Money Saving “Throwaway Ticketing” Vindicated In American Airlines Lawsuit Against Skiplagged
American Airlines won a $9.4 million verdict against Skiplagged for copyright infringement. That’s being reported as a huge win for American, and vindication of their fight against throwaway ticketing. It is not.
To be clear, a nearly $10 million verdict isn’t great for Skiplagged, though there will be appeals. American is nowhere close to collecting that much money.
However what’s important is that American Airlines mostly lost. Remember, they were after $94 million primarily over trademark infringement and also fraud. None of that held up.
American’s lawsuit alleges that Skiplagged’s marketing of the practice violates the airlines’ ticketing practices, puts travelers who booked flights through Skiplagged at risk of having their tickets invalidated, infringes on American’s trademarks and fraudulently advertises lower fares than customers end up paying.
“It is the classic bait and switch: draw consumers in with the promise of secret fares, and instead sell the consumer a ticket at a higher price,” American alleges in the lawsuit.
Trial in the case began Monday before Judge Mark Pittman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. American Airlines is seeking more than $94 million in damages.
The copyright claim seems rather silly, since identifying American Airlines was how Skiplagged explained to consumers the facts of the schedule they’d be flying.
But the other claims were far stupider. The notion that customers were being hoodwinked by Skiplagged, when they go there precisely for a ‘travel hack’ that generated actual savings, not out of a belief that American Airlines endorsed the practice. American cares about Skiplagged because they’re undermining American’s pricing and saving customers money.
Throwaway ticketing is a practice that’s gone on for decades. Airlines often charge more money for non-stops than they do for connecting itineraries. So people book a flight with a connection through the city they want to travel to, and just don’t take that second connecting flight. As a result, they can often save money, but there are risks.
It is not illegal to engage in throwaway ticketing. It violates airline rules. And people disagree with the ethics. You ‘agree’ to the airline’s contract, with terms you likely do not know about, when you buy the ticket. Is it unethical to violate an adhesion contract, with whatever airlines decide to throw in there? You’re buying seats on two flights, isn’t it up to you whether to use those seats or not? To the airlines, though, a trip between Gainesville and New York is different than a trip from Gainesville and Charlotte and comes with different pricing. Flying to Charlotte instead of New York, at a cheaper price, is stealing.
More important than the ethics for many are the risks. If your flight is delayed or cancelled, your airline may want to re-route you through a different hub than the city you actually wanted to fly to (and get off in). You can’t check bags, because those will go to your final ticketed destination rather than where you’re flying. And if you’re forced to gate check a bag when overhead bins are full, you’re in a bind. Plus, you can only book these one way because if you throw away anything other than the last flight in your itinerary the rest of the trip gets cancelled.
And of course since you can’t check bags on a ticket like this, you really shouldn’t check in at the airport and involve a live agent in the process. Check in online or using the mobile app. And if you don’t do that, at least use a kiosk.
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