[ChuckMcM]

I doubt United will prevail in there efforts. It's "Contract of Carriage"[1] rule 6, sub-section J is where they put in all the verbiage about how they think they should be able to penalize you for avoiding their fare structures. It is pretty bogus and I'd love to see it litigated, to do that you really would have to do this stuff enough to get them to take action against you citing that rule, and then (now that you have standing to sue) you would need to sue them. I would recommend setting this up early because their lawyers haven't yeat put in a mandatory mediation clause to this contract. When they do it will be harder.

Either way, I think they will lose. And when it becomes clear that they can't extract value this way from passengers it will cause ticket prices to change to more accurately reflect actual costs.

[1] Updated 9/27/18 with section 6.J --https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/contract-of-carriage.ht...

[otterley]

Attorney here! (Not providing legal advice, though.)

I agree that the Contract of Carriage is probably not the strongest basis by which United can demand recompense for abandoning a segment. Instead, I think they have a better chance of prevailing on a common-law fraud theory; see my explanation above.

[scrumper]

Lay person here.

Fraud is a criminal matter isn't it? Can United directly sue the passenger in civil court, or must they file a complaint with law enforcement and let a prosecutor handle it?

[otterley]

There’s civil fraud and criminal fraud, just like there’s wrongful death (civil) and murder (criminal). The difference is that there’s no imprisonment or other societal penalties for being liable under civil law - only money is involved.

[scrumper]

Thanks for that - appreciate the response.

[seaweedlegs]

Normally, I might agree with you, but an ever increasing number of judges seem predisposed to rule in favor of corporations.