Chevelter

I was initially intrigued by this situation and now find the whole thing quite depressing. It's disturbing to see this side of human nature. I'm no preacher or moralist and I'm not perfect myself, but I have to wonder what has happened to basic honesty. On top of that, to take such proud public glee in thievery, like this comment. It's beyond my comprehension, truly.

If someone leaves a door unlocked do you tell all your friends and go loot, or do you alert the owner? If your $80 item scans for 8 cents at checkout do you go back for ten more, or do you tell the clerk there is an obvious mistake?

What is wrong with you people?

chasingthedream

Bloomberg has ran a short piece on it yesterday. i expect that as publicity increases, the new UNITED management will have to think carefully about their decisions.

I don't understand why the new management is choosing to alienate their most loyal customers. It would appear they are trying to emulate similar decisions by Singapore Airlines when they were trying to cull their loyal SQ premium customers.

Chances of a cancellation of the ticket is really subjective.

chinatraderjmr

I would tend to agree with you under normal circumstances. And there is no doubt some people that took advantage of this were motivated by greed. But many people who post here fly UA regularly and have had to sit idly by while UA has taken advantage of ans even abused some of us over the last 4 months. People were stuck in China for 3 days and UA refused to put them on other carriers to get them home. Others have missed weddings and funerals due to MX's and the new UA refused to either issue refunds or get them to their destinations on other carriers. In short, UA has really abused many many passengers since the merger. Passengers that the old UA would have helped it taken care of. I did not get in on this deal. Not cuz I was against it but because I saw no reason to grab a flight just cuz it's free. I fly enough and have no interest in flying more. Most people got 1-2 tickets for themselves and took advantage of a glitch in an otherwise VERY rigid system that allows no compromise. Some took advantage and IMO I hope UA makes it hard on them to fly. But for most of these people - have a happy trip

SkySide

Greed is a part of human nature. Just remember though, greed exists on both sides : with passengers, and with the airlines.

sonofzeus

No.
Nothing.

apk123

I have a theory on what happened:

After Air China's mistake $0 fares got Air China some nice publicity, and after the 3 day stranding in China did the opposite to united, some brilliant marketing guy decided to copy Air China to regain some good will in China. It's not that it would look suspicious that united had a mistake fare in China right after Air China had it. He wanted to reward united's existing customers and generate some buzz about MP, so that's the reason for the requirement for the symbolic 4 miles (similarly to how they offer 65k miles if you have some miles in your MP account instead of the 40k offered to the general public for the explorer card).

So he tasked an equally brilliant united IT team with implementing and monitoring the plan. At the beginning it worked smoothly, chinese people were buying some regional flights. However there was an inevitable glitch that allowed to book flights to anywhere in the world and soon the word spread to the english speaking world. By the time they realized what was going on, thousands of expensive tickets have been purchased, costing united much more than they originally planned, and not to the intended audience (united doesn't care about its reputation in america anyway).

So management decided to back out of the plan. Originally, they were aiming for getting good publicity on how they honored tickets in China although they didn't have to. Now they are getting publicity over fighting with the DoT about honoring the tickets despite clear regulations, with their PR mumbling something about incorrect prices showing up only at the payment stage but not in the previous page, all this despite their management promising to honor any mistake no matter how big. Another win for united!

FlyinHawaiian

Friendly reminder.

FlyinHawaiian, Co-Moderator
United MileagePlus Forum

hoopics

Just seen on the crawler on Good Morning America:

"United Airlines glitch that allowed passengers to fly to Hong Kong for just four frequent flyer miles will be first major test of new rule that bans airlines from raising prices after purchase."

So there's that.

burmans

As once explained to me by a lawyer the law has nothing to do with justice, and to address your comment neither has it anything to do with being sensible.

pigx5

Nothing wrong with those people.
I have no sympathy for UA either and I wish those people who get the
tickets will have fun when traveling.

When an airline keeps lying about many things (TODs, upgrades....),
this airline has no basic honesty.

When an airline chooses a crap IT system just to save money, it's their
choice and it's this airline causes many of the problem.
They feel it's right things to do to cause employees and customers inconvenience and
they get what they pay for.

Like loyalty is a two way street, BASIC HONESTY is too.
When the new UA feel it's right for them not to honor what they have promised to their MMs, they didn't have basic honesty.
They feel that they can change the program because of the MP rules even
it's not honesty.
Why can't people do the same thing to them - follow the rules, DOT rules?

They show people an airline doesn't need to have basic honesty and people show them not only they can do that.

davidbridgman

Both sections 399.88 and 399.89 apply to U.S. and foreign carriers and ticket agents (including travel agents) that sell scheduled air transportation within, to or from the United States and tour operators that sell tours with scheduled air transportation as a component within, to or from the United States.

gfowler-ord-1k

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1685617.html

GMUJD06

Can we please stop having the stealing/unethical/immoral back and forth. Its been over three days now. I think everyone's positions are clear. Those who got in didn't wander into grandma's unlocked house and steal her pearls while she was at church baking apple pies for the homeless. United chose to go with a crappy IT system, and it bit them in the butt.

But in all seriousness, everyone's views on the morality question are quite entrenched. Let's move on.

davidbridgman

Maybe the mods would be so kinds as to split off thread discussing the morality of mistake fares...

[shaking head/pointing finger in condescending and authoritative manner]
DoT regulations says these tickets must be honored and I'll be dang if I'll send the message to MY children that laws don't mean NOTHING.

TimesTwo

Thank you. Anyone interested in the moral hand wringing can check about 40 pages back. There's plenty of it there.