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No. I'm with Christian on this. I don't care what their biased contract, which their lawyers wrote, says. It's wrong. Flat out wrong.
If and when I have a choice --- as The Customer --- I will chose an airline that does not abuse their customers in this way. And I will let my views be heard loudly.
I may understand why they want to make more money.... because they want to make more money.... for profits.... blah blah blah all day long. But that doesn't make it right.
If I buy a ticket for two legs of a trip, there's no way in hell they should *require* me to use both. Period. It's wrong. ( in the ethical sense )
That would be the equivalent of a movie theater selling you a ticket to a movie.... Then charging you double if you don't show up.
Unless they are actually paying *me* to show up, they don't have an ethical leg to stand on.
Airlines are extremely competitive. All it will take is one airline to advertise that they *don't* abuse customers this way.... for them all to change.
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Anyone can scream as loud as they can that something is wrong and they can scream equally loudly about letting their views be known. The plain fact is that a contract is a contract. When you as a passenger purchase a ticket you agree - usually by ticking a box on a computer screen - to abide by the airline's terms and conditions. No tick - no ticket! Like it or not, these form a legally binging agreement which, once signed, gives the purchaser zero rights if he unilaterally fails to abide by the terms of the agreement.Originally Posted by bruce_nyc
As has been said before here, this is particularly true in the case of flights originating outside a carrier's home country which are often substantially cheaper. As has been noted, fly London to Chicago and back on BA and you are stung for quite a high fare. Fly Berlin via London/Chicago via London/Berlin and the price can be as much as 40% cheaper. I know, for that's what I did last June. I did not want to end up back in Berlin, but I knew that BA could - and according to a travel agent in London often do - add supplements on to credit cards if I just got off in London. So I just paid for another Berlin/London ticket which was still only about тВм65 when I booked it.
Travel agents in London I have dealt with for business colleagues will not issue tickets if they know you do not plan to fly the last sector. They know that BA will quickly be after them. The solution to an individual travelling with such intent is, I guess, to use one credit card for the booking and then cancel the card once the booking is confirmed. Then there is no card for a surcharge. But I'd be reluctant to do that with an airline I was taking regularly.
Airlines will screw you every which way.
christianpfc wrote:
..but re-pricing the flight if you don't take the last leg is even more outrageous. I wonder who came up with this, and why there is no law against it. Qualifies as scam by my standards. I hope someone sues the airlines.
I think ChristianPrivateFirstClass and BruceyNYC fail to understand the econonomics of flight pricing. The simple fact is that people will pay more for a direct flight. Therefore airlines have to discount fares to attract customers to take a non-direct flight as opposed to a direct flight. In the example Fountainhall gives, BA Berlin / London / Chicago is 40% less than the BA London / Chicago flight. The reason it is less is that due to being a longer total journey time with a change of planes on London, it has to compete very favourably on cost compared to Berlin Chicago direct with Lufthansa or one of the U.S. Carriers. If the airlines did not try to fill their seats by attracting customers from other countries, they would need to increase prices further for direct routes. By not flying a final sector customers are seeking to scam the airline - it is effectively theft with the customer trying to defraud the airline. The airlines should take action to avoid being scammed by customers in this way, otherwise we will all end up paying higher fares.
Pricing is not my problem, as THE CUSTOMER.
If they want to give a discount to German citizens, they are free to offer a discount and require a German ID. But if they simply sell tickets, I should be able to use any or all of those I bought.
Don't underestimate the power of consumers' voice. Airlines are constantly looking for a competitive advantage. It only take one guy on Twitter complaining about an abusive policy.... to give some airline executive an idea. Then they start a new advertising campaign, "We don't punish you for not taking every leg of every trip you buy!"
And bit by bit the industry changes....
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This entire dynamic pricing, and selling flights at fares that do not cover the costs (and absurdities like fuel surcharge) should be outlawed! That includes single trips not being half the price of return trips, but usually overcharged at about 70%.
One price, no matter when I buy the ticket. Like going to cinema, or traveling by bus.
The airline has no disadvantage if I don't fly one leg, on the contrary the plane is lighter and consumes less fuel. Accusing the customer of fraud is absurd.
The airline has no disadvantage if I don't fly one leg, on the contrary the plane is lighter and consumes less fuel. Accusing the customer of fraud is absurd.[/quote]
ChristianPEC (ChristianPrivateEconomyClass) - You miss the point. Airlines offer discounted flights if you do NOT fly direct. This is to help fill seats which keeps overall prices down. Flying on BA AMS-LHR-BKK-LHR-AMS is much cheaper than LHR-BKK-LHR. This is because to get the Amsterdam to BKK business, BA have to undercut both KLM and TG who can offer direct flights. If I want to take advantage of the discount, flying from London, I must first buy a return ticket (known as positioning flight) from LHR to AMS so I can then take advantage of the BA price from Amsterdam (which in premium classes would still be cheaper than LHR to BKK return). If I just bought a single to Amsterdam, and then on return leg did not fly back to AMS, I would be fiddling the system and BA would be justified in charging me accordingly for missing a leg.
It is important to note that long and short haul flying today is in many cases cheaper today than it was 30 years ago and much of this is because of the pricing models the airlines have adopted to fill their aircraft. Without this, you might find you were flying on half empty aircraft and paying double the price.
ChristianPEC, where I do agree with you is on the issue of abolishing surcharges. This is an iniquitous practice and should be outlawed so that full ticket price is just the base prices plus government taxes
Of course, everyone understands the airlines' reasoning. They want to make more profit.
It's just that this method of making more profit happens to not be *ethical*.
There are other ways.... For example, offer discounted fares to residents of a certain country and require a government ID to receive the discount.
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This system is already in place in countries like Cambodia where airlines runs special fare promotions for Khmer ID card carriers with fares at 50% or less of the fare available to non Khmer customers.There are other ways.... For example, offer discounted fares to residents of a certain country and require a government ID to receive the discount.
Cheers
Should I start holding my breath?
Last time I looked a number of airlines already charge half-price for one-way fares - SQ for example, QF and JQ - at least on routes they have in common - even for their cheapest classes of fares. TG only makes one of the more expensive classes of fare available for one-way
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