On Wednesday Febuary 11th United Airlines’ Danish website was selling first class and business class transatlantic flights for less than $110 return. 

At the root of the problem, says United, was a “an error a third-party software provider made when it applied an incorrect exchange rate”.

we believe this is a violation of 14 CFR 399.88(a), making this an unfair and

deceptive trade practice in violation of 49 U.S.C. 41712. we would like this
ticket reinstated.

As we understand it, United has two arguments: first, that this was an error by a third-party vendor; and, second, that Section 399.88 only applies to price increases, not cancelations.

As to the first argument, whether a United employee made the mistake or whether a third-party vendor made the mistake should be irrelevant. United has made the decision to outsource certain parts of its website operations. we assuming that was an economic decision; they should not be able to take advantage of that outsourcing when the third-party vendor makes a mistake any more than they should be able to blame an employee for a mistake on the website.

As to the second argument, United has canceled the ticket, but advised that we are welcome to re-purchase the ticket at a much higher fare. That is essentially the same as a price increase after ticketing, in violation of the spirit and letter of the regulation. The FAQ issued by the DOT make it clear that website mistakes are not relevant to the discussion, so the only way that United can argue that they have not violated this section is to argue that they have not increased the price post-ticketing. To accept this argument is to allow any carrier to get away with increasing consumer prices post-ticketing by merely canceling the ticket and telling the consumer to buy at the higher price.