Airlines are upset about playing games with their customers, specially when they’re not always succeeding sucking more money from a passenger. Lufthansa German Airline is no exception. How much sense does it make to fly from A to C via B and pay 25% less than flying from A to B? Many airlines make big calculating their tariffs exactly like this.
The aviation business knows such a scenario as hidden city fares. Kayak calls it “hacker fares,” but in reality, airlines try to extort their customers. Hidden cities are against any common sense logic. Now Lufthansa is getting upset at their passengers for using the hidden city reality to save money.
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For example, a one-way ticket from Cairo via Frankfurt to San Francisco is $670 on Lufthansa, flying from Frankfurt alone is more than $2500. A ticket from Honolulu via Chicago with a stop allowed to Winnipeg costs 30% less than a ticket to Chicago alone.
German airline Lufthansa is now taking passengers to court if they took advantage of the hidden city ticketing trick.
A Lufthansa customer was supposed to fly from Seattle to Frankfurt and then to Oslo – but he failed to show for his Frankfurt to Oslo flight. Instead, he flew to Berlin on a separate ticket saving himself €2,112. The airline wants the passenger to recompense them for the “tariff abuse.”
Most airlines have experienced hidden city ticketing on their flights, however, according to reports, Lufthansa is taking a stand because the airlines claim it’s hit harder than most other airlines by the practice. Going to court in Germany is becoming a practice abused by many.
In November a Spanish court ruled that Iberia passengers could not be punished for hidden city ticketing.
