well, I know it sounds funny, but even with a mere 0.01 GBP as consideration they would have had a harder time to just cancel the tix. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Oh well, we had fun although I do think the email is pretty poor. Not even addressed to me by name and the " we'll accomodate you at the normal fare" line... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

Well, I have to say I have not seen a bigger pile of nonsensical bs in my life. I guess there's no limit to how much you are willing (indeed, eager) to defraud the companies for which you are a "valuable" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif customer.

Regardless, July puts you a few days beyond the ticketing deadline, doesn't it? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Defraud?? Very strong word! Is he using a stolen credit card? A rubber check? Is he trying to obtain goods in a fraudulent manner? Hardly!

If he already has booked a RTW trip some months ago and decided to have a nice F-class trip from LHR-BKK-LHR as an additional 2 segments then it is all kosher. And knowing Oz, he would have picked the right dates for this TG thing i.e. when he will be in Europe on his RTW.

An offer of sale was made and he accepted the offer. Period. Where is there fraud in this? When RyanAir offers FREE tickets and thousands accept then where is there any fraud? Missing out on the fare is one thing but accusing others of fraud is quite different.

As Oz and I are now best friends I won't go into the whole ethical matter here, but I will say to you that comparing this to Ryanairs SHORTHAUL promo offering GBP0.01 tickets that was all over the press, their website, TV and was announced weeks before is DIFFERENT than an obvious fare error like this. Ryanairs fares are always low, around GBP30, I haven't seem any published Thai first class fares for that yet...

If you are going to defend someone at least do it based on logical and reasonable comparisons... This is like the people that claimed that the BA $20 cockup was actually a secret PR stunt by them http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

While I think the hypothetical threats of legal action previously discussed would have been silly if they represented serious intent, I find Oz's letter to be entirely reasonable.

I agree.

What is becomming so alarming is the number of posters who feel the airlines are allways right, no matter what they do. What is FT about? Siding with airlines every time?

Ahh, Johnny-come-lately "Ethics" are the VERY worst type to have SMessier. Your own glowing "Ethics" in this matter only YESTERDAY amounted to GLOATING you had secured First Class TG seats 4J and 4K for both flights on your £0 booking.

Talk about pot->kettle->black ... with Gold clasp and double oak leaves. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

And seeing you are so full of false and laughable piousness today SMessier - I HAVE spent over $10,000 with TG on revenue tickets. How about you? Wouldn't that make YOU the bigger "Fraud" if you care to bandy around that quite absurd term.

It is simply a letter to see IF a useful response is received. I noticed no-one else was doing anything in this matter. And I bet if it IS responded to in any positive way, you will be the FIRST in line to rush off and "demand" the same terms to help retreive your "fraudulent" seats - 4J and 4K. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

FWIW, Thai is the RyanAir of Asia and the Southern Skies! A business class trip from AU-EU costs a mere $2500 on TG while UA, AA and BA charge around $5000. A 1st class trip on the same route costs a mere $3200 when the main carriers charge at least double of that.

Isn't this logical enough for you?

For example, on SYD-AKL route TG has sold r/t coach fares for $150 while the closest competition stayed at $300. On the same route, a 1st class fare on TG costs about half the price of Qantas business fare!!

Do you still need convincing that TG is well known for cheap tickets and very special deals?

Sorry, still not convinced... cheap tickets and very special deals does not include giving away every single seat (including first class) for $0, calling Thai the Ryanair of Asia may sound nice and dandy but fact remains that Thai are still a * alliance member with 3 class planes, I don't think Ozstamps would be too thrilled to hear that he spend a whopping 10 grand on "the ryanair of asia"...

Your logic still doesn't justify why the fares were all empty. Why not just admit it was an obvious fare error instead of trying to find a reason Thai did this, of course it was an error, everone else here knows that. It's a shame they pulled them but can anyone seriously blame them? Anyone willing to convince them to honour it OR to try and get a better deal as compensation is of course free to do so.

Oh, and of course your comparison here is also flawed: Thai charge "a mere" $3200 while BA charges $5000, so a $0 ticket makes sense?? Yeah, right...

[This message has been edited by ScottC (edited 04-24-2003).]

[This message has been edited by ScottC (edited 04-24-2003).]

Hmmm -- my 4J/4K post (complete with http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif ) came once it was clear the fare would not be honored. (Note therefore that it was not made YESTERDAY but rather today.) You may wish to label it as gloating, I think it was more tongue in cheek -- hence the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif.

No, in fact I won't be the first (or even the last, or anything in between.) As I posted earlier:

Strangely enough, the quote above came before my 4J/4K "gloat" -- I'm rather surprised you could have taken that seriously.

As I wrote above, there is no limit to what you apparently will do however. I can tell you there is one for me. It's a sliding scale I guess, since some have posted they refuse to book such fares. (More power to them, I have much respect for their position.) In this case, I made a reservation, on the off chance they might honor it. They've said they won't -- that settles it for me.

Letting people fly on free tickets in F/C is actually likely worse than no one flying, since the costs involved are definitely not zero (especially not at the rate some drink airline supplied booze.)

You on the other hand wrote a letter asserting you thought this was a promotional fare, when yesterday you wrote:

Why would you not expect then to honor a promotional rate? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif

I suspect you have no legitimate "flight arrangements" made in connection to this booking -- at best some tickets on hold for the sole purpose of hoping to blackmail TG into some type of compensation.

Having spent $10K on an unspecified number of tickets in the past gives you some entitlement to blackmail and attempts at defrauding? Am I less guilty if I go steal a Nissan because that was the kind of car I bought 5 years ago? (Besides, Spider has told us how amazingly cheap TG is, so I imagine $10K is between two people for a large number of tickets.)

The fact that no one else was doing anything in this matter might show that while many are willing to take a chance on an obvious price mistake, few are willing to fake indignation and seek compensation. I'm happy to admit being willing to do the former, and just as happy not to be willing to do the latter.

[Spelling, grammar.]

[This message has been edited by SMessier (edited 04-24-2003).]

It most certainly does! If Asian carriers like CX (amongst others) have 5 pax for a 747 then why let all those empty seats go to waste?

Better give them away for free, so that potential customers will get to enjoy your product and then decide to fly the airline as paid pax in the future. Just seems like sound marketing to me.

If I am a butcher who is selling sausages that are not very popular then would I be better off charging the full price for these sausages which no one buys anyway and let them go off or give them away for free to customers who might recall this goodwill gesture in the future and visit me again?

The same applies to airlines, in this case to TG.

BTW, Virgin Blue has done something similar to RyanAir when they sold A$1 tix to all Virgin Blue destinations, so it is not unheard of Down Under.

Without commenting on whether anyone should legally challenge Thai Airways, should any of the affected people desire to do so a starting place would be to investigate whether all of the 55 pounds or so collected was LEGALLY collected as collecting agent for a government or whether some of the 55 pounds was to reimburse the airline for fees, etc. legally imposed on the airline by a governmental entity. If some of the 55 pounds went to the airline to reimburse it for fees or costs legally imposed on it (or were separate fees imposed by the airline), you may have paid consideration. The clearest example would be if a "fuel surcharge" or "paper ticket fee" were part of the 55 pounds. Even though stated separately, under many legal systems, the ticket fee or fuel surcharge would be "consideration."

The other extreme is where the tax or fee is imposed directly on the passenger by a government, but the airline is required to collect it as a collecting agent. Where the airline's legal role is merely a collecting agent, one would have a harder time finding consideration.

One would have to look carefully at the legislation to see whether the tax was imposed on the airline or imposed on the passenger. I do not know whether class actions are available in the UK, but that might be a good question to ask a UK barraster or solicitor.

Once more, $2 sausages > $3500 airline ticket? This comparison is even worse than the previous ones...

Virgin Blue is a new carrier and needed some good PR, Thai is a longstanding longhaul carrier. No comparison yet. Virgin Blue sold low cost COACH seats, Thai was selling FIRST CLASS seats. And please don't get me started on the joke that filling an empty seat with someone won't cost anything, the cost of food and fuel alone for several 100 passengers on 100's of flights would bankrupt them in months.


I can keep going on and on and you can keep trying to convince me that selling a plane load of fares for $0 is "good business"....

Incorrect! Ozstamps has posted several times in UA forum that he has booked a number of flights for this year. Besides, TG is hardly worth blackmailing. They simply have nothing of real value to ask for...

The silent majority does not mean that these people do not want to fly. A vocal minority (which you are part of) achieve public results while smart people do their own digging and probing until they get what they want!

Do you really think that major newspapers and TV stations have not been contacted yet? It may not be posted here but it most certainly has been done.

I don’t quite understand your stance here… you sent notice of this fare glitch via your very own mailing list… so it’s OK to contribute to people booking this fare and not OK to complain about it not being honoured…??

Did I miss something?