The seven airlines accused of price-gouging have a plan to make sure they don`t get gouged by customers.
The airlines are worried that customers who use the $408 million worth of discount coupons the carriers will issue to settle the case could start selling them on the black market.
So, like the fat and thin lines read by supermarket scanners at the checkout counter, each airfare coupon is expected to have its own bar code identifying the owner, said Lorri Ann Hurst, president of Travel Analysts, of St. Paul, who is running seminars for corporations on how to get the most from the antitrust settlement.
Coupons will not be transferable, except among immediate family members, under the proposed settlement. Multiple certificates could be used to reduce the price of a ticket by up to 10 percent.
The bar-coding plan was confirmed by Dianne Nast of Kohn, Nast & Graf in Philadelphia, lead counsel for the millions of travelers in the class-action, antitrust case.
”The airlines want bar coding on the coupons to prevent a black market in them,” Nast said.
Nast said that the discount coupons would be distributed by a committee composed of four representatives of the travelers and four airline officials but that the airlines ”want control over such matters as the paper used to print the coupons to reduce fraud.” An administrator to run the coupon program has not been selected.
USAir spokesman David Shipley said the seven airlines were considering bar coding. ”We have not made a decision yet on the coupon design and whether it will or will not have a bar code on it,” he said.
Representatives of United, American and Delta airlines said they knew nothing about the bar-code plan. Northwest Airlines referred all calls to lawyers for the plaintiffs.
Nast said she doesn`t expect airlines to install scanners at ticket counters to compare coupons with the names on tickets issued using the discounts. ”I think the airlines` concern is with the company or individual who comes in with 100 coupons,” she said.
