A Texas federal jury awarded American Airlines $9,4 million Tuesday from a travel website responsible for the controversial “skiplagging” hack of booking cheaper tickets to a connecting city and then dropping the subsequent flight on the way to a final destination.
Jurors deliberated for several hours after a five-day trial before U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth. They ordered New York-based Skiplagged to pay $4,7 million in restitution from the travel site’s revenues and another $4,7 million for copyright infringement. The jury declined to award any damages for trademark infringement, which was the main cause of action emphasized by American during the trial.
Fort Worth attorney William Kirkman later said his client was pleased he had not received any damages for the trademark claim.
American sued Skiplagged last year, alleging that it was taking advantage of the airline's good name by promoting the fares. American claimed the hack violated the airline's policies and risked customers having their tickets canceled.
American reportedly removed a 17-year-old from a flight last year and banned him for three years when he attempted to fly from Gainesville, Florida, to Charlotte, North Carolina, on a ticket with a final destination in New York City. The ticket was reportedly cheaper than booking a flight to Charlotte alone.
Also known as “hidden city” ticketing, skiplagging involves booking a ticket containing a connecting flight to a destination city, but the traveler leaves the airport on a layover in the connecting city and never boards the outbound flight. A traveler may be tempted to do this when a direct ticket to the connecting city is more expensive than a ticket with a one-way flight to a different final destination.
Skiplagging is not illegal, but airlines view it as a policy violation that is grounds for canceling the traveler's entire itinerary, as the airline cannot sell the empty seat on the next flight.
Paul Yetter, an attorney for American at Yetter Coleman in Houston, told jurors during opening statements that Skiplagged is not an authorized agent of the airline but “dresses up” its website with American’s trademarks to appear legitimate and mislead consumers into thinking they are buying from the airline.
Yetter told jurors that Skiplagged made more than $90 million by deceiving customers by using American's brand without permission, while American lost millions.
Defense attorneys told jurors how Skiplagged started as a free website that sought to provide more complete flight information and how founder Aktarer Zaman, 31, left his job as a software engineer at Amazon to focus on Skiplagged as it grew.
Traditional airlines that operate under a hub-and-spoke system will be susceptible to skiplagging due to the need for connecting flights for their business model. Low-cost airlines that operate under a more point-to-point system will be less exposed as they offer more direct flights.
With Court House News
Read also
