$10,000 flights for 4 miles and $33 in tax...

[K_W]

Please read full article before forming opinion. There are important details...

The battle over $33 flights to Hong Kong - Yahoo! News

What do you think should happen?

Should the airline be forced to honor the tickets?
Should the flights be re-booked at discount price?
Should the flights be canceled, no harm no foul?
Should the airline bill the card on file for the correct and full amount?
Should...???

It should be provable at what point word of the error went public, so i believe all flights booked before word of the error was spread should be honored, and any booked after the point it can be proven that the error was spread publicly, should be cancelled with option to rebook at 50% discount.

 

[IndyDave1776]

Given that the proper price was posted and the error only set in once you booked, those taking advantage were clearly doing just that, taking advantage of a technical error that they knew to be that as opposed to having any reasonable argument for taking an implausible posted price at face value.

 

[canav844]

Presumably, there is fine print at the bottom of the ticket and on the website (its been a while since I've flown but I've scanned it before) that outlines the terms of cancellation. When you purchase a ticket you enter into a contract of sorts for a service, if those terms include the sever-ability, then yes the airline has the ability to cancel the tickets, if it doesn't then their mistake they should honor the contract that was entered and do a better job of handling things on their end and not punish the consumer for it.

There's one sticking point in this case: the cost advertised was actually correct. A ticket searcher initially saw a cost of 120,000 miles. It was only when customers went to book that the 4 mile figure appeared. And if customers had the full 120,000 miles in their accounts, that was actually deducted. Those with less had no miles deducted. All passengers were charged the appropriate taxes.

And theoretically if I interpret it right with the vague wording it's interpretation, the price agreed to and committed to wasn't properly charged for most customers, if that's the case then they'd have the right to enforce the full charge (without knowing the details of United's ordering system and exactly where the glitch was it's hard to gleen exactly where the computer fault occurred); but to do so would likely be poor customer service, while not raising the price (if I finance you a car a 0% interest, I'm not raising the car with each monthly payment) thus conforming with the law.
If a customer agreed to 4 miles plus taxes, and was then charged the 120k miles if it was already in their account then the airline should see the penalty for raising prices after the fact on a per ticket basis.

Ethically, calling on the public not to alert the airline, ethically knowingly exploiting a glitch; while legal, is a very strong representation of character. But it's also along a very fine line, if this was listed as a 4 mile flight and charged as a 4 mile flight and they were just taking advantage of a good deal, then that's just wise money usage of their money to take advantage of the best price on the market.

I think there's the right stance legally, the right stance for customer service, and the right stance for customer ethics, they all land a little differently and I suspect the outcome will be somewhere in the middle; and I think you'll see many avoid UAL for a while after this due to a bitter taste in their mouth. And by march with another Thanksgiving and Xmas season to drum up fear, I wouldn't be surprised if you need a colonoscopy to get through TSA checkpoints so really you're paying far more than 4 frequent flier miles +$33 in taxes.

Oh and who's funding yahoo, to make the story about United errors carry a stock image of American Airlines planes for the photo?

 

[96firephoenix]

Obtaining a product for less than the advertised price?

Either fraud or theft if done on purpose...

 

[Benny]

Obtaining a product for less than the advertised price?

Either fraud or theft if done on purpose...

Wellllll, not when it's the product/service provider's mess-up.

I don't believe the airline should have to honor it, but I wouldn't call it fraud for the customers.

(That's if I understood you right.)

 

[96firephoenix]

I was mostly talking about the ones that deliberately took advantage of it, just to clarify.

 

[Benny]

I was mostly talking about the ones that deliberately took advantage of it, just to clarify.

That is pretty much what I thought you meant, but fraud and theft are pretty strong words that I don't really think are applicable here...When most businesses mess up on their price, they usually honor that price, don't they?

I see both sides of the argument and in this case, I think the airline should refund there 4 miles + $33, tell them they aren't getting a ~free flight and apologize for the glitch.

That's just my very humble opinion.