I received a tip yesterday on how to trick United’s website with some browser jumps into selling you a ticket anywhere for nearly free. I recreated the steps in just a couple minutes and was able to confirm a flight by only paying for the taxes and fees. I immediately cancelled the reservation with no intention to take the trip.
United picked up on this one fast and is reportedly not honoring these tickets.
It is interesting to note the criteria they used to distinguish this event from the recent glitch that was honored a few weeks ago. The previous glitch of free tickets was reportedly honored because of human error while this round is not honored due to system error.
The bottom line
While exciting at the moment, I am not a big fan of excessive mistake fares. Information Technology is a big challenge for most organizations, especially airlines and I fear the cost of honoring excessive mistake fares has a damaging effect on what airlines offer us (pretty bad!) from a technology perspective.
About alex
Alex loves to travel and does so a lot. Logging 100,000 flight miles each year over the past 4 years, Alex uses points and miles to power his passion. Alex is continuously striving to experience the far reaches of the globe. In his day job, Alex is a Management Consultant frequently on the road advising Technology organizations. I love thinking about, reading about, and talking about all things travel. Feel free to reach me at pmmalex@gmail.com
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While you were able to get a reservation — you won’t be able to eTicket. This is an old glitch from the CO days (just poor programming) and SHARES is actually smart enough to hold this in queue.
Good on you for canceling (even though it sounds like that was your intent all along)
Good on United for canceling
This was not a glitch or mistake fare. This was pseudo-hacking of an Ecommerce website which translates to fraud! People can go to jail for this sort of activity.