American Airlines is suing a travel website that sells tickets that permit people get monetary savings by exploiting a quirk in airline pricing.
American sued Skiplagged Inc. in federal court in Fort Price, Texas, this week, accusing the web site of deception. It threatened to cancel every ticket that Skiplagged has sold.
In a practice called skiplagging and hidden-city ticketing, travelers book a flight that features at the very least one stop, but they leave the plane during a layover. Generally skiplagging just isn’t illegal, but airlines claim that it violates their policies.
Last month, American booted a 17-year-old from a flight and banned him for 3 years when he tried to make use of the tactic to fly from Gainesville, Fla., to Charlotte, NC, on a ticket that listed Recent York City as his destination. For the teenager, that was cheaper than booking a flight on to Charlotte.
Within the lawsuit, American accused Skiplagged of tricking consumers into believing they will tap “some type of secret ‘loophole.’” American said the web site poses as an peculiar consumer to purchase tickets, and warns its customers to not tip off the airline concerning the arrangement.
American accused Skiplagged of tricking consumers into believing they will tap “some type of secret ‘loophole.’”AP
American said Skiplagged, which relies in Recent York, has never been authorized to resell the airline’s tickets.
“Skiplagged’s conduct is deceptive and abusive,” the airline said within the lawsuit. “Skiplagged deceives the general public into believing that, despite the fact that it has no authority to form and issue a contract on American’s behalf, one way or the other it may possibly still issue a totally valid ticket. It cannot. Every ‘ticket’ issued by Skiplagged is liable to being invalidated.”
There was no immediate response to a request for comment left with Skiplagged.
American Airlines banned North Carolina teen Logan Parsons who used a skiplagging ticket.Facebook / Lisa Cain Parsons
Skiplagged has been sued before.
United Airlines and online travel agency Orbitz accused Aktarer Zaman, who was in his early 20s when he began Skiplagged around 2014, of touting “prohibited types of travel.”
Zaman, who began a GoFundMe to pay his legal costs, settled with Orbitz, and the United lawsuit was dismissed.
