American Airlines Sues Skiplagged, Alleging False Savings Promises and Deceptive Practices American Airlines Files Lawsuit Against Skiplagged

25.08.2023 - 12:59 / skift.com / Dennis Schaal

After lawsuits over the years by United, Orbitz and Southwest, American Airlines has joined the fray and filed a federal lawsuit against “hidden city” flight provider Skiplagged, charging copyright infringement, deceptive practices and “other misconduct.”

In a lawsuit with similar allegations, American in July also sued Czech Republic-based online travel agency Kiwi.com. It likewise sued Dallas-based air travel consolidator GTT Travel, alleging fraud and mishandling of contracted sub-agencies.

In the Skiplagged lawsuit, filed last week, American alleged that Skiplagged sells its flights and uses American’s intellectual property without authorization, misleads flyers with deceptive offers, and harms the airline’s operations by counseling passengers on best practices to get away with surreptitiously deplaning at stopovers instead of continuing on to their ticketed final destinations. (You can view the lawsuit embedded below.)

“Skiplagged’s improper actions have caused American considerable harm,” the complaint said. “When things go wrong with tickets booked through Skiplagged, American gets blamed, even though those problems are the direct result of unnecessary complications caused by Skiplagged’s improper practices. Further, Skiplagged’s liberal and unauthorized use of American’s protected intellectual property suggests falsely that American is working with Skiplagged, authorizing its activities, and will assist customers when Skiplagged’s practices harm customers. American then loses more revenue when it tries to help solve its customers’ problems that Skiplagged created.”

Charging violations of its Conditions of Carriage and the Lanham Act, the Fort Worth-based airline seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction against Skiplagged’s practices, and “damages, including disgorgement of Skiplagged’s ill-gotten profits.”

Asked to comment on the lawsuit, Aktarer Zaman, founder and CEO of the 8-year-old company, stated: “Skiplagged will fight to the end to protect consumers’ rights to find the most favorable airfares and we will prevail.”   

In 2015, in previous litigation, a judge in Chicago tossed United’s lawsuit against Skiplagged for a lack of jurisdiction, and Orbitz and Skiplagged reached a settlement with Skiplagged agreeing not to link off to Orbitz or to display its trademarks. Southwest likewise reached an undisclosed settlement with Skiplagged earlier this year. Skiplagged no longer markets Southwest flights.

While Skiplagged sells standard one-way and roundtrip flights (read more about it below), where the passenger deplanes at the ticketed last stop, it is renowned for offering hidden city flights, where passengers looking for a bargain get off the aircraft at a layover.

American cites one