Lufthansa sues passenger for not taking last leg of flight

[Demovictory9]

A method commonly used by airline passengers to get cheaper fares is at the center of a court row between a German airline and one of its customers.

Lufthansa has taken a passenger, who didn't show up for the last leg of his ticketed journey, to court in an apparent bid to clamp down on "hidden city" ticketing.

The practice involves passengers leaving their journey at a layover point, instead of making a final connection.


For instance, someone flying from New York to San Francisco could book a cheaper trip from New York to Lake Tahoe with a layover in San Francisco and get off there, without bothering to take the last leg of the flight.

According to a court document, an unnamed male passenger booked a return flight from Oslo to Seattle, which had a layover in Frankfurt. The passenger used all legs of the outbound flight, but did not catch the Frankfurt to Oslo return flight. He instead flew on a separate Lufthansa reservation from Frankfurt to Berlin.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/lufthansa-sues-passenger-scli-intl/index.html

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. What's really sad is that back in my day

when I was an airline ticket agent (1969-1979) we were encouraged to find such fares and use them. Only that kind of a fare was actually, and more accurately, called "point beyond" because you wrote the fare to a point beyond the city the person would actually be ending their trip in. Plus, we didn't write the ticket itself for that point beyond city. Nor did we book a flight to the point beyond city.

"Hidden city" was where you broke the fare somewhere the passenger wasn't actually stopping, if the sum of those two fares was less than the through or direct fare. That was actually less common, because many point-to-point fares would total more than the through fare. But it was still done.

It makes be a bit crazy that the wrong terminology is being used. It's sort of like calling something a speeding ticket when you were really charged with running a red light.

Oh, and a direct flight is one that does not involve a change of planes, no matter how many stops it makes on the way. A nonstop flight is a special case of a direct flight, but a direct flight may not be nonstop.

[912gdm]

5. I bet you remember change of gauge in flifo

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. Change of gauge?

Ummm, no. Unless you are teasing me about railroad gauge, in which case, I'll say yes, of course!

[912gdm]

8. Oh, ops...lol

I remember it from training in the mid90's... say its a direct flight, but they change planes on the layover city <people have to deplane and go to another gate> but the flight number stays the same... I never saw it used, but I thought it was interesting enough to remember

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. If you change planes it's not a direct flight.

Any airline that pulled that stunt was being dishonest.

I suppose something like what you're describing might have been listed as change of equipment, especially if a different kind of airplane was on each segment. But it's still dishonest.

[TuxedoKat]

13. I remember seeing that a few times

As well back in the 80’s. Equipment change seemed to usually be from a smaller plane on the first leg to a larger plane on the second, flying into a larger city.

[DFW]

14. Man do I EVER remember those days!!

I had a travel agent in Boston, where I was based for a years, and she was a genius at hidden cities. She got me these crazy trips before I was over here more than 50% of the time.

I got a first class trip one time that went something like Boston to Stockholm via Brussels, then to Düsseldorf to Zürich to Paris to Düsseldorf to Hamburg to Tokyo to Cologne to London to Düsseldorf to Zürich and back to Boston. The whole thing cost less than the listed round trip coach fare from Boston to Tokyo. The routing included places like Prague and Baghdad, even though there were no stops there. The main thing to avoid was having any side round trips, since that bumped up the fare considerably. Luckily, the airports in Düsseldorf and Cologne are so close, I could fly into one and out the other and avoid making a round trip.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

17. Those tickets could be fun to construct,

if you had the time to do so.

we also had a copy of the Rules Tariff at the counter, which included the actual route maps of all the routings airlines used for fare construction.

I actually read through the entire Rules Tariff three different times during the 10 years I worked at DCA, and it was the best thing I ever did for myself on the job.

[DFW]

21. Before I went out into the world

DCA was MY airport. Not the big modern facility it is now, but the grungy little local airport that all DC types flew in and out of. No long haul flights possible due to the short runways. This was WAY before Alaska Airlines started running those long haul 737s with extra fuel capacity to get their 737s to Seattle nonstop. For long haul flights, it was either up to New York, or drive out to Friendship (later BWI, later Thurgood Marshall). I was there when JFK gave the speech at the opening of Dulles Airport in 1963. He was way far away from where I was standing, but at least I got to see him once. My dad introduced me to the brother of the man that Dulles Airport was named after. I had no idea at the time that he was head of the CIA, but at age 11, I barely knew what the CIA was in the first place.

[TheBlackAdder]

22. Oh, man. Back in the days of that AA Sabre System.

.



.

[napi21]

2. I understand why the airline was upset because they flew that last leg of the flight with an empty

seat, but I don't see how the airline can sue a passenger for not taking the flight. I know US airlines don't hesitate to close the doors and leave the gate on time even IF they know one or several passengers are late!

[unitedwethrive]

3. I agree...they had an empty seat, but it was paid for. You'd think that would be the only issue.

Heck, would they sue someone who missed their flight all together?

[Blue_true]

6. Since the guy booked the other flight on the same airline.

They have evidence that he or someone saying he was him was in the terminal.

Once I was late for a flight. The plane was actually held up for me. Fortunately I was only around 4-5 minutes late. As soon as I got inside the plane, the door was closed. A passenger that should be on a flight, but does not make it or is late opens up all types of headaches for an airline, especially if it is a connecting flight like mine was and my luggage was on the plane, for all they knew, I could have been a terrorist that had gotten a bomb onto the plane.

[wcmagumba]

4. The airline saved money on fuel too...

by not carrying that passenger's and his baggage combined weight...
maybe not much but certainly some amount and if the seat was
already paid for...they came out ahead...

[aikoaiko]

9. The response of suing for this strikes me as uniquely German.

Germans can get freaked out about people not following rules.

[DFW]

15. Very true

It is one of the few countries where every city has its own "Ordnungsamt," or "agency for order."

[madaboutharry]

10. I think this case should be thrown out.

I think people have the right to use their ticket any way they chose. The airlines bring this kind of creative ticket use on themselves by ripping off the public with shitty service and unfair pricing.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. last time I ever flew NW was when THEY dropped my connection flight.

Just plopped me down in Memphis and "so sorry, we are not going to provide that connecting flight you paid for, sure hope your job interview goes well if you don't miss it."

Yeah, rental car drive for 200 miles to make the interview.
got the job.
but never ever forgot the airline.
And this was late 1980's when airlines were still faking customer service.

[DFW]

16. I have no sympathy for the airlines, especially Lufthansa

They look for ways to grab fees and other fees, and then still more fees to supplement their income. They raise fares when the price of fuel goes up, but do not lower them when the price of fuel goes down (I realize that some securing of oil prices on the futures market influences this to some degree). Lufthansa is especially uncaring (in my experience) when someone misses a connection because of the airline's messing up. They once got me 90 minutes late into Frankfurt from Düsseldorf (on a 35 minute commuter flight!), and I missed the Lufthansa flight to Dallas. They said tough luck, the next flight is tomorrow, fuck off. I HAD to be in Dallas than day. I called American (when it was still an airline and not a punishment for past sins), and they did the paperwork with Lufthansa (endorsement of the ticket), and got me on their nonstop to Dallas with my luggage (!!!). I avoided Lufthansa's overseas service for about 15 years after that, and since Air France discovered that customer service was a better policy than none, I have been taking them ever since.

My younger daughter, who is now a hotshot international attorney based out of Frankfurt, racked up enough miles with Lufthansa in the first two years of her job to gain their top status, and said they have improved. Apparently, they can still be pretty unpleasant.

[spinbaby]

18. Airline pricing is completely irrational

I regularly fly to Tokyo from Pittsburgh with a layover in Detroit. It costs $300 less than flying directly from Detroit. It also costs about $300 round trip from Pittsburgh to Detroit were you to do that flight separately. It goes something like this:

Pittsburgh<—>Detroit <—> Tokyo =$1600
Detroit <—> Tokyo = $1900
Pittsburgh <—> Detroit = $300

[MineralMan]

19. Back in the 80s, I flew an entire year, but only paid for one flight.

I booked a flight that was certain to be overbooked, and was the first person at the gate desk to volunteer to be bumped. In exchange I'd get a voucher for a future flight, and be booked on a different plane for my original flight, a bit later. I worked that voucher thing over and over again by booking other flights that would be overbooked and getting another voucher.

So, I only paid for my very first flight that year, and freeloaded the rest of the year on vouchers. It only worked that one year, though, and only on a major airline with lots of flights available. I guess the airlines figured it all out. The only disadvantage was the time spent in airports after volunteering to be bumped. Still, there are nice restaurants in many airports, and there's all that people-watching. I didn't mind. I was flying free.

These days, good luck in using an airline voucher to book anything. "Sorry, we have no available seats on that flight."

[SidDithers]

20. Why would it cost less to fly...

New York - San Francisco - Lake Tahoe

than for

New York - San Francisco


That doesn't make any freakin' sense.

Sid

[Blue_Tires]

23. Further discussion

https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1415401