photo by Bernal Saborio via Flickr
Aktarer Zaman may have won the battle, but United Airlines aims to win the war with the 22-year old entrepreneur, who turned a loophole in airline ticketing known as “hidden city” flights into the discount booking website Skiplagged.
Sued by United and Orbitz in 2014 for “unfair competition” and “deceptive behavior,” Zaman was able to survive by raising his own defense fund (as of today, $79,329) through Gofundme.com. Remarkably, Zaman remains in the clear, as Orbitz settled outside of court, and United’s suit was tossed out of the Chicago court because Skiplagged doesn’t exist there.
Frustrated, United is now re-directing its eye to customers and dropping less-than-subtle threats for using Skiplagged methods in booking tickets.” United said in a statement:
“We remain troubled that Mr. Zaman continues to openly encourage customers to violate our contract of carriage by purchasing hidden-city tickets, putting the validity of their ticket and MileagePlus status at risk,
In layman’s terms, this means if United catches you taking advantage of the hidden city loophole, it can shut down your frequent-flier account, revoke elite status, and cancel the return ticket (so buy one-way tickets). However, an appeal to ethics may have been a smarter play, as United’s concerns are well-justified. The hidden city practice really does hurt the airline, which loses the value and revenue of the empty seat on the second leg. Also, if Skiplagged’s approach becomes more commonplace, airlines will be forced to raise prices across the board.
The threat, on the other hand, does little to help United’s, and the entire industry’s image, as U.S. airlines continue to rate poorly in nearly all aspects of service. Judging by the anger expressed towards airlines on Zaman’s “Ask-Me-Anything” interview on Reddit last December, hidden city ticketing could now become something more than a money saving strategy, but a new way to stick it to the man.