Fat Finger Flight Stalkers

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the preying-on-the-mistakes dept

Last month, when US Airways decided to honor obviously wrong flight prices it was just the latest in a long line of typo-based flight bookings. The big difference, though, is that these days, there are people who specifically search out such typos and even have alert services to let you know when you can rip off an airline thanks to an accidental typo. While the courts have made it clear that airlines don’t have to honor obvious mistakes, it seems like the growing trend is for them to do so anyways, to avoid the bad publicity. Perhaps they just need better systems to recognize obviously out-of-bounds pricing before it goes live.