

Stanford grad's site nets Southwest 'cease and desist' - cb33
http://paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=27292

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telecuda
I agree with taking him down in this case. A quick Google search would reveal
that it's been done before and taken down before.

Southwest goes above and beyond the industry norm for making air travel
painless (I fly them every week) and they have the right to keeping people
from gaming the system.

The best solution I've found is to set your calendar reminder for 24hrs before
your flight, with the confirmation number in the "Where" field, then quick
copy/paste into their smartphone app. Takes two seconds and always gets you on
the A-List. If that's too much work for you, pay them $10 for Early Bird.

This guy will make it more painful for the rest of us when they add CAPTCHAs.

~~~
bo1024
> _I agree with taking him down in this case. A quick Google search would
> reveal that it's been done before and taken down before._

Only for commercial sites, right?

Anyway, if he just distributed the source code, there'd be nothing to stop
people from running this on their own computers, I'd think.

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telecuda
I agree. And I don't think it poses a real problem if a very small percentage
do this. The problem is when instead of paying Southwest $10 for Early Bird a
large group uses this guy. I find it wonderful that I don't need to pay a
premium for an exit row or aisle seat, unlike other airlines. I'm openly
biased toward Southwest, but only because they've earned it.

~~~
dangoldin
And if too large of a group uses it then some will start paying the $10.

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benmanns
Previous discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4619059>

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nhangen
This is why I don't fly Southwest...I hate their first come first serve
policy. Essentially what this does is play smart and check you in early so you
get a good seat. I don't see how it's any different than setting an alert to
remind you to sign in and do it manually.

God forbid they lose the ridiculous $10 'upgrade' fee.

~~~
jblock
Except that it makes getting on the plane and seating yourself extremely
efficient, which saves Southwest money, which saves you money.

~~~
nhangen
It's actually not nearly as efficient as being able to select your seat when
you purchase your ticket.

~~~
jblock
[http://www.quora.com/Air-Travel/Why-is-airplane-boarding-
alw...](http://www.quora.com/Air-Travel/Why-is-airplane-boarding-always-a-mob-
scene/answer/Michele-Walk)

Disagree. That's outwardly more efficient, but it turns out that when we're
tasked with sorting and arranging ourselves, we do this whole boarding a plane
thing pretty efficiently (especially when we have a vague sense of our chances
of finding a convenient spot for our bags or a good seat).

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ari_
Here's a question. What if you build an app or site that is a wrap around for
cURL but that is used locally.. I.e. it's your machine or iPhone or Android
that actually makes the necessary URL calls to check in at exactly 24 hours
before check in? Does that violate ToS? Where do we draw the line?

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droithomme
Companies only show their incompetence by sending these letters.

You know what we do when spammers get through our filters, or people make
posts on our company discussion forum that contravenes our TOS? We hire dozens
of lawyers, file multiple lawsuits against them, and fight it in the courts to
the bitter end!!

No, that's not what we do.

We improve our spam filters.

When people find away around 'the system', we can either fix 'the system', or
change the expectations of what people will use 'the system' for. ('The
system' can be anything, it doesn't even have to be internet or contract
related.)

Suing people and hiring lawyers is what clueless people with technical and
social incompetence do because they are bullies.

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michaelhoffman
In this case, the letter seemed to achieve the desired aim just fine.

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salem
I guess this is ruining the airlines margins when you miss a flight and they
cancel your return flight while they are at it, and pocket all the fares.

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telecuda
If you miss your flight on Southwest they credit 100% of your money back -
even if it's your own fault for sleeping in.

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famousactress
Is that true? My experience is that you're both wrong. You retain what you
spent on the flight as credit w/ Southwest for future travel.

~~~
telecuda
What I meant by "100% credit" is 100% credited back into your SWA account -
not cash back - but that's still amazing by industry standards.

~~~
NoPiece
If you pay full fare on southwest ("anytime" fare) - they are refundable for
any reason. If you have a discount fare, they are 100% creditable. Southwest
is really great in the regard.

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bonzoesc
Welcome to the real world, kid. Mommy's not going to check you in anymore, and
if you've got a clever way to take advantage of a big company's systems in
spite of their policies, keep it on the down low.

