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Path: utzoo!lsuc!msb
From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.consumers,net.legal
Subject: Re: Airline rate wierdness
Message-ID: <945@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 29-Nov-85 21:03:06 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.945
Posted: Fri Nov 29 21:03:06 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 29-Nov-85 22:05:16 EST
References: <13445@rochester.UUCP> <726@ihopb.UUCP>
Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Distribution: na
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 26
Xref: lsuc net.consumers:1896 net.legal:1435
Summary: Canadian example


A year or two ago there was some kind of cheap fare offered that included
travel from New York to Sydney with a change of plane in Toronto.
It was cheaper than any Toronto-Sydney fare, so travel agents here
in Toronto started selling these tickets for Toronto-Sydney passengers.

(For those in far parts of the distribution: Toronto is about 1+ hour by
air from New York, but about 12-15 hours from Sydney.)

The Canadian government *stomped* on the practice: "we never authorized
sale of such tickets, so you can't do it".  Travel agents were ordered
not to sell the fare.  When people found ways to get the tickets
from US sources, the government sent inspectors to Toronto airport to
check people's tickets for the relevant flights to Sydney.  If the
ticket showed this particular fare, the passenger was asked "Did you
in fact come from New York?" -- and if the answer was "No", the passenger
was barred from the journey.  If it was "Yes" and the appropriate page was
absent from the ticket, I understand they took your word for it.

Of course, air travel in Canada is just now beginning to undergo
deregulation, so this is irrelevant to the question of whether this
kind of thing is legal in the US, and I'm not even sure about here.
But I thought it might be of interest.

Mark Brader, Toronto, Canada
(Not a lawyer, despite posting from the Law Society machine.)