The U.S. Department of Transportation says it has "begun looking into" United Airlines' mistake fares from last week.
United blamed the mis-priced fares -- as little as $51 for overseas first-class tickets -- on a currency exchange glitch that affected sales via its Denmark website.
United halted the sale of those tickets several hours after the glitch began, but acknowledged that "several thousand" were bought at the mistaken fare levels. United said later Wednesday that it would void those tickets.
Recently enacted consumer protection rules by the Department of Transportation require airlines to honor all sales, including those that may have been mistakenly priced.
It's not clear how much wiggle room there is for United in this latest incident, which the carrier blamed on a third-party vendor's mistake that involved currency conversion. In a statement from last week, United noted that it had "properly filed its fares," perhaps suggesting that the carrier should not be held responsible for a mistake it didn't make -- even if that mistake affected its website. On that note, Gary Leff of the popular View from the Wing frequent-flier blog notes that the mistake "wasn't a United-specific glitch, but United.com was the most common place to buy these tickets."
Furthermore, customers had to set Denmark as their home country to take advantage of the glitch. Many customers outside Denmark did that in an attempt to snag the low fares. That could work in United's favor, says one aviation attorney.
"It's true that DOT rules require airlines to honor a fare once a flight is booked and the passenger is confirmed," Anita Mosner, aviation attorney with the D.C. firm Holland & Knight, tells Bloomberg News. "However, DOT has had a longstanding policy of permitting carriers to cancel bookings when there has been evidence of passengers' manipulation or misrepresentations during booking, or misstating their status."
For now, the DOT has issued the following statement:
The Department of Transportation is aware of an issue involving mistaken fares on United Airlines' Danish-facing website. The Department's Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings has begun looking into this matter, including speaking to United and reviewing consumer complaints. That Office will gather all the relevant facts before making a determination as to whether United is or is not required to honor the mistaken faresThe U.S. Department of Transportation says it has "begun looking into" United Airlines' mistake fares from last week.