Let me tell you a story. I’ll call it A Tale of Two “Mistake” Fares.
Award Expert focuses on the effective utilization of frequent flyer miles and credit card points, but sometimes it just makes sense to purchase revenue tickets.
Earlier this year, a long-time client wished to treat her nephew and his fiancé to their honeymoon flights. She reached out to me to look. Mileage rates were horrible, but I found a cheap paid business class ticket out of Toronto on Alitalia.
It was late on a Sunday night and I booked the departure date on the wrong day, one day too late. Since this was a ticket originating in Canada, there was no 24-hour courtesy cancellation period. I called Alitalia the following day to see if they would make an exception. The ticket price was identical the day before.
The agent flatly refused. In fact, in typical Alitalia fashion she was rude and almost seemed to delight in the fact that I had made an honest mistake.
It would have been one thing to call a week later, but I called 12 hours later. No mercy. The agent insisted upon 450CAD per ticket to make the change. I called back and other agents insisted upon the same price. A rule is a rule, they said.
So I paid it. What could I do? 900CAD to move a date by one day seven months in advance when the ticket price was actually identical and the carrier might not even be around.
That made me very jaded.
Then I booked this Ethiopian Airlines ticket. $763 for business class. My credit card was charged the full amount immediately. The reservation sat intact for weeks. Then all of a sudden I received an email from Ethiopian telling me the fare was a mistake. I’m left with three undesirable choices: pay the “current” price, refund my ticket, or fly in economy class.
Unequal Playing Field
So let me get this straight. I make a careless, but innocent mistake, catch it almost immediately, and an airline refuses to help out and I’m out 900CAD. But when an airline (allegedly) makes a careless but innocent mistake, fails to catch it immediately, and tells me weeks later my ticket is invalid, that is okay?
It just is not right.
Feel free to criticize for me “kicking Ethiopian while they were down” but I dispute that a $763 business class ticket is analogous to a $0 fare. In any case, my moral culpability is not the primary issue: as long as airlines can get away with unilaterally canceling fares weeks after ticketing, they have a tremendous unfair bargaining advantage over consumers.
Part of the reason I am fighting for this Ethiopian fare is to raise awareness over this asinine unequal playing field.
I’m jaded when it comes to so-called “mistake fares”, but for good reason.
Hi Matthew,
I get your frustration.
As for mistake fares, If I buy one, I tend to fly straight away. Looking forward to seeing if you show up in BKK for your flight.
The fare paid can be seen as a sale. When I see how cheap you can find flights leaving countries like Egypt or Sri lanka. The fare paid to YYZ does not struck me as a mistake in the first place.
Cheers.
Thomas
100% agree with you! Unequal playing field.
Well said.
Hi Matthew. I’m a journalist (with full press credentials, mind you) and I’ve been closely following your saga. This is a truly fascinating story, albeit not as entertaining as Hollywood tabloids. I’d like to report on your story in one of the national outlets. I’ll be reaching out. This is Margaret Gray.
“A Little Bird Told Me” is one of my favorite columns!
How are Frank and Jason?
I agree 100%. We need a uniform set of passenger rights in the US. The actual casue of every signficant delay should be disclosed. No more telling us a 2 hour delay is Äir Traffic Control” when its really something the carrier is responsible for. We need to be compensated for airline mistakes like missed connections thta are caused by the carriers. They cant find a seat for you for days? They must be required to buy a ticket on ANY carrier to deliver the transportation you paid for. Paid extra for an aisle seat? Get what you paid for or get a refund
I’m with you 100%. Mistakes are a two way street
I tend to agree with you, but good luck in the current political climate. Until the US Congress changes significantly, we will have the ‘laissezest’ of laissez-faire capitalism. Heads the airline wins, tails you lose.
Well said
I agree with you for Ethiopian, but not for Alitalia. I understand it was late at night but if this was done for a client, at least double check the date! 😉
Also, would it have been possible for your clients to leave one day later? That would have saved you $950CAD and time/stress.
I don’t think Matthew’s point is that he’s entitled to anything for the Alitalia mistake, it’s to point out how the airlines like to talk out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to errors. When you make a careless mistake, you’re expected to pay whatever change fees and fare differences apply in the situation. But when THEY make a careless mistake by misfiling a fare, we’re just supposed to turn the other cheek and allow them to back out of the deal with no compensation, even if they don’t figure it out until weeks later. It’s a classic “heads I win, tails you lose” scenario, and I agree that the airlines shouldn’t be allowed to get away with that.
Perfectly said. This is exactly my point.
Just in case some may argue that it’s not the same airline in each scenario, I’d like to point out that AZ had sellers remorse on more then once occasions as well.
Who would know it’s a mistake? I don’t think anyone would pay $736 to fly Ethiopian, regardless. If anything, they overcharged you! 😉
Ho ho ho, ha ha heh heh, good at that indeed. I agree. I might – might- consider flying Ethiopian if they offered to pay me! Like 500,000 for a 30 minute flight. No, not interested. Pay the money to fly a ‘normal’ carrier. Heck, even LOT would be preferable or Aeroflot!
Consumer protection needed ! Look at what happened on United Airlines, crew violently removed passengers with valid tickets…the outcome, huge PR damages at a greater expense compared to offering a couple of free tickets as motivation to encourage passenger to accept the mistake created by the airline to overbook flights to enhance profits (insane that that’s legal)
You’re not jaded. The system is stacked in their favor. I am so happy the DoT has the power it does, or the airlines would never be kept in check.