United Airlines Sues 22-Year-Old Whiz Kid For ‘Unfair Competition’

Competition in the aviation world is becoming steep, and two companies just aren’t happy about it.

According to Fox 31 Denver, United Airlines and Orbitz are suing a 22-year-old whiz kid who has created a site to help passengers find cheap seats. The civil lawsuit was filed in November against Aktarer Zaman, creator of Skiplagged.com. Basically, Skiplagged helps you find flights where your real destination is actually consider a layover. For example, if you want to travel from New York to Tennessee, you would book a flight that had Tennessee as a layover, and just never get on the second flight to, say, Florida.  Of course you wouldn’t be able to check any bags, as you know, they would end up at the final destination of the itinerary. But it’s definitely a clever little way to save some money.

But unfortunately, that’s the problem. United Airlines and Orbitz claim this is “unfair competition” and that Zaman’s site is promoting “strictly prohibited travel.” They are suing for $75,000, but there might not be a case. Zaman claims he hasn’t made any money off the website and that he isn’t doing anything illegal. “[Hidden city ticketing] have been around for a while, it just hasn’t been very accessible to consumers,” Zaman told Fox.

As of right now, Skiplagged is on hiatus. Of course, if Zaman is forced to shutdown his site permanently, the whole notion of hidden city ticketing will likely go rampant. Someone will create another travel website identical to Skiplagged, and reap the benefits. After all, Orbitz isn’t the only website that helps you find cheap hotels and flights, right? Right.

We think there’s room for everyone, but hey, we might be a little bias because we’re just looking for the best deals. Head over to Fox 31 Denver for more information.

Do you think Skiplagged stands a chance?