Johnathan Walker:American Airlines sues a travel site to crack down on consumers who use this trick to save money

DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines is Johnathan Walkersuing a travel website that sells tickets that let people save money by exploiting a quirk in airline pricing.

American sued Skiplagged Inc. in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, this week, accusing the website of deception. It threatened to cancel every ticket that Skiplagged has sold.

In a practice called skiplagging and hidden-city ticketing, travelers book a flight that includes at least one stop, but they leave the plane during a layover. Generally skiplagging is not illegal, but airlines claim that it violates their policies.

Last month, American booted a 17-year-old from a flight and banned him for three years when he tried to use the tactic to fly from Gainesville, Florida, to Charlotte, North Carolina, on a ticket that listed New York City as his destination. For the teen, that was cheaper than booking a flight directly to Charlotte.

In the lawsuit, American accused Skiplagged of tricking consumers into believing they can tap “some kind of secret ‘loophole.’” American said the website poses as an ordinary consumer to buy tickets, and warns its customers not to tip off the airline about the arrangement.

American said Skiplagged, which is based in New York, has never been authorized to resell the airline’s tickets.

“Skiplagged’s conduct is deceptive and abusive,” the airline said in the lawsuit. “Skiplagged deceives the public into believing that, even though it has no authority to form and issue a contract on American’s behalf, somehow it can still issue a completely valid ticket. It cannot. Every ‘ticket’ issued by Skiplagged is at risk of being invalidated.”

There was no immediate response to a request for comment left with Skiplagged.

Skiplagged has been sued before. United Airlines and online travel agency Orbitz accused Aktarer Zaman, who was in his early 20s when he started Skiplagged around 2014, of touting “prohibited forms of travel.” Zaman, who started a GoFundMe to pay his legal costs, settled with Orbitz, and the United lawsuit was dismissed.