The biggest US airlines have closed a popular loophole used to get cheap tickets, cranking up fares by hundreds of dollars.
United, American Airlines and Delta have changed multi-city pricing after thousands of customers had used them to beat high prices.
Savvy customers had realized that several single, short fares were often much cheaper than booking a long journey in one go.
For example, the Associated Press said that under the old system a trip that went Orlando-Detroit-NYC-Orlando over four days could be booked as four separate flights for $282.
@united– cmon bruh? when booking RT/multi-city, u claim some fare classes not available. my comparison just now: pic.twitter.com/LTyNDJqchf
— Colin Carrier (@colincarrier) March 25, 2016
Now the journey, with Delta, is only available as a single ticket, and costs $2,175.
The three big airlines cut the loophole from their websites at the same time – prompting accusations of collusion from the Business Travel Coalition pressure group.
Chairman Kevin Mitchell said: “Fliers and will no doubt be blindsided by this new policy and pay dearly when shopping at airline websites.”
The trick had become widespread after travel advice sites began sharing it – and coders made algorithms to quickly show fliers how much they could save.
