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.
It’s worth noting that, while the practice is not illegal, airlines can and will ban you from flying / close your frequent flier account with them if they think you are practicing this. Do throwaway ticketing at your own risk.
Can anyone here think of a case where skiplagging does not reduce AAs monopoly power?
Noone has ever been banned for hidden city. Noone.
Old wives tale
For a while WN specifically allowed this in their terms.
They disallowed it some years ago b
At one point United allowed it, too! Though a decade ago they sued Skiplagged for it, and did not prevail.
Weird name ski plagged. Is it only for people who ski?
Why does a gate checked bag cause a problem? You get your bag back at the end of the flight.
@christian, no you do not get a gate checked bag back at the end of the flight. It is checked to your final destination. You may be thinking of a “gate valet” checked bag, which is different, and only available for smaller bags on commuter planes that cannot accommodate the bags.
Like so many other business practices in the 21st century United States, the root of this problem is an unethical business practice by the airline. American is price gouging customers that want one of their hubs as a final destination by virtue of the fact their presence excludes their competitors. The service isn’t priced as cost plus markup, rather it’s market price where the business controls a significant percentage of the market. Least we believe that it’s a free market and their competitors could simply move in, it’s not. Whether American in Dallas, Delta in Atlanta, or United in Chicago, airlines guard their slots jealously exactly because runnning a near monopoly allows you to make the price whatever you can extract from the customer. An exceptionally easy way for government to punish businesses for this behavior is to deny them civil relief when the customer turns the tables on them.
I have friends and family members that have sworn by “skiplagging” for years. These flyers generally aren’t flying enough to really care about frequent flier miles or status. They would be impacted of the airline simply banned them from flying. So following up on toomanybooks’ post – are there actually examples of flyers being banned for hidden city ticketing / skip lagging?
When I was a boy, I worked in reservations at a legacy carrier. Andolder agent told me that they used to routinely search for beyond point fares to offer to the passengers, but not anymore. It’s American’s own fault and it’s on them that they do not charge the “Higher Intermediate Point” fare (that is an international pricing rule) yet don’t because they want all the money they can get. If I buy a ticket from Paris to Montréal with a connexion at Newark for $176 one-way vs. $1700 Paris to Newark, isn’t it the right of the public to choose which flights they want? Clawing back the money is like the cow coming to your door demanding compensation because you bought a quart of milk but only drank a pint of it. And isn[t avarice ugly, AAL?
It’s ridiculous that a court would even uphold American’s rule. Let’s say you go to McDonald’s and they have a meal deal of burger, fries and a drink, which is cheaper than buying the burger and drink alone. But you don’t want fries. So you order the meal deal, and don’t eat the fries. Can McDonald’s successfully sue you for not eating the fries? Of course not. Same principle should apply to airlines. You bought the 2nd leg, and paid for it. It should be up to you whether to use it or not.
Airlines charge based upon in part demand for a particular route. And of course other factors. New York to Los Angeles or New York to Chicago is far more in demand than New York to Fargo, ND or New York to Pittsburg. Normally if you don’t make a habit out of it airlines will look the other way if you throw away the last leg. But as noted there are risks that could really screw you. Like ending up in New Orleans when you were flying back home to Dallas. It’s just not worth whatever you’re saving.