Travel firms sue creator of cheap airfare site

United is already one of the most hated companies in the country, they don't need to care.

That's exactly the type of thing I would contribute money to if I had any.

Has anyone found where to donate to this guy's legal fund? Seems like he wants to fight and I'm really curious how this plays out in court.

It's now at $19k and he just raised the goal to $25k.

if you don't ordinarily check luggage (like most people seem to do nowadays), all you have to do is buy two one way tickets. the only downside is that you'll get selected for extra screening more often.

How is this lawsuit worthy at all? I don't understand how his identifying this "price loophole" is anything other than "innovation". A lawsuit for "lost revenues" simply because a 3rd party found how to save people money seems ridiculous.

Airfares aren't priced on a cost-plus basis, they're priced based on what the markets will bear. For instance, MKE-BOS has no non-stop options, so lots of airlines compete for one-stop business funneling passengers through their hubs. This drives down prices.

Compare this to ORD-BOS, which only has a few non-stop options. Those non-stop carriers (United, American and JetBlue) can charge a premium compared to, say, Delta, which can only offer one-stop options.

Passengers in captive hubs looking at monopoly routes (Houston, Detroit, Atlanta) have it even worse when looking for non-stop routes.

So a traveler looking to buy ORD-BOS will see high prices on the non-stops. I frankly don't see the problem here—almost every product is priced based on what the market will bear rather than cost+margin.