eshroom

I booked a one way flight through Tripair, they were almost half the price of the other OTAs on the comparison site and the airline itself. Fantastic.

Checking in and I can see they booked me a return. So they hid this through the entire booking process, making it seem like I was booked a single.

I have in the past taken advantage of cheaper return fares without intending to take the return leg, but I now understand this is against the airlines' terms. Are OTAs allowed to do this, and who is liable? Especially given this airline has a history of prosecuting missed last leg offenders...

oliver2002

Nothing new, sbm12 noticed something like this 4 years ago:
https://blog.wandr.me/2016/11/ota-hi...fare-too-good/

LondonElite

Yes, many OTAs are scumbags. If you do not take the return, probably nothing will happen to you, but the airline can of course take whatever action it sees fit with your FF account. TAs run the risk of having their selling rights being taken away by airlines if the latter choose to do so. There is a reason why I never book anywhere but with the airline directly, or a reputable TA.

corporate-wage-slave

This is by no means the worst version of this. Some OTAs will advertise a ticket from A to B at a low price but warn you it's a hand baggage only fare. OK, so you book that, and perhaps say well if I end up checking in a bag it's only 50€ or whatever. Or maybe the airline forces you to check in a bag due to the loads, free of charge. When you check in you discover the ticket is really A to B to C, and therefore your checked bag is going to C. This is known as Hidden City pricing, which USA based airlines are more concerned about than European airlines. Some OTAs do point this sort of thing out if you look, but I have done some dummy bookings on Tripair and it appears they do not do this. There is a button marked Fare Terms but it does not say anything meaningful.

The other risk that can happen here is if the return leg gets cancelled after booking but before departure - this could cause isssues at check-in if you look bemused / unable to compute when the agent tries to resolve the booking.

It probably won't be a problem, Lufthansa aren't going to come after occasional travellers for the odd missed trip. And if you are a frequent flyer concerned about any (unlikely) repercussions, you're not going to be using an OTA, surely?

Often1

OP notes that the pricing was not particularly better than from other third-party vendors or the carrier's own website. This raises the broader point that it is not even worth considering dealing with these outfits when the pricing is close to the carrier's.

Even then, there are any number of problems which can arise and it should go without saying that the pandemic has exacerbated the situation.

Even when there is a price difference, the cheapest ticket is often not the least expensive journey.

hugolover

Regarding shady OTA why does LH Group refuse to deal with pax who have irregularities and pass them back to the agency? Is it anything to do with the scam fees, the YR?

I thought the airline could deal with the pax in the case of irregularity, when pax are checked in/first segment flown? Instead, when helping people who've booked through the likes of Gotogate, LH refuse to rebook even with all segments cancelled by LH.

LOT have the most pax friendly policy, they will fiddle with agency tickets at any time, but there is no YR...

Grog

I get your point, but let's put the shadiness label where it belongs. If Lufthansa were a bakery, they'd be saying that a piece of cake costs 2 Euros. But if you only eat three-quarters of it, we'll come back to you and demand total of 5 Euros!

The greatest shadiness is with the airlines--in this case, Lufthansa--and not with the OTA.

But yes, be cautious when not eating the entire piece of the Lufthansa cake.

Often1

Analogies almost never work. This one certainly does not. LH is a commercial air carrier, not a bakery.

Grog

Analogies can be fun, if you let them. Or they can result in a response that basically calls me stupid and then patronizes me. I'd prefer them to just be fun!

Let's not be distracted from Lufthansa's or any commercial air carrier's shadiness in forcing passengers to use all flight segments completely and in sequence:

--all while not refunding taxes on cancelled tickets,
--all while not reimbursing passengers with legitimate claims for reimbursement under EU Regulation 261/2004,
--all while delaying refunds owed to thousands of customers for months on end...

But my cake analogy...

LondonElite

Cake: a good that you own after you purchase it

Flight ticket: a service for transportation from A to B you purchased which comes with specific rules

eshroom

I like the cake analogy.

Of course, LH can charge whatever they like, but if they charge half the price for double the flights, they should not be surprised when people don't use the return leg.

Sometimes, you can have your cake and not eat it too.

Grog

I thought we'd established that I'm not an idiot, but maybe the jury is still out on that.

Strangely, you bring up rules but don't address Lufthansa's lack of adherence to their own stated policies as well as laws. (Note to self: this is probably the sentence which will prompt a future poster to advise seeking "redress in the courts" which of course benefits a lawyer more than anything else.)

Yesterday, I inquired with a close friend who tells me he is still pending a refund from Lufthansa from a good number of weeks ago.

There are many good people who work for Lufthansa. But when it comes to policies toward the broadest base of customers, Lufthansa remains shadier than any travel agent I've dealt with in recent memory.

LondonElite

I’m not suggesting that you are an idiot, I’m simply pointing out that a good and a service are two different things, and comparing air travel to multi-packs off Coke or Happy Meals, or cakes, is not meaningful.

I have my views on LH and how it handled refunds, and I agree that it was very poor, though my only personal experience of it was that two business class tickets for flights that were cancelled/changed was a refund within 36 hours.

planestupid

I think the basic argument here is that as a consumer I ought to be free to consume, without fear of penalty, only a part of the goods/services I purchased. The bakery analogy does a great job making this point.

LondonElite

Unfortunately that is not what you agree to when you buy airfare. You are free to not like this business model, of course.