Slashdot Mirror
United and Orbitz Sue 22-Year-Old Programmer For Compiling Public Info
linuxwrangler writes: Aktarer Zaman, a young computer scientist, started a "side project" called Skiplagged to compile a relatively well-known method of finding inexpensive airfares. "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." But organizing fully public information into a user-friendly form has gotten him sued by United and Orbitz. They accuse his not-for-profit site of "unfair competition" and of promoting "strictly prohibited" travel.
Nonetheless, the 22 year old founder cannot weather the legal storm that the duo of billion dollar corporations can wage out of petty cash.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
In Soviet USA you get sued for competing, rewarded for mono/duo-poly.
That wouldn't work, unless they all do it at the same time.
If only we had some sort of, I dunno, Civil Aeronautics Board that could keep these insolvent assclowns in check.
Yes, fares have technically dropped since deregulation - The GAO found they went down a whopping 9%. Meanwhile, the overall experience of flying has gone from "fun" to "buy two seats if you don't like having 10x the risk of developing a DVT, and enjoy your complimentary three peanuts".
Here in the USA it's all about screwing the traveller.
If this was true, why are the airlines constantly teetering on the edge of bankruptcy with razor-thin margins? They should be rolling in cash, and they're not. Why? Because air travel is hugely competitive and a great deal for the flying public.
If this was true, why are the airlines constantly teetering on the edge of bankruptcy with razor-thin margins?
Maybe their core business is lobbying the government for handouts and subsidies, and they're actually really incompetent at running airlines?
How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean.
they're actually really incompetent at running airlines?
They're *all* incompetent? United? American? Virgin America? Delta? Southwest? JetBlue? Alaska? Spirit? Frontier? Hawaiian? Allegiant? Every single one of them, moving millions of people every week, they're all incompetent at running airlines?
Sorry, I don't buy it.