Courtney Jorstad  |  January 23, 2015

Category: Consumer News

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United Airlines class action lawsuitUnited Airlines, Inc. was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging that the airline does not honor its “Low Fare Guarantee” promise of airfare for tickets sold on its website when tickets are purchased as a group.

“Specifically, Defendant represents and guarantees that its united.com website and toll-free phone service sells tickets for [United Airlines] flights at the lowest available fares,” plaintiff Scott Coulier of Illinois says in his United Airlines class action lawsuit filed Wednesday.

“The guarantee, however, is false and results in a breach of the purchase contract,” Coulier claims in the class action lawsuit, saying that he learned “that if he had purchased he and his family’s three tickets separately instead of together on united.com, the same tickets could have been purchased for a lower price.”

Coulier says that he purchased three tickets to fly United Airlines from Peoria International Airport in Illinois to Orlando Airport in Florida on March 1, 2014 for himself and two family members for $182.00 per ticket, which he bought in January 2014 after learning of United’s Low Fare Guarantee.

According to United’s Low Fare Guarantee, if a customer finds United airfare cheaper on another website or through another company, it will sell the same ticket for $10 less than that company and will give customers a $100 Electronic Travel Certificate.

“However, upon further review after the purchase, Mr. Coulier believes that he could have purchased the same tickets at a lower price from united.com if he purchased the three tickets separately instead of together,” the United Airlines class action lawsuit alleges.

“Despite the Low Fare Guarantee, [United] does not provide consumers purchasing airline tickets the lowest available fares for a particular date, flight, and class of service when multiple tickets are purchased at the same time for passengers traveling together on the same flight,” Coulier explains in his class action lawsuit.

This occurs, the United Airlines class action lawsuit says, because United doesn’t deplete “tickets that are available for the same flights in lower fare classes first and only charging the consumer for the limited and necessary number of remaining fares at higher fare classes.”

Instead, “the united.com system and corresponding toll-free phone system are systematically programmed to only disclose and sell all tickets at a higher fare class which will maintain a uniform price for all tickets purchased at that time,” the class action lawsuit alleges.

Because of this alleged practice, Coulier says that there are lower fare class tickets available at the time of purchase, which the customer is not told about so that United may sell the higher fare class tickets, and in the end, the customer does not receive the lowest possible price and is in fact overcharged for the airfare.

Coulier explains that United divides fares into different classes that are sold at different prices.

However, “if there are three ‘Q’ fares available for $200 each and six ‘U’ fares for $300 each, and a consumer wishes to purchase four ‘Q’ fares for $800, [United’s] computer system/website will perform an automatic bait-and-switch and only offer the consumer four ‘U’ fares for $1,200 instead of the three available ‘Q’ fares and a single ‘U’ fare resulting in a net surcharge of $300,’ the United Airlines class action lawsuit says.

The proposed class is for “all persons in the United States who purchased two or more airline tickets from united.com in a single transaction anytime during the Class Period,” which goes back to at least four years.

The United class action lawsuit is charging the airline with beach of contract.

Coulier is represented by Jeffrey S. Edwards, Scott Medlock and Sean Flammer of  The Edwards Law Firm, Christopher P. Ridout and Caleb Marker of Ridout Lyton & Ottoson LLP and Hart L. Robinovitch of Zimmerman Reed LLP.

Counsel information for United is not yet available.

The United Airlines Class Action Lawsuit is Scott Coulier v. United Airlines Inc., Case No. 4:15-cv-00190, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

UPDATE: The United Airlines class action lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice on May 21, 2015.

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One thought on Class Action: United Airlines Does Not Offer Lowest Fare

  1. Top Class Actions says:

    UPDATE: The United Airlines class action lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice on May 21, 2015.

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