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From: dsn@rochester.UUCP (Dana S. Nau)
Newsgroups: net.consumers,net.legal
Subject: Airline rate wierdness
Message-ID: <13445@rochester.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 23-Nov-85 17:35:22 EST
Article-I.D.: rocheste.13445
Posted: Sat Nov 23 17:35:22 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Nov-85 21:17:31 EST
Reply-To: dsn@rochester.UUCP (Dana S. Nau)
Distribution: na
Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept.
Lines: 65


Airline rates are so complicated that even the airline agents are getting
confused.  When I tried to change an airline booking, the result was the
complicated mess described below.  My original booking was:

  WED (via Airline A):  Rochester --> Atlanta (change planes) --> Miami
  FRI (via Airline B):  Miami --> Baltimore (change planes) --> Rochester

Total cost:  $347.

Several days before the trip I decided I wanted to change the booking to

  WED (via Airline A):  same flights as before
  FRI (via Airline B):  same flight as before from Miami to Baltimore
  SAT (via Airline B):  Baltimore --> Rochester

I called Airline B, and was told I couldn't change the booking without
paying an extra $120.  Supposedly this was because my return trip had been
at a special fare of $198, and there were no tickets left at this fare.  Not
wishing to pay this much, I didn't change my booking.

Friday in Miami, I discovered that Airline B's normal fares were

	Miami --> Baltimore on Friday:        $130
	Baltimore --> Rochester on Saturday:   $39
	------------------------------------------
	total:                                $169

Note that this is $29 *less* than the $198 fare, not $120 more.

I called Airline B again, pointed out this information to the woman who
answered, and proposed that one option would be for me to buy an additional
one-way ticket from Baltimore to Rochester and discard the corresponding
part of my original ticket, at a cost of $39 rather than $120.  She said she
thought that was illegal, but that she would check with her manager.

She returned a few minutes later, and said that in fact it WAS possible for
me to change my booking and get the $169 fare, rather than having to pay an
additional $120.  She changed my booking, and told me that I would get a $29
refund when I picked up the ticket at the airport.

At the Miami airport, the ticket agent said that according to the fine print
on my ticket, my original return-trip fare had been $149, not $198--and
therefore instead of deserving a refund, I owed the airline $20.  At my
request, he left to check with the woman I had talked to on the phone.

Ten minutes later--and with my plane due to leave in less than 15 minutes--I
asked another agent to bring the first agent back so that I could get my
ticket and leave.  He hadn't been able to get through to the person I had
talked to earlier, but being anxious not to miss my plane, I paid the extra
$20.

TWO QUESTIONS:

(1) Would it really have been illegal for me to buy an additional ticket and
then discard part of my original one without asking for a refund?  If so,
then why?  Why should I be obligated to use all of the original ticket, as
long as I don't ask them to refund the part I don't use?

(2) I left out the airline names because I suspect Airline B did no worse
(and perhaps better!)  than most other airlines would have done.  Has anyone
else had similar experiences?
-- 
	Dana S. Nau (dsn@rochester)
	from U. of Maryland, on sabbatical at U. of Rochester