthy dirtbags in WorldCom and Enron been fired and prosecuted without the government receivers and lawyers taking over, it may have been possible to save those companies (definitely Worldcomm, maybe not Enron?)without so many people being hurt. Nothing can hose whats left of a Company faster than blackrobed judges, receivers and lawyers whose only concern is collecting their $500/hr+ fee

All of them are the "supposed" price, for different products (i.e., advance purchase, flexibility to change, maximum stay requirement, etc., not to mention prices that change as the inventory changes.) The analogy between this scenario and an item at a store coming up 99c instead of $99 is not perfect, because of course airline pricing is more complex, but that doesn't change the concept.

No, UA obviously does not think it's "absurd" to charge $3,054, nor should any flier, because demand exists for that product and someone is willing to buy it at that price.