

I'll take "Sticking it to United" for $49 - dangoldin
http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/blog/2011/3/18/ill-take-sticking-it-to-united-for-49-cc-unitedairlines.html

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jrockway
Airlines do not sell seats. They sell "inventory" which is not particularly
correlated to seat availability.

The most likely scenario is that someone will miss the flight before this
guys' and that person will now be able to get on this flight as a standby
passenger. The OP is just screwing himself out of $49 because he doesn't know
how airlines manage inventory.

~~~
bonzoesc
What's more likely is that either the seat will be empty if the flight was not
full, or if it was full, one more person will make it to their destination on
time.

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nostrademons
This is a known issue with United's pricing system, and something you should
be aware with when you buy from them. It's bitten me a couple of times, both
in cases where a family member had just died or was about to die, and so I'm
not inclined to be charitable.

Most recently, I had an issue where I was scheduled to fly home for
Thanksgiving, but my father's condition worsened suddenly a week before then
(he'd been in the hospital for about a month before) and the nurses informed
me he wasn't going to make it until then. I looked into moving up my flight by
a week - it was significantly more expensive than just buying a new ticket. I
also looked into buying a one-way ticket: it was also more expensive than
buying a roundtrip with a random end date. So I just bought a completely new
round-trip ticket, ate the cost of the old one, and didn't show up for it.

Fine, whatever, I had the money and didn't feel like fighting. But maybe this
is why I frequently end up with an empty seat next to me on United, even when
the plane is supposedly booked solid. (Hey, I'm also fine with that, but it
seems like from a purely business perspective, the airline would want to sell
that seat to somebody else...)

It's interesting to contrast this with Southwest, which will give you a credit
for the cost of the flight if you reschedule anytime within the next year.
Southwest in general does a very good job of minimizing perverse incentives on
the part of passengers and flight attendants, and their bottom line seems to
reflect that.

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jarin
In reality, since airlines love to overbook flights, they probably sold it
anyway.

~~~
brk
True, which is why he should also complete his check-in online so that it
looks like he is confirmed on thhe flight, at least until the last 10 minutes
when they realize he is a no show.

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jedbrown
I recently wanted a Zurich -> San Francisco -> Buenos Aires -> Zurich ticket.
This was either not possible or unreasonably priced so I ended up with two
independent tickets, one for the Zurich -> SF round trip and another with a SF
-> BA round trip. Well the BA -> SF return stopped in NYC one day and SF ->
Zurich stopped there the next day and I didn't see much point flying across
the country on consecutive days, so I tried to cancel those legs of my ticket
(buying the ticket without these superfluous legs would have cost $2000 more
than what I bought). Cancelling the first cross-country flight was going to
cost around $200 so instead I just walked out of the airport in NYC after
clearing customs.

I tried to cancel the second, but Continental told me that I couldn't cancel
part of the trip and would have to rebook with no credit from my existing
ticket (a 1-way NYC -> ZRH would be $2700, compare to a round trip at $600).
Fortunately, the NYC -> ZRH leg was operated by Lufthansa which apparently
doesn't talk very closely with Continental because they didn't blink an eye
when I showed up at the airport after "missing" the Continental flight from
SF. Had Continental been operating the last leg, they would have turned me
away and I'd have been stuck buying a new ticket, but still better off than
formally cancelling because of not paying the cancellation fee.

I had hoped that ubiquitous online travel indexing would bring some sanity to
the airline pricing model, but this does not seem to be happening. I fail to
see how having ticketed passengers that don't plan to fly, financially
rewarding passengers for being deceptive about which flights they will board,
and incentivising mixed-carrier tickets for the flexibility they lend is
helpful to their bottom line.

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pkulak
You bought a non-refundable ticket. Be happy they are even giving you $49.

~~~
corin_
Exactly, if you buy "a non-refundable ticket" you can't complain even if they
don't refund _any_ of it.

~~~
erikpukinskis
This is not an airline user forum. It's an entrepreneurship forum. The point
is not to discuss his rights and opportunities as a consumer. The point is to
learn something about customer service and the business tradeoffs of different
refund policies.

~~~
corin_
That's not what the author was doing though. He could have written suggesting
how they ought to improve their business, but no, he wrote complaining about
how they had done exactly what he knew they would do when he bought the
ticket.

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light3
Isn't he dismissing the risk that the airline won't be able to sell the ticket
within the next 48 hours? The potential for the airline to make $400 is there,
but the expected revenue is below that.

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mikey_p
Careful, since who knows what rule of back to back/throwaway ticketing you
could be breaking by buying a ticket and not flying. The airlines probably
would claim that this is illegal.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_booking_ploys>

~~~
jarin
What are they gonna do, arrest you and force you to get on the flight?

~~~
brianr
Probably not, but they still have some leverage... from wikipedia: "airlines
may respond by confiscating tickets, cancelling frequent flier status and
billing travel agents for the fare difference."

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there
_I won't be showing up for my Sunday night flight, and this blog post is
costing you up to $450 in revenues, while only costing me $49_

no, it cost you $199.

~~~
ohwaitnvm
No. The initial cost is a sunk cost that he has paid regardless of whether or
not he takes the flight. He's already certain that he's not taking the flight,
so he has only the options: [ ] Get Refund [x] Attempt to make a point

The first pays out $49; the second $0. The opportunity cost of the second in
relation to the first is $49, not $199.

The questionable part of that is the $450 he claims to be costing the airline.

~~~
notahacker
The opportunity cost faced by the blogger is entirely irrelevant to United
though. They've gained a real $199 in revenue from him which is all their
records will show; he's sacrificing a potential $49 rebate to convince himself
he's depriving them of a hypothetical $450 from a most-likely-nonexistant last
minute customer.

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kovar
Y'all are missing another part of his value proposition - he spends, or fails
to get back, $49 and in return gets something to blog about and a lot of hits.

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asanwal
Think there is a phrase for this -- "cutting off my nose to spite my face".

Sure, airlines are evil, but they're not this dumb about optimization of
Revenue per Available Seat Mile. I'd guess this seat got filled just fine.

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aidenn0
I said this on their thread, but I'll share it here too.

United treat's you like crap if you aren't a frequent flier.

United treat's you pretty reasonably if you are.

If you assume that the vast-majority of non-frequent fliers book solely on
price, then you should skimp as much on customer service as possible, and
throw no amenities (e.g. food, checked baggage) in at the base ticket price.

All of the sudden what the big airlines are doing seems rational.

~~~
kenjackson
_If you assume that the vast-majority of non-frequent fliers book solely on
price_

Is that a fair assumption? I know a lot of non-frequent fliers who only fly
SouthWest or Singapore, etc... These places seem to do well and have good
reputations. And for people that don't travel as much, confidence in the
airline often means something.

I don't actually know the data, but I wouldn't be surprised if United fared
really poorly among those who don't fly often. I don't fly much, but I know
enough to avoid them and Continental like the plague.

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alanh
I don’t mind the downvotes -- I have to share this tangentially relevant bit
because it’s so great: United Breaks Guitars
<http://www.davecarrollmusic.com/ubg/>. Another example of customer hostility
ending up costing the company.

Fantastic blog post, by the way.

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gleb
He can do what he wants to do for free.

See "same day standby" and "confirmed standby":
[http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-mileage-
plus/955496-un...](http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-mileage-
plus/955496-united-standby-policy.html)

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StatusStalker
What about adding the traveler's insurance for an extra $50-$100 and getting
80% of your trip refunded?

