Another reason to fly Southwest - they don't care if you do this. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. > The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/07/financia > l0911EDT0039.DTL > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Wednesday, April 7, 2004 (AP) > The tickets airlines don't want you to buy > SCOTT MCCARTNEY, The Wall Street Journal > > > (04-07) 06:11 PDT (AP) -- > You go duck hunting in Louisiana with Vice President Dick Cheney, and you > fly down from Washington in a government plane. But your commercial flight > back home is expensive -- currently about $698 -- because it's a one-way > ticket. What to do? > Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently disclosed that he did what > most of us would probably do: He bought a cheaper, round-trip ticket -- > with no intention to use the return leg. Airlines consider that fraud, but > it didn't stop Justice Scalia: "We purchased (because they were the least > expensive) round-trip tickets that cost precisely what we would have paid > if we had gone both down and back on commercial flights," he wrote in a > memo. (The 21-page memo explains why he didn't recuse himself from a case > before the Supreme Court that involves the vice president.) > The round-trip ticket, which today costs $218, may have seemed a > Solomon-like solution to any ethical issue raised by accepting a free ride > with the vice president. > But airlines call it breach of contract. In fact, it's an emerging legal > battleground: Currently, there's a federal class-action lawsuit pending > against several airlines related to ticketing rules. > Carriers write their elaborate rules to defend their incongruous fares, > and sometimes go to great lengths to enforce them. They dun travel > agencies for issuing tickets that aren't "properly" used. They sometimes > demand higher fares from travelers caught dodging the rules. And at the > height of a crackdown in the late 1990s, airlines even seized some > travelers' frequent-flier miles, saying they were fraudulently obtained. > But if a Supreme Court justice can skirt irrational rules -- after all, > how can one flight be three times more expensive than two flights? -- why > can't you? > Travel experts say you can. For one thing, it's not illegal. People > engaging in these practices are breaking airline rules, but not breaking > any law -- unless they lie about what they are doing. (More on that > later.) Also, airlines aren't likely to track down first-time offenders, > especially since they need all the customers they can get and aren't > selling many top-dollar, unrestricted tickets anyway. > "It's not a practice we encourage, but there's little we can do about it," > says Jason Schechter, a spokesman for UAL Corp.'s United Airlines. > One of the airlines' favorite targets is the practice known as a "hidden > city" itinerary. That's when travelers bound for a hub city book a trip to > a cheaper destination, but end their travel at the hub. Heading home to > Detroit from New York? Northwest's unrestricted one-way fare from New York > to Detroit is $559, and its unrestricted fare from New York to Akron, > Ohio, is $221. The Akron ticket means a stop in Detroit, on the same > flight for which Northwest wants to charge more than twice the price. Book > the Akron trip and just get off the plane in Detroit. > Some travelers use a variation known as "back-to-back" ticketing. Their > strategy is to avoid an expensive midweek business round-trip fare by > buying two cheap round-trip, Saturday-night stay tickets, and using only > one coupon from each. Every big airline except Southwest Airlines bans the > practice. (Southwest's rules allow it, and also hidden-city ticketing.) > On the high-fare carriers, the savings can be huge. The current > unrestricted fare between New York and Houston on Continental Airlines is > $1,972 round-trip. But someone who plans two weeks in advance can save a > bundle buying two $232 discounted round-trips -- one from New York to > Houston, and throwing away the return, and one from Houston to New York, > and tossing that return, too. Savings: $1,508. > It's tougher for airlines to know this is going on if the tickets are > booked without a frequent-flier number. Or if the two round-trips are > booked with different credit cards or on different airlines (though most > airlines still prohibit that because it's still back-to-back ticketing). > Airlines say ticketing tricks are actually less frequent these days than > even two years ago because low-fare carriers have forced them to cut > prices and erase a lot of restrictions. "There are better deals out > there," said one pricing executive at a major airline, who asked that his > carrier not be identified. > Still, travelers are pushing the issue. There's a federal class-action > lawsuit pending in the Eastern District of Michigan accusing Northwest > Airlines, Delta Air Lines and others of violating antitrust laws by > conspiring to fix rules against hidden-city ticketing. Travelers were > injured to the tune of at least $4 billion because prices were > "artificially inflated by defendants' illegal and anticompetitive > conduct," the suit alleges. Airlines have denied the allegations in the > suit, and fought it vigorously. > Courts have held so far that airlines do have the right to set their own > rules. They used to be printed, in fine type, on booklets stuffed into > ticket jackets, but in this age of ticketless travel, now you usually have > to go to airline Web sites to look for a "contract of carriage." Breaking > the rules could constitute breach of contract, and airlines could possibly > sue travelers for price differences. That's highly unlikely. > But where travelers have gotten into legal trouble in the past is by lying > about their intentions when asked after the fact. "Lying to the airlines > in order to get the cheap fare would be fraud, but silence coupled with a > purchase cannot be fraud," says Mark Pestronk, a Fairfax, Va., attorney > who specializes in travel law. "It's perfectly OK to take advantage of > loopholes in tariff rules as long as you're not actively engaged in lying > about it." > In February, for instance, Katun Corp., a Minnesota seller of office > equipment, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud and agreed to pay $11 > million in fines and restitution. The U.S. attorney in Minnesota charged > that the company routinely booked cheap tickets in 1994 to 2000, then used > "fraudulent manipulation of various airlines' reservations and ticketing > systems" to change return dates without incurring a penalty. When gate > agents detected discrepancies, Katun employees lied about the reason for > the earlier return, the U.S. attorney's office said. > If caught, airlines can demand higher fees if you haven't yet completed > your travel. If they catch you after the fact, however, they are stuck, > Mr. Pestronk says. If they tried to charge your credit card, you could > protest the charge, and card companies would likely side with consumers > since the charge wasn't authorized. > And now, if we do get caught, we have Justice Scalia to point to as an > example. (A Supreme Court spokesman says he has no further comment on the > ticket.) > The answer for big airlines is not to find more ways to enforce bad > policy, but to fix pricing rules so they make more sense. If they don't, > discount carriers will do it for them. After all, had Justice Scalia been > concerned about his ticket maneuver, he could have saved even more money > -- and done so while fully obeying airline rules -- by buying a $109 > discounted one-way ticket on Southwest Airlines from New Orleans to > Baltimore. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Copyright 2004 AP