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Lufthansa Sues Passenger Who Missed His Flight in an Apparent Bid To Clamp Down on 'Hidden City' Trick (cnn.com)
Airline Lufthansa has sued a passenger, who didn't show up for the last leg of his ticketed journey, in an apparent bid to clamp down on "hidden city" trick. From a report: The practice involves passengers leaving their journey at a layover point, instead of making a final connection. For instance, someone flying from New York to San Francisco could book a cheaper trip 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. According to a court document, an unnamed male passenger booked a return flight from Oslo to Seattle, which had a layover in Frankfurt. The passenger used all legs of the outbound flight, but did not catch the Frankfurt to Oslo return flight. He instead flew on a separate Lufthansa reservation from Frankfurt to Berlin. The report adds that a Berlin district court dismissed the case in December last year, but the airline company is now appealing that verdict. Worth noting here that United Airlines has also tried its luck on this front -- to no dice.
Do you also think that if you don't finish your meal the restaurant can sue you?
A lot of the buffets where I live have posted policies that they will charge extra fees if you are caught "wasting" food. Sushi buffets especially point out that if you take nigiri or rolls and don't eat the rice, that's considered "wasting". I don't know how often these policies are enforced, but they do exist.
With respect to airlines, a ticket is a service contract, not a tangible good. If the terms of the contract stipulate that the customer must make a good faith effort to actually travel the complete route, then intentionally skipping a leg of the journey is a violation of the contract. If you dislike the standard practices of the airlines, and the terms and conditions they attach to their tickets, perhaps find another way to travel? Regarding overbooking: do they disclose that practice when you purchase the ticket? If so, you pays your money you takes your chances. I bet there's a price point at which you can have the risk of being bumped removed.
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This. The Germans happen to like to intimidate people, it's a cultural trait of theirs. I mean, we shouldn't judge them for being Nazi.