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Skiplagged sued by United and Orbitz

skiplagged.com

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Re: Skiplagged sued by United and Orbitz

#21

Post by jowiar »

hayksaakian wrote: post #5

This sounds absurd. This is the best analogy i've come up with: A Sandwich shop sells half sandwiches at 5$ and full sandwiches at 6$ You, and a friend would both like half a sandwich. Instead of ordering two separate halves. You order only 1 full sandwich and cut it in half yourself. Now the sandwich shop is suing you because you paid $6 for one sandwich, and only ate half of it. That's instead of paying 10$ for two…

The problem is that travel is a bit more complicated than sandwiches -- flight prices end up being set more by competition rather than cost of production. Let's say, per your model, you offering flights from SFO to PDX for $200, LAX to SFO for $100, and sell the LAX->PDX route for $250 (with a stopover in SFO). I decide to start an airline which doesn't fly to SFO, but offers direct flights from LAX->PDX for $190. You don't want to lose the business of people flying from LAX->PDX, but also don't want to alter your routes. Any thoughts?

Re: Skiplagged sued by United and Orbitz

#24

Post by kaonashi »

hayksaakian wrote: post #5

This sounds absurd. This is the best analogy i've come up with: A Sandwich shop sells half sandwiches at 5$ and full sandwiches at 6$ You, and a friend would both like half a sandwich. Instead of ordering two separate halves. You order only 1 full sandwich and cut it in half yourself. Now the sandwich shop is suing you because you paid $6 for one sandwich, and only ate half of it. That's instead of paying 10$ for two…

This should also be a healthy reminder that prices do not signal subjective value.

Re: Skiplagged sued by United and Orbitz

#26

Post by colordrops »

jowiar wrote: post #21
hayksaakian wrote: post #5

This sounds absurd. This is the best analogy i've come up with: A Sandwich shop sells half sandwiches at 5$ and full sandwiches at 6$ You, and a friend would both like half a sandwich. Instead of ordering two separate halves. You order only 1 full sandwich and cut it in half yourself. Now the sandwich shop is suing you because you paid $6 for one sandwich, and only ate half of it. That's instead of paying 10$ for two…

The problem is that travel is a bit more complicated than sandwiches -- flight prices end up being set more by competition rather than cost of production. Let's say, per your model, you offering flights from SFO to PDX for $200, LAX to SFO for $100, and sell the LAX->PDX route for $250 (with a stopover in SFO). I decide to start an airline which doesn't fly to SFO, but offers direct flights from LAX->PDX for $190. Yo…

You are right that air travel is more complicated than sandwiches, but does it matter? What law or contract has skiplagged broken? Bad business models are not fundamental rights.

Re: Skiplagged sued by United and Orbitz

#27

Post by butwhy »

rtpg wrote: post #22

Can someone explain the harm this causes the airlines? I get there's a bit of an opportunity cost because they'll have an empty seat, but apart from that? I feel there's something more here

You mean besides the fact that they will make less money off fares that people wouldn't have found if it was not for this site?

Re: Skiplagged sued by United and Orbitz

#28

Post by Avitas »

This type of purely nuisance punitive lawsuit should wind up biting both Orbitz and the airlines in the ass.

The crucial thing that this website owner must do is keep this story in the media. He will have to make himself available to various news outlets--sometimes on short notice. Of course, he will need to consult with his attorney.

Unless I'm missing something, as long as he can weather the delays, this appears to be a slam dunk.

Re: Skiplagged sued by United and Orbitz

#29

Post by sjwright »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #17
Dylan16807 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh it's certainly their right to set the prices, but I wouldn't automatically say it's their right to dictate which tickets you use post-purchase.

I wonder. Do you sign any agreement that prohibits hidden city routing when you buy the ticket? If so, on an ethical level, it's not the same as the sandwich buying scenario, where you are not signing any additional agreement. I wonder what I would do if I were the airline. Obviously the simplest thing would be to suspend the return ticket, but I suppose that the return ticket would typically be booked on a different…

Do you sign any agreement that prohibits only eating one half of a sandwich? Would any such agreement be reasonable if buried in a dense online ordering click-wrap?

Re: Skiplagged sued by United and Orbitz

#30

Post by benguild »

butwhy wrote: post #27
rtpg wrote: post #22

Can someone explain the harm this causes the airlines? I get there's a bit of an opportunity cost because they'll have an empty seat, but apart from that? I feel there's something more here

You mean besides the fact that they will make less money off fares that people wouldn't have found if it was not for this site?

It seems like they use the higher fares to the middle destination to compensate for the higher costs per person of the less popular leg.

It's all a complicated algorithm but they have to provide reasonably reliable flights to all of the destinations that they serve in case someone gets bumped. (or they'll have to pay out huge fines to each passenger.)

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