JS

If I had bought one of these cheap tickets, and UA charged my credit card the correct fare (or called me or whatever), that would be one thing. I would agree it was a mistake and accept a refund. But if UA says nothing and then refuses to issue boarding passes, that's something else.

BTW I paid only $79 to fly roundtrip LGA-DFW in April. They charged me the $79 (times 4.5 for four adult fares and one infant fare) and no calls or e-mails so far!

unagi1

I fully concur with JS' comment.

As I mentioned earlier, I have an e-ticket with an 016 ticket number, seat assignments,
an e-ticket receipt printed off UA web site,
and verified with my credit card company
that UA billed the same amount. Not sure
if having to get the paper ticket was what triggered auh2o's situation.

Benjamin

Hello all. Two developments:

1. After I requested an upgrade on one of my trips (for two people), I was told I would be placed on the waitlist. United left a message with me last night saying that because the fare was so low, they could not upgrade me using Systemwides.

2. I called my credit card company. The tickets from SJC (paper) were charged at a rate of $535.00, even though the receipt says $84.00. The tickets from SFO (e-tickets) were charged at the rate I purchased them for (i.e. 22 or so dollars).

Gaucho100K

Wow.... seems like a nice case for law school. How can UA issue a receipt for an amount X but then bill your credit card for Y>X ??

I guess its hard to argue that someone at UA made a mistake when inputing price variables. What about this scenario: How would those of you lucky enough to have gotten this great deal react if UA would bill you the correct fare of approx. $450-500 but at the same time issue vouchers valid for future use for a similar amount?? I guess the best way to do this would be for UA to notify you of their move to bill you that higher amount.

Had I gotten any of these flights at those sub $100 prices, I would think such a solution to be acceptable.


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Gaucho100K

crankyusi

Gaucho,

I'd jump on that proposal as quickly as I jumped on the 7 tickets I bought

jerry a. laska

auh20,
They cannot just charge you the higher price (no matter what mrbally might think). Even if this was a mistake by a data entry person and even if the ual.com website provides adequate disclaimers that they are not responsible and have no duty to sell items at clearly incorrect prices - their only remedy is to contact you, inform you of the incorrect pricing, and offer you the option of cancelling the transaction or buying at the correct price. They cannot unilaterally just charge your credit card what they perceive to be the correct price.

Gaucho's analogy to a law school question is apt. So is this fairly recent decision from the california court of appeals summarized here: http://www.carlaw.net/articles/mistake.shtml
This decision is not entirely relevant to your situation as it is dependent upon california law that specifically applies to advertisements by car dealers.

Your situation more closely parallels buy.com's recent travails: http://www.palmerdodge.com/focus/foc...cfm?fileID=198
In that situation, buy.com only honored the incorrect price for the amount of the item that buy.com had in stock (some 100+ units) and cancelled the other orders (after informing consumers they could buy at the higher correct price) and eventually gave all the cancelled customers gift certificates.
As the article states, Amazon recently had similar problems early this year. Staples also had a problem this year with bad data entry.
http://www.catalogagemag.com/content...2000090105.HTM

I don't think I would bow out without a voucher, myself.

good luck,
jerry

ozstamps

I really do hope you guys prevail. It might be reflective to bring forward what I posted prophetically above whilst this thread was running at 60 posts a minute or whatever, and what has happened here is more of less similar to what happened also to a few dozen FT'ers with the $375 Qantas deal Europe-OZ-Europe late last year. Those tickets basically never happened folks despite being "booked" and "confirmed" by fellow FT'ers.

As I posted above, many of you are 1Ks, and I feel for 20 or 30 tix (unless travel agents acted fast) they will simply live with it if enough noise is made - it was their error at all times.

BUT, be mindful until you have that boarding pass in your hand, you ain't goin nowheres.

Give 'em Hell, and man I tried and tried and missed it when this deal was still "live", and would be fighting this to the death had I snagged a couple and had it "confirmed".

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~ Glen ~

maple

ozstamps,

I beg to differ. Once an airline charges your credit card, a sale has been made. If they were to charge you the "correct" fare when your ticket was priced at the lower fare, there would be grounds for legal action. Because although it would seem abnormal for such a fare to exist, some people would not have bought it at the higher fare. So UA cannot charge you guys the higher rates unilaterally.

For our Tallinn-Australia fiasco, yes, both Travelocity and QF tried their **** best to get the tickets returned (even employing scare tactics). Some less fortunate FTers did not get their paper tickets at the last minute. Others, like myself, have our paper tickets in hand, and reservations confirmed on Sabre. In fact, Spider can vouch that many of his clients bought those tickets and have already flown off to Australia (and if I remember correctly, he candidly mentioned that they were even served really well as they were travelling on Y-fares!). By the way, on what class were you guys booked to CGD?

Check out the equally hot topic at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum71/HTML/001833.html

Congratulations! Too bad I never ever fly United, even if it costs me less than a 20" pizza to get to the Eiffel Tower. I left my heart with American.

Cheers,
Maple

Edited: Gosh I was censored for using ****

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Flew every one of those 25,000 Q-miles and onto 50,000!

[This message has been edited by maple (edited 02-01-2001).]

Horizons

Good on ya for the quick-eyed and nimble-fingered among us!

I don't see anywhere on the thread what the booking class was and what the valid dates were. Does anybody know/remember? All I noticed was that a lot of people bought for March.

Horizons

[Duplicate post, which appeared mysteriously and on its own 15 minutes after my original post. FT gremlins?]




[This message has been edited by Horizons (edited 02-01-2001).]

cigarman

Although I am not an united flyer, a friend emailed me this page. I have two thoughts. I seem to remember airlines being required to honor these low fares. I believe it was in context to sending signals to each other be temporarily dropping the price. I believe there is something in Tom Parsons book about it.
Second point, I hope you all are excited about going to europe NOT earning status miles. UA might have to honor the fare. They clearly do not have to give you miles. The big clue this is coming is they won't let you use system wides because the fare is too low. Look for them not to give you status miles because the fare is too low. And before you scream "they have to!" read their rules.
Good luck...

crankyusi

I was told by UA that this was a "W" fare, which is why our group of 7 was able to placed on the waitlist for an upgrade using Systemwides. I was also told that by UA reservations (after completing the online purchase) that if I try to pick up the paper tickets at a ticket counter rather than wait for them in the mail, I will be refared. Thus, I wait for snail mail, but do have seat assignments, and individual ticket numbers (016....) for each passenger.

ozstamps

Maple. Sorry if I was unclear. No-one I feel is disagreeing that it is plain nonsense and illegal of UA to unilaterally charge $500 for something you "signed up for" at $30 or whatever. They have no hope in the world of making that one stick. HOWEVER, when you phone Citibank and dispute the charge, "no sale" is then the nett result isn't it? And no sale means no $27 ticket.

Me, I'd make the flight, not even ask what the card statement eventually said, but keep at all times that $27 receipt, as THAT was the price you honestly THOUGHT they'd accepted via your credit card and that is WHAT you authorised to be changed to you. Like you guys, I get monthly card accounts. A mid-March flight would be completed before I even saw my statement which cuts off on 24th each month. If it said $500 etc, I'd dispute it with VISA. What are they going to do then - demand I un-fly the trip?

I would be interested to read how many folks got the ticket charged to their VISA at $27? That is important. If you have the booking receipt, and a valid charge at $27 they really would be creeps to not issue the ticket AND give you usal points for it too. But as Cigarman covers, airlines have a few 1000 pages of terms, rules and conditions to fall back on at all times, in every situation if they want to.

And I don't want to dampen the lucky FT'ers enthusiam, but I will repeat again : "until you have that boarding pass in your hand, you ain't goin nowheres".


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~ Glen ~

[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 02-01-2001).]

justaguy1

For those of you having trouble getting UA to honor the fare as booked. I would call KGO Channel 7's consumer reporter Michael Finney. he has been successful in getting airlines to honor fares they have quoted, even when they were incorrect and the airlines mistake. United would proably honor the low fare than face the publicity.

crankyusi

Greetings JustAGuy,

Looks like you got good hunches as you posted last night the reference to Michael Finney airing this potential flight-plight on Bay Area tv, home of mega UA 1K's. We'll definitely keep that in the backpocket and see how UA handles this. Above all, welcome.