False Advertising - United Airlines

[tornado alley]

Can anybody give me some guidance about how best to report / stop the underhand sales tactics being employed by United Airlines and their advertised but non-existent airfares? I'm hoping there is an official regulator in the airline sector? Or even a good press contact who will name and shame United for these tactics.

Ideally I'd like to be able to claim some kind of compensation from United also as in the past week I've suffered loss due to reliance on their published airfares for a specific route, having passed up on other good options on other airlines on the natural assumption that what United Airlines were offering would be delivered. Now I've had to book elsewhere and prices have gone up.

A bit of background info for you:

United Airlines own websites (.com and .co.uk) offered numerous fares for an exact round trip, entered by me into their online booking system, starting at around 834 GBP. These fares also filtered through to various third party websites / aggregators such as expedia.com / kayak.co.uk etc. etc.

Upon trying to book any one of these flights, when you try to pay for them you're suddenly taken through to a page stating "sorry, but the price originally quoted for your selected itinerary is not available due to a change in fare availability or processing error"… and then inviting you to pay almost double the advertised fare

"So what" you may ask… I just missed the cut-off for the advertised fare, right?

WRONG.

United Airlines continue to advertise the lower fares. For nine days and counting. But every day, when you try to book, the price jumps up to 1400-1500 GBP.

The third party websites such as Expedia and Kayak appear to have been hooked in by the cheap airfares also, only to then be kicked out at purchase stage once United decide they want near enough double the price to complete the transaction.

So far I've spoken to a useless United call centre somewhere overseas and been fobbed off. I've also received two replies from customer services by email which have only succeeded in enraging me by stating:

"fares change quickly based on market demands, giving you an advantage when you submit payment immediately and have your ticket issued."

Trying to pay immediately is what I've tried to do on numerous occasions! United are still offering fictitious airfares nine days later! And this from an airline that claims on it's booking page "Lowest fares are at unitedairlines.co.uk - guaranteed!". Sorry, don't these lowest airfares actually have to exist?!

I've saved numerous screen shots and web pages over the past week on this as evidence of the ongoing game being played by United. Ultimately I've ended up paying 1201 GBP elsewhere for a fare offered to me by United at 834 GBP, having passed up options to book with other airlines for far less than 1201 GBP.

Any guidance on how best to attack these sharks of the skies would be appreciated!

[AndyRylance]

Trading standards in the UK are the ones that will take this up. Companies have to be able to prove that you can book the fare advertised and trading standards will not accept excuses that the fare has "gone" if they see that happening all the time. Yes of course some fares advertised will be snapped up, but if you show them the pattern occuring they can take action.

 

Ideally you want to try to book on a third party supplier's website not with United. If this continues happening say at Expedia, once they are notified they can then take action directly with United as it will look very bad on Expedia or other third party websites to have just one airline doing the dirty on them. If I was of the mind I would look on every third party website and try to book the fare I wanted then phone up the third party website and ask to put a complaint in. Once lots of complaints started heading United's way they might get the message. Alternative try to book in a travel agent and talk face to face with someone.

 

The best solution is just not to use them, but that doesn't solve the problem....

 

Cheers, Andy

[Armsoft]

Can anybody give me some guidance about how best to report / stop the underhand sales tactics being employed by United Airlines and their advertised but non-existent airfares? I'm hoping there is an official regulator in the airline sector? Or even a good press contact who will name and shame United for these tactics.

 

Ideally I'd like to be able to claim some kind of compensation from United also as in the past week I've suffered loss due to reliance on their published airfares for a specific route, having passed up on other good options on other airlines on the natural assumption that what United Airlines were offering would be delivered. Now I've had to book elsewhere and prices have gone up.

 

A bit of background info for you:

United Airlines own websites (.com and .co.uk) offered numerous fares for an exact round trip, entered by me into their online booking system, starting at around 834 GBP. These fares also filtered through to various third party websites / aggregators such as expedia.com / kayak.co.uk etc. etc.

Upon trying to book any one of these flights, when you try to pay for them you're suddenly taken through to a page stating "sorry, but the price originally quoted for your selected itinerary is not available due to a change in fare availability or processing error"… and then inviting you to pay almost double the advertised fare

"So what" you may ask… I just missed the cut-off for the advertised fare, right?

WRONG.

United Airlines continue to advertise the lower fares. For nine days and counting. But every day, when you try to book, the price jumps up to 1400-1500 GBP.

The third party websites such as Expedia and Kayak appear to have been hooked in by the cheap airfares also, only to then be kicked out at purchase stage once United decide they want near enough double the price to complete the transaction.

 

So far I've spoken to a useless United call centre somewhere overseas and been fobbed off. I've also received two replies from customer services by email which have only succeeded in enraging me by stating:

"fares change quickly based on market demands, giving you an advantage when you submit payment immediately and have your ticket issued."

 

Trying to pay immediately is what I've tried to do on numerous occasions! United are still offering fictitious airfares nine days later! And this from an airline that claims on it's booking page "Lowest fares are at unitedairlines.co.uk - guaranteed!". Sorry, don't these lowest airfares actually have to exist?!

 

I've saved numerous screen shots and web pages over the past week on this as evidence of the ongoing game being played by United. Ultimately I've ended up paying 1201 GBP elsewhere for a fare offered to me by United at 834 GBP, having passed up options to book with other airlines for far less than 1201 GBP.

 

Any guidance on how best to attack these sharks of the skies would be appreciated!

 

The issue of the supposed `Non Existent` air fares has been a long running one, and is not just exclusive to American Airlines, many complaints have gone in against many airlines (including British Airways) but their defnce when challenged is that they did have availability of the advertised price when they first advertised it, and the will have proof of that!

The number of seats that each airline has at the `Special` Price will be very limited, and I doubt that any of them ever get onto any 3rd party sites (the 3rd party sites have to make a profit on the seats they sell), so your best chance of getting one is always with the carrier.

 

If you really want to book flights and get the best deal, give AA a ring and try and book direct on the phone with them, talk to them about the problems you`ve experienced on their website, you may find that they will sort out a deal for you.