Rules changing on airfare errors

The airlines may not have to honor tickets sold at cheap prices posted by mistake.

You know those airfares posted in error that are so insanely cheap you know there has to have been a mistake? U.S. carriers no longer have to honor those fares, the U.S. Department of Transportation says.

Airfare price mistakes aren’t uncommon, and with the prevalence of social media, consumers find out quickly and book them. Case in point: In 2013, Delta Air Lines’ website had a $6.90 round-trip fare to Hawaii. The airline honored it.

Whether airlines have any recourse with these fares has been the topic of regulatory discussion at the Department of Transportation. In April 2011, the DOT ruled that airlines and other entities that sell airfares could not increase the price of a fare after it had been bought. That included fares that were posted in error.

The DOT calls those “mistaken fares” and defines themas offers by an airline or other seller of air transportation to sell tickets for air transportation for a fare that is usually substantially lower than the intended ticket price for the class of service being sold.

InJune2012, the DOT said that if a consumer purchases a fare and “receives confirmation of the purchase and the purchase appears on the consumer’s credit-card statement and/or online account summary, then there has been a purchase, whether or not it was a mistaken fare and the post-purchase price prohibition… applies.”

Google “mistake fares” and you’ll find tales of $7 flights to Hawaii or $125 to Italy from the East Coast. The DOT rule required that they be honored.

But that probably will change.

One concern, said Rick Seaney, chief executive of FareCompare.com, is who decides what a mistake is.

“Here’s the biggest problem,” Seaney said. “Guess who’s the judge and who’s the jury? The airline.”

In February, United Airlines had $51 first-class tickets on transatlantic flights posted on its Danish booking site.

The airline told USA Today at the time: “United is voiding the bookings of several thousand individuals who were attempting to take advantage of an error a thirdparty software provider made when it applied an incorrect currency exchange rate, despite United having properly filed its fares.”

Now the DOT’s Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings says it “will not enforce the requirement for airlines to honor mistaken fares provided the airline demonstrates that the fare was a mistake and reimburses the out-of-pocket expenses of consumers who purchased the mistaken fare.”

This is a temporary ruling that will remainin effect until a final ruling is issued.

But Seaney also thinks that language on out-ofpocket expenses may be too broad.

If you bought a $50 mistaken fare from Los Angeles to New York, then splurged and booked a nonrefundable hotel for $700 because your airfare bargain made that affordable, would the airline then have to reimburse you for that?

On the other hand, “people know when they buy that ticket it’s an iffy proposition,” Seaney said. If the airline decides not to honor the fare, “I just think it’s crazy airlines get to be judge and jury and the recourse is pretty oner-ous on the consumer as far as time and effort it represents” to fight what may be amurky legal battle.