Airline Suing 22-Year-Old for Promoting ‘Stopover Trick’
Aktarer Zaman, a 22-year-old from New York City, launched a website last year that helps travelers save money on airfare.
Here’s the lesson his users are taught: Instead of booking a direct flight, book a cheaper flight with a stopover in the destination you want and simply ignore the second leg of the flight to save a bundle. He maps it out for you on Skiplagged.com.
In the Pix11 video below, 22-year-old Zaman said folks are saving up to $300 a ticket using his website. It’s not a new trick for frequent fliers but Zaman is bringing it to the mainstream. He told Fox News he does not make any money off his site. He just helps travelers get the best price. He calls the strategy “the stopover trick;’’ airlines call it “hidden cities ticketing’’ and “point beyond ticketing.’’
Whatever you call it, it’s ticking travel giants like United Airlines and Orbitz off.
Enter the lawsuit.
United Airlines and Orbitz are suing Zaman and Skiplagged for $75,000. United prohibits fliers from using such practices. In its Contract of Carriage, it states the following:
Fares apply for travel only between the points for which they are published. Tickets may not be purchased and used at fare(s) from an initial departure point on the Ticket which is before the Passenger’s actual point of origin of travel, or to a more distant point(s) than the Passenger’s actual destination being traveled even when the purchase and use of such Tickets would produce a lower fare.
Check out the lawsuit , which claims Zaman has used his website to “intentionally and maliciously interfere with Plaintiffs’ contracts and business relations in the airline industry, and in doing so, has falsely associated Skiplagged with Orbitz and United.’’
Aktarer Zaman’s website skiplagged.com has come under fire.
Zaman’s response? He started a GoFundMe page to help pay for his legal team. As of this writing, he’s raised $34,978.
On the GoFundMe page, Zaman calls his site a place where he exposes “pricing inefficiencies for air travel’’ and maintains that “everything Skiplagged has done and continues to do is legal.’’ He tells his supporters he’ll donate any extra money raised for his fight to charity.
Michael Boyd, president of Boyd Group International, an aviation consulting firm in Colorado, told Fox News he doesn’t think what Zaman is doing is illegal.
If you get caught using the stopover trick, airlines can ban you or remove your frequent flier miles, Pauline Frommer, of Frommer Guidebooks, told Pix11.
But folks are always looking to save money.
When Yahoo! Travel asked readers if “hidden city’’ ticketing should be prohibited, 95 percent of more than 13,000 respondents said no.
“Flying is getting more expensive. You can’t blame people for wanting to try to find a deal,’’ said Frommer.
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