Globe Merchant Travel Blog

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — A young computer whiz from New York City has launched a site to help people buy cheap plane tickets. But an airline company and its travel partner want to shut him down.

United Airlines and Orbitz filed a civil lawsuit last month against 22-year-old Aktarer Zaman, who founded the website Skiplagged.com last year.

The site helps travelers find cheap flights by using a strategy called “hidden city” ticketing.

The idea is that you buy an airline ticket that has a layover at your actual destination. Say you want to fly from New York to San Francisco — you actually book a flight from New York to Lake Tahoe with a layover in San Francisco and get off there, without bothering to take the last leg of the flight.

This travel strategy only works if you book a one-way flight with no checked bags (they would have landed in Lake Tahoe).

It’s not like these tickets are the cheapest all the time, but they often are.

In the lawsuit, United and Orbitz call Skiplagged “unfair competition” and allege that it is promoting “strictly prohibited” travel. They want to recoup $75,000 in lost revenue from Zaman.

Zaman said he knew a lawsuit was inevitable but he points out that there’s nothing illegal about his web site.

He also said he has made no profit via the website and that all he’s done is help travelers get the best prices by exposing an “inefficiency,” in airline prices that insiders have known about for decades.

“[Hidden city ticketing] have been around for a while, it just hasn’t been very accessible to consumers,” Zaman told CNNMoney.

Indeed, “hidden city,” ticketing is no secret among frequent fliers, said Michael Boyd, President of Boyd Group International, an aviation consulting firm in Evergreen, Co. Boyd worked as an American Airline ticket agent 30 years ago, and says he was trained at the airline to help customers find “hidden city” fares.

“I don’t think it’s illegal what he’s doing,” Boyd said. But lawsuits are expensive and it could end up costing the young entrepreneur who has irked the two billion dollar corporations.

Airlines usually offer cheaper fares for some destinations that are not regional hubs, Boyd said. Many of these flights are routed through more popular destinations. But if a lot of people take advantage of that discrepancy it could hurt the airlines, which is why they want to shut him down.

Born in Bangladesh, Zaman grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science at age 20 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He lives in Manhattan and works at a technology start-up that he declined to name.

Zaman said Skiplagged is just a “side project.”

Zaman and United declined to discuss the lawsuit. Orbitz said in a statement that it is obligated to uphold airline fare rules.

Other travel experts say that the airlines may not achieve much if Zaman’s site is shut down, especially in a world where information is becoming more readily available.

“If [Skiplagged is] shut down, undoubtedly there will be other people to come along to scrape fares and make them available,” said Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Company, an airline consulting firm in Port Washington, N.Y.

http://foxct.com/2014/12/29/united-airlines-sues-a-22-year-old/

Summer travel to Ireland – seats still available!
Sample fares are roundtrip. Travel between July 1-31.
New York to Dublin from $999*
New York to Shannon from $999*
Boston to Dublin from $1,079*
Boston to Shannon from $1,099*
Chicago to Dublin from $1,145*
San Francisco to Dublin from $1,439*

Restrictions apply. Book by April 30.
Best value summer fares to Britain & Europe

Sample fares are roundtrip. Travel June 1-15.
Madrid from $1,079*
Paris from $1,087*
Rome from $1,099*
London from $1,180*
Best value summer fares to Britain & Europe

Sample fares are roundtrip. Travel June 1-15.
Madrid from $1,079*
Paris from $1,087*
Rome from $1,099*
London from $1,180*
click here

Weekly deals to go for NEXT weekend
from Raleigh / Durham, NC
Prices shown are round-trip, including taxes and carrier-imposed fees; conditions apply. Prices are subject to availability for travel on American or American Eagle.

To:
New York LaGuardia, NY (LGA) $206*

Check out these other great fares for travel NEXT weekend:
From: To:
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) Wichita, KS (ICT) $113*
New York LaGuardia, NY (LGA) Detroit, MI (DTW) $173*
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) Charleston, WV (CRW) $183*
Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX (DFW) West Palm Beach, FL (PBI) $186*
Miami, FL (MIA) Houston Bush Intercont’l, TX (IAH) $187*
Miami, FL (MIA) Tallahassee, FL (TLH) $189*
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) Fresno, CA (FAT) $189*
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) Oklahoma City, OK (OKC) $232*
Los Angeles, CA (LAX) Indianapolis, IN (IND) $258*

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Madrid r/t from $854
Malaga r/t from $796
Seville r/t from $1.078

Flights from Boston to:
Barcelona r/t from $869
Tenerife r/t from $898
Palma de Mallorca r/t from $900
Vigo r/t from $901
Valencia r/t from $903
La Coruña r/t from $998
Jerez de la Frontera r/t from $1,039
Alicante r/t from $1,043 $
Flights from Miami to:
Tenerife r/t from $943
Vigo r/t from $946
La Coruña r/t from $946
Bilbao r/t from $948
Valencia r/t from $948
Barcelona r/t from $965
Palma de Mallorca r/t from $978
Santiago de Compostela r/t from $1,302

Click here for more info

Flights to Ireland Fares below for travel April 1 through May 31, 2014.

New York to Shannon
round trip from $649*

New York to Dublin
round trip from $699*

Boston to Dublin, Shannon
round trip from $749*

Chicago to Dublin
round trip from $849*

San Francisco to Dublin
round trip from $999*

Fares below for travel June 1-15, 2014.

New York to Dublin, Shannon
round trip from $699*

Boston to Dublin, Shannon
round trip from $769*

Chicago to Dublin
round trip from $849*

Fares below for travel June 16-30, 2014.

New York to Shannon
round trip from $799*

New York to Dublin
round trip from $829*

Boston to Dublin
round trip from $889*

Fares below for travel July 1 through August 22, 2014.

New York to Shannon
round trip from $969*

New York to Dublin
round trip from $999*

Boston to Shannon
round trip from $1,099*

Boston to Dublin
round trip from $1,119*

Chicago to Dublin
round trip from $1,199*

San Francisco to Dublin
round trip from $1,499*

Fares below for travel August 23-31, 2014.

Chicago to Dublin
round trip from $969*

Flights to Britain Fares below for travel April 1 through June 15, 2014.

New York to Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow
round trip from $969*

New York to London, Manchester
round trip from $979*

Boston to Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Manchester
round trip from $929*

Chicago to Glasgow
round trip from $959*

Chicago to Birmingham, Edinburgh
round trip from $969*

Chicago to London
round trip from $979*

Chicago to Manchester
round trip from $999*

San Francisco to Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle
round trip from $1,099*

San Francisco to Isle of Man, London, Manchester
round trip from $1,199*

Flights to Europe Fares below for travel April 1 through June 15, 2014.

Chicago to Paris
round trip from $949*

New York to Amsterdam
round trip from $959*

New York to Barcelona, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Rome
round trip from $999*

Boston to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Madrid
round trip from $999*

Chicago to Amsterdam, Brussels, Düsseldorf
round trip from $999*

Boston to Paris
round trip from $1,080*

New York to Malaga
round trip from $1,090*

Boston to Rome
round trip from $1,108*

New York to Berlin
round trip from $1,122*

Boston to Berlin
round trip from $1,122*

New York to Munich
round trip from $1,138*

San Francisco to Brussels
round trip from $1,249*

San Francisco to Amsterdam, Paris
round trip from $1,299*

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Paris flights
r/t incld taxes & carrier surcharges
New York – Paris $1,072*
Chicago – Paris $1,124*
Miami – Paris $1,131*
Washington – Paris $1,171*
Houston – Paris $1,173*
Boston – Paris $1,175*
Detroit – Paris $1,201*
Atlanta – Paris $1,231*
San Francisco – Paris $1,243*
Los Angeles – Paris $1,243*
Other samples
r/t incld taxes & carrier surcharges
New York – Istanbul $814*
Boston – Barcelona $856*
New York – Madrid $940*
Washington – Prague $1,049*
Los Angeles – Berlin $1,130*
Washington – Nice $1,162*
Houston – Venice $1,179*
New York – Rome $1,189*
San Francisco – Athens $1,204*
Chicago – Vienna $1,222*

Click here for more info