American Airlines filed a lawsuit against online travel agency Skiplagged, alleging the firm engages in misrepresentation while selling airline tickets.
The lawsuit alleges that Skiplagged buys tickets from the American Airlines website “pretending to be a consumer.” This is a violation of the airline’s terms of use. Skiplagged allegedly hides its activity and then “tells its customers to hide it from American.”
“Skiplagged developed methods to illegally obtain access to tickets and offer them to consumers.”
However, such tickets are at “risk for immediate invalidation” since only an agent of the airline has the legal authority to form a valid contract between a consumer and American, according to the company.
“Skiplagged is not, and never has been, an authorized agent of American. It is a middle-man improperly inserting itself between American and flight consumers.”
Despite that Skiplagged has claimed that it saves money for users, the lawsuit insists that the company “often charges consumers more than if they had booked a ticket directly with American or through an authorized agent of American.”
“Every time Skiplagged books a ticket for a customer, it charges a Skiplagged fee in addition to the base fare. Usually, this fee is $10 per one-way ticket booked on Skiplagged, but at times this fee is 10 percent of the base fare of the advertised price.”
Skiplagging, Previous Lawsuit Against Skiplagged
Skiplagging is when travelers book flights that include at least a layover and exit at the layover airport instead of the final destination.Though skiplagging isn’t illegal, airline companies claim that it violates their policies. While travelers can save money through skiplagging, it tends to be costly for airlines.
Skiplagged claims to be a service that searches a desired flight route and looks for cheaper options on the same route.
“For example, a flight from New York to Orlando might be $250, but a similar flight from New York to Dallas with a layover in Orlando might be $130. If you’re going to Orlando, we’ll show you both flights,” the company states on its website.
“If you choose the cheaper one, you get off the plane at the layover (Orlando) rather than going to the final ticketed destination (Dallas).”
Skiplagged stated that its “hidden-city” flight ticket booking method is “perfectly legal” and that users can make “significant” savings on their flights. However, the company also warns, “You might upset the airline, so don’t do this often.”
When Skiplagged had just started out in 2014, United Airlines and an online travel agency accused the website’s founder, Aktarer Zaman, of trying to sell “prohibited forms of travel.”
Mr. Zaman had to start a GoFundMe webpage to pay his legal costs and ended up settling with United and the travel agency.
Last month, it was reported that American Airlines barred a teenager from flying with the airline for three years for planning to use a skiplagging ticket.
The 17-year-old boy intended to fly from Gainesville to New York City with a layover in Charlotte. At Gainesville, the boy was questioned by gate agents after seeing his North Carolina driver’s license and suspecting that he wouldn’t continue on the flight to New York.
In an interview with Business Insider, the boy’s father said that he had to buy a new direct ticket costing more than $400 so that his son could fly to Charlotte.
Drawbacks of Skiplagging
Though Skiplagged claims that the practice of skiplagging can save money, it admits there are drawbacks.It recommends that travelers using this method carry only a backpack. Any larger bag comes with a risk of getting checked at the gate. And all checked bags end up at the final destination mentioned in the ticket, not the layover.
The company also warns people not to overuse hidden-city itineraries. “Do not fly hidden-city on the same route with the same airline dozens of times within a short time frame.”
In addition, it warns that “in rare times of irregular operations such as bad weather, your itinerary may change at the discretion of the airline (2 percent chance).”
