As a regular flyer, I find this fascinating. Lufthansa is trying to sue a guy for not using all of the ticket he'd bought.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/16/hidden-city-travel-discount-loophole-airlines-crack-down-lawsuit-skiplaggedEssentially, a man flew Oslo to Seattle via Frankfurt, on a Lufthansa return ticket. On his way back, he stopped at Frankfurt, and didn't get on the plane back to Oslo, which apparently saved him a couple of thousand dollars over the price of the Oslo-Frankfurt-Seattle-Frankfurt ticket that the airline would have preferred he buy.
They are arguing that he cost them that money in lost revenue. He is presumably arguing that they would have been quite happy to take him the whole distance for the fare he paid, so if anything he saved them some money in food & fuel.
I totally understand why Lufthansa wants to close this sort of loophole, but I can't help feeling the way to do that is via clearer more rational pricing structures, rather than through a court case that will cost them thousands, and that they will probably lose, which will only encourage more of us to use this sort of trick to get cheaper flights.
Comments