United Airlines SUES tech wizard, 22, who set up website showing customers how to exploit booking system to get cheap flights
- Aktarer Zaman, 22, from New York City founded Skiplagged.com last year
- The website uses a technique described as 'hidden city' ticketing
- Directs customers to book their final destination as a stop-over instead
- The strategy, the center of the lawsuit, is said to produce cheaper tickets
- United Airlines and Orbitz Travel say it creates 'unfair competition'
A tech wizard who set up a website helping people get cheap flight tickets is being sued by an airline.
Aktarer Zaman, 22, from New York City founded Skiplagged.com last year which used the technique described as 'hidden city' ticketing.
Now he is subject to a lawsuit by United Airlines and Orbitz Travel whom claim the strategy creates 'unfair competition', and are asking for $75,000 in damages.
Aktarer Zaman, 22, from New York City founded Skiplagged.com last year which used the technique described as 'hidden city' ticketing
The site has a method which means customers can get lower fares by booking their final destination as a stop-over.
For example if you wanted to fly from New York to Charleston, South Carolina, you would instead book a ticket to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and choose Charleston as the stopover.
The strategy is only successful if you book a one-way ticket with no bags.
It does not work for every single desired journey, but has the desired end result the majority of the time.
Zaman, who was born in Bangladesh but grew up in Brooklyn, told CNN that he was expecting the lawsuit, but insists there is nothing illegal about his website and says he is just exposing an 'inefficiency' in the pricing system.
He told the site: '[Hidden city ticketing] has been around for a while, it just hasn't been very accessible to consumers.'
Zaman is currently working at a tech start-up and says Skiplagged is simply a 'side project'.
Robert Mann, president of R.W. Mann & Company, an airline consulting firm in Port Washington, N.Y, told the station travellers will still use similar techniques even if the site is shut down.
Michael Boyd, President of Boyd Group International, said he worked for American Airlines as a ticket agent 30 years ago and was trained to look out for 'hidden city' ticket sales.
The site has a method which means customers could get lower fares by booking your final destination as a stop-over
United Airlines and Orbitz Travel claim the strategy creates 'unfair competition', and are asking for $75,000 in damages (file picture)
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