Pricing mistakes are a growing headache for travel companies since consumers are increasingly able and willing use the Internet to quickly spot and snap up low prices. As a result, it is getting easier for them to take advantage of pricing slip-ups that happen often when prices are updated in real time before the company can correct the mistake . For instance, in less than a half-day, about 1,000 mispriced US Airways tickets were bought before the airline caught on.
Companies aren't always obligated to honor deals like these. Legal experts say that, under contract law, a buyer enters a deal with a seller as soon as a seller makes an offer and the buyer accepts it. However, if the offer really isn't to be believed -- in other words, if a reasonable person would recognize that it was clearly a mistake -- then a court could rule that there was no offer, and therefore no contract.
Still, in several recent cases, the companies went ahead and honored part or all of the deal, even though the prices were a mistake . This month, for instance, London's luxurious Lanesborough Hotel mistakenly sold rooms online for £35, or about $67, instead of £350. The Lanesborough, a Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. property, gave people who had booked one reservation each at the low rate , up to a three-night maximum -- but excluded perks like airport car transfers.
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While companies aren't necessarily obliged to honor deals if they are clearly a mistake , in the current climate of declining airfares and deep-discount pricing, it is possible that some judges in a court of law might uphold a consumer's claim to some rock-bottom deals, according to Elizabeth Warren, who specializes in contracts at Harvard Law School. A retailer "can say he's selling it all off -- and if the customer has reason to believe him, then the sale holds," she says.
Still, Michael Geist, a professor at the University of Ottawa focusing on Internet and electronic-commerce law, points to recent cases to show that most companies can get out of honoring errors by writing provisions into the fine print.
The Department of Transportation, which regulates airlines, says if the facts show that the posting is a clear mistake and is corrected quickly, the carrier won't be held to it. Consumers can file complaints at
airconsumer@dot.gov.
The Federal Trade Commission, which oversees hotels , weighs in only on systematic problems, says Eileen Harrington, associate director of marketing practices. Consumers who feel duped by a hotel can go to small-claims court.