WineCountryUA

At costs greater than what UA is probably attempting to collect. -- a lose-lose situation.

However, since it has never been reported for UA to do this, why are bothering with the discussion.

It is clear UA's real power is to revoke/close the MP account, the miles, the status, and possible future use of UA.

luv2ctheworld

I'm curious as to how UA would be able to accomplish this easily/virtually no cost.

Seems like if one is willing to be blacklisted by UA, or lose all their miles/status with UA, it's the only real stick they have.

Otherwise, for someone who doesn't care/has nothing to lose with UA, they can do this with near impunity (unless UA blocks you from boarding the flight).

TomMM

If a person used legit info when creating their MP account, Name, Address, DOB etc it wouldn't be difficult for UA to obtain their SSN using a data service.

br2k

If the person ever checked in online, United has verifiably correct personal information. If that person ever checked in for an international flight - United also has their passport data. And if that person has a Chase MP credit card attached to the account - Chase has their social security number, which they probably can share with their "business partners in the course of doing business".

That point about booking hidden city tix on another carrier's stock sounds like a great idea. I wonder what would happen if one skips UA flights but flies, let's say, on NH tickets. Would NH then be responsible for making a claim according to their CoC? Or can NH ask their joint venture buddy UA to use their muscle?

Kacee

That's simply wrong.

There are procedures which must be followed, but UA is a creditor because it provided services for which OP did not pay in full.

sunil

Hi I'm on a ANA ticket with flights operated by UA. If I discard the last UA segment will UA caare since ticket is on ANA stock ? Also I plan to instead book another UA segment to get to my actual destination, am i pushing my luck

WineCountryUA

UA may still detect multiple / duplicate impossible bookings if you use your MP account on both tickets.

bocastephen

Just keep your MP number off the return-home flight for now, or just choose another airline for this segment. ANA is the 'offended party', not UA, so it's not up to United to come after you for an alleged violation.

bocastephen

UA has no standing as a creditor - it's only option is to sue for breach of contract. It provided services for which the customer paid in full, but declined to fully utilize - that is drastically different than not paying for the services provided. The only issue here is an alleged breach of contract, and with the case history supporting the rights of the consumer in hidden city and other creative ticketing ventures, it doesn't look good for UA to win in court if the OP puts up any sort of fight. The only realistic thing at risk here is their MP account and a future ban, which is something the OP will need to weigh.

tale

Has anyone actually confronted UA on this and what was the resolution?

rufflesinc

as a landlord, I would be absolutely delighted if my tenants paid for the whole duration but vacated with a month to go , allowing me to rerent immediately.

jsloan

These analogies never work well, because airfare is neither sold nor priced like any other product on the planet.

pinniped

This.

UA doesn't have anything to gain by going to court and generating attention around the predatory, anti-competitive pricing behaviors that lead to hidden-city opportunities to begin with. Them ended up in battles with individual fliers would be red meat for the media, just like it was when the RIAA started suing grandmothers for hundreds of thousands of dollars for downloading songs off of Napster.

Attempting to mess with individuals' credit reports, even if they legally could find a way to do that, would be almost as bad. Someone would get wind of it and it would not play well from a PR perspective.

No airline explanation to justify fortress-hub pricing is going to make sense from a PR perspective. It is all about a monopoly exploiting its stranglehold over a city. Frankly, that city's local politicians (who are likely in bed with the airline in question) don't want this in the media either. If there are dots to connect, some local reporter will find them.

Airlines have two sticks to wield - one, blocking travel agents that have a history of booking hidden-city itins and two, locking FF accounts of individuals who do it a lot. Both of those are arcane enough to the average citizen that it's not really a blood-in-the-water kind of story.

jsloan

Which is why that's not what they'd explain. Instead, they'd explain that current airline pricing allows them to give discounts on certain non-hub routes, and that without the ability to enforce their ticketing rules, they wouldn't be able to offer those discounts.

mr8