In a move that will disappoint anyone who leapt onto the too good to be true offer of cheap first class tickets that had to be booked from London and paid for in Danish Kroner, the US Department of Transport (US DOT) has ruled on the matter.
United Airlines Boeing 777-200ER landing at Heathrow – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
And your chances of getting those super-cheap tickets are none.
Quoting the US Department of Transport:
After a careful review of the matter, including the thousands of submissions from consumers and information from United, the Enforcement Office has decided that it will not take action against United for not honoring the tickets.The mistaken fares appeared on a website that was not marketed to consumers in the United States. In order to purchase a ticket, individuals had to go to United’s Denmark website which had fares listed in Danish Krone throughout the purchasing process. In addition, only people who identified “Denmark” as their location/country where billing statements are received when entering billing information at the completion of the purchase process were able to complete their purchase at the mistaken fare levels. Consistent with the Office’s treatment of fare advertisements and disclosure of baggage fees, it does not intend to enforce the rule in question (the post – purchase price increase prohibition) when the fare offer is not marketed to consumers in the United States
Additionally, the Office is concerned that to obtain the fare, some purchasers had to manipulate the search process on the website in order to force the conversion error to Danish Krone by misrepresenting their billing address country as Denmark when, in fact, Denmark was not their billing address country. This evidence of bad faith by the large majority of purchasers contributed to the Enforcement Office’s decision
- The ticket wasn’t marketed to US Customers
- Bad faith in selecting purchasing in Danish Kroner
- Bad faith in selecting the billing address that misrepresented as Denmark – not their normal billing country.
Not a pretty picture. But for those of you who held tickets – the US DOT won’t be supporting this fare error this time.
And, it’s only taken them 2 weeks to come to a conclusion – one thing at least so people know where they stand.
I’m honestly not surprised that the US DOT has ruled this way – and judging how it was manipulated for those who took a punt and lost this round, I’m sure there will be plenty of other times you can win.
But wanting that $81 First Class Fare across the Atlantic. Not going to happen this time I’m afraid.
Of course, I’m sure there are plenty of lawyers and people who can bankroll them who’d like to disagree with the US DOT.
Let the games continue.
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I have to agree with the U.S. DOT’s ruling. Play ‘fare’ or don’t play.