andyh64000

You missed the analogy.

gfowler-ord-1k

See the second bullet item of UA Insider's post below. It states that "taxes and fees have been refunded". That implies that the tickets were issued The taxes and fees are not billed until the ticket is issued. If the ticket had not been issued there would be no need of a refund.

Note correction to the above in post 2850. Those who had 4 miles but less than in the award chart were ticketed but later cancelled and refunded when when UA issued a "post-purchase price increase". Those with 0-3 miles were not ticketed and the reservation was put on hold. These did not have to be refunded.

That is correct. The web page and receipt indicated 4 miles but UA over-billed those accounts. In other words they "increase the price of that air transportation, tour or tour component to a consumer, including but not limited to an increase in the price of the seat, an increase in the price for the carriage of passenger baggage, or an increase in an applicable fuel surcharge, after the air transportation has been purchased by the consumer, except in the case of an increase in a government-imposed tax or fee." This is a violation of CFR 399.88. Prohibition on post-purchase price increase

Emphasis mine.

craz

what if all along the price was being shown as $9,000 and taxes etc were $101 and when you got to the checkout page it shows $9,000 + $101 = $1 Its obvious there isnt any Special Fare and its a Billing Error

in the Mistake fares till now I believe that Fare all along was wrong and thats why the DoT says after the fact you cant go back and raise it once its been tkted. In the above ex the fare was always the correct amount till it added it all up but yet it still showed as a $9,000 Fare I wouldnt be surprised if the DoT allowed that $9,000 being billed as $1 to be CXed

with RGN (not in on it) the Fare stayed the same and never changed the Exchange rate is what changed causing the fare to workout in US$ to be nothing, so since they charged the amount they said they would DoT stepped in and made them honor the tkts It really wasnt a Mistake Fare as it was a mistake in currency exchange

thyeri

If you had 0 mile in your account, you were allowed to have a PNR on hold, but were unable to ticket it. In order for the website to let you ticket it, you were required to have minimum balance of 4.

0 mile - no ticket.
> 4 miles: you can have your PNR confirmed and ticketed.

alex_b

Two points, firstly there were at least three glitches, a 'pricing glitch' where it showed 4 miles as the price in some or all of the screens (depending on how you booked) and a billing glitch that only checked for >4 miles in the account before confirming and ticketing and another glitch that caused unpredictable amounts (0, 4, 140000 miles) to be pulled from the account.

As for the intentional deceptive practice, DOT have published enforcement actions against providers even where an intent to deceive wasn't proven (e.g. TripAdvisor).

Also the US Court of Appeals has ruled on the validity of the rules and upheld them thus far (DOT Press Release).

craz

there are very few law suits or trails where theres only 1 lawyer for only 1 of the sides and that lawyer can make the case for either side it all depends on whom is paying him/her. And once they agree to represent either side all that will be heard out of their mouths is what ever will help the person they are representing

= All sides can say and show why they are correct and the other side isnt, in the end it comes down to either the Judge or Jury deciding. OJ literally got away with Murder. Could be the DoT wont have anything to say on this at all, or that CO figured out even if they are forced to pay a Fine its still the better way for them to go
Is it a Billing error and no enforcement from DoT or a Mistake Fare and DoT will enforce it. Also dont forget every year 1000s of cases come before the Surpreme Court yet only a small handful get heard by the court, yet everyone feels they have a rock solid case and the SC will hear it and overturn what the other courts have said

balima

Part of the amusement of this thread are all the analogies. No more analogies. Airline tickets are not like groceries, jewelry, steaks, bubblegum or left handed widgets. Airline tickets are a specific service that is regulated by the federal government - as are many things - yes I know.

but, really. No one is going to change anyone else's mind about this situation. i don't think anyone is going to have a light bulb moment and shout "Hallelujah, I see that I have been so mistaken. I should have never booked such a ticket. I shall never book such a ticket or buy any product or service that seems to good to be true."

As much as the righteous want the buyers to get over it,the naysayers need to get over it too. Let the situation play itself out. Personally, I think your previous post exposes your true concern.

I think filing a DoT complaint even crosses the line. They are basically hoping that DoT throws all common sense out the window and agrees that this is a passenger rights issue and that they are being wronged by not being allowed to fly international first class to asia for 4 cents. And if that happens guess who gets to pay higher fares to cover those tickets? And systemwides to asia are hard enough to use as it is...how do you think they would do for the next 12 months if all of these free tickets were honored?

You're worried about your own systemwides and how this mistake fare will affect you. Now that you can't get what you want, those that are in your way need to be kicked off the plane.

andyh64000

You are exactly right...I don't want to pay for a bunch of people scamming free tickets from united...why should I? I am also against insurance fraud and shoplifting.

dhammer53

Maybe you should send them the link to this thread.

dh

gfowler-ord-1k

You may be correct, I was going by UA Insider's post which implied that it was ticketed since they were issuing refunds. Maybe the refund was $0

Superguy

I've had it happen to me. It was awhile ago, back in 2005 on a DL flight for DCA-PWM. Start the booking and it showed the regular price of $170 and change. However, once you selected the flights and it priced the ticket, it repriced out to $0. All that was charged were taxes and Travelocity ticket fee at the time. I ended up getting 2 tickets for $57 all in. DL ticketed it and honored the tickets. Back then, we didn't have these rules and DL could have easily canned the ticket.

Like the DL ticket, UA's system pretty much did the same thing, just with miles and taxes instead of all money. It's a mistake, and not a billing error.

Doesn't bother me, I drastically limited my flying on UA for other reasons. I also didn't get in on this deal.

That said, these aren't even in the realm of insurance fraud and shoplifting. UA sold something and it was bought. Fraud indicates getting something by deception, which didn't happen. Shoplifting implies the seller got nothing in return. UA did. One can argue or not whether it was just compensation or not, or whether UA should have to eat it or not because they were dumb enough to sell it for that, but you can't argue that something was stolen.

thyeri

What they mean here: for people who ticketed PNRs and had a balance lower than the amount of miles required as stated on the award chart, 120K/160K/..., they will cancel tickets and refund airport taxes and fees.

andyh64000

Sorry...didn't mean to imply that it was just meant to point out that those costs are recovered in the same way as this will.

gfowler-ord-1k

Gotcha, my bad and I put a note in my previous post. So those who had 4 miles but less than the award chart had their tickets canceled and refunded when UA issued a "post-purchase price increase". I had to throw that in

craz

Im not in on this so I can only go by what others have posted.

It seems by you the right fare showed and then disappeared and wasnt seen on the page where you Confirm the purchase. It seems with at least some folks the correct amount still showed on the Confirmation page but it only charged 4 miles. back to seeing $9000 + 101 = $1 is different then seeing fare is $9000 and clicking it to purcahse and the next page simply says ONLY $1 since fares can and do change that fast , just try booking on say Orbitz, although no one will say they Honestly thought the Carrier just instituted a great Sale and thats why it was only $1

But I Never saw where an Award tkt will go up or down in the amount of Miles needed, yes from Saver to AnyTime but those will reflect that reg stated amounts, Ive never had an award amount go up or down once I clicked onto it, you can be rest assured even with DLs crazy system if you click on a 32,500 award it wont show up 2 secs later as 50k ior 25k