FORT WORTH — Witnesses for American Airlines testified Tuesday about the ways the fare hack commonly known as “skiplagging” can harm both the carrier and its customers.
The testimony came on the second day of American’s federal, multimillion-dollar trademark-violation lawsuit against Skiplagged Inc., a New York-based company that is a leading online promoter of the practice.
Skiplagging, also known as hidden city ticketing, lets travelers, under some conditions, save money by booking a flight with a layover in their intended destination where they plan to exit at the layover airport and skip the remaining connecting flight or flights.
Hidden city ticketing may work when it works; but when it doesn’t, it causes problems for customers, who in turn sometimes take out their frustrations on American, according to testimony before a jury in the court of U.S, District Judge Mark T. Pittman.
The trial in American’s suit against Skiplagged is expected to take about a week.
Neil Geurin, American’s managing director of airline retailing, testified about some ways hidden city bookings can backfire on consumers. For example, he said, a customer booking through Skiplagged might buy a ticket ostensibly to Orlando with the intention of getting off at an intermediary stop, such as Charlotte; then, if there were inclement weather in Florida (like now), that passenger might be assigned to a different or redirected flight which does not stop in Charlotte, thereby thwarting the passenger’s intention of finding a cheap fare to his or her true intended destination.
Or, Geurin testified, a passenger might think he or she could carry on luggage and get off at an intermediate stop, only learn to learn at the last minute that the carry-on bag had to be checked through to the ticket’s final destination — perhaps because all overhead bins were filled — so the ticket purchaser, who intended to get off at the intermediate, “hidden city” destination, would find his or her luggage headed on to a final destination other than where the passenger disembarked.
Or, Guerin testified, a passenger booking a hidden city trip to an international destination with a layover at an airport in the United States — the passenger’s true intended destination — might not realize that he or she had to produce a passport before boarding. And so that passenger, sans passport, could be denied permission to board.
Guerin was questioned by Kelly Hart’s Dee J. Kelly Jr. and briefly cross-examined by Aaron Tobin of Condon Tobin Sladek Thornton Nerenberg.
Marcial Lapp, an American Airlines vice president, testified that numerous complaints to American about snafus involving tickets purchased through Skiplagged mistakenly asserted that Skiplagged was an authorized agent for the airline.
Lapp was questioned by Greenberg Traurig’s Bina Palnitkar, while defense counsel reserved cross.
Including Kelly and Palnitkar, American Airlines is represented by Lars L. Berg of Kelly Hart in Fort Worth and R. Paul Yetter of Yetter Coleman in Houston.
Including Tobin, the lawyers for Skiplagged include William L. Kirkman of Fort Worth and Darin M. Klemchuk of Dallas.
The case number in the Northern District of Texas is 4:23-cv-00860.