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Comment by ClumsyPilot | Hacker News Reader

“ put a different plane with similar layout on every flight, then swap to the 737 on the itinerary the day before”

Question to True Believers in Free market, where is the line between free market and fraud?

They are selling transportation from location A to location B via an airplane. The specific airplane, assuming it has the features the customer paid for, is more of a technicality.

It's different when it's a deliberate conspiracy to mislead consumers, especially when that consumer is choosing services that advertise that a safe vehicle will be used.

If they just stopped showing what plane would be used on the route, maybe they'd get away with using 737-MAX series.

If they say 'it's a 737-800 don't worry about it' and swap in a max every time, or 'fly with us on an airbus' and bring in a boeing death-tube after a purposefully misleading advertisement of a different service...

The line would be right at the point where the passenger has a contract that says the vehicle will not be a 737.

It's not fraud if it's in the Ts&Cs. But it is false advertising I suppose, if they advertise a flight on one aircraft _knowing_ that their plan is to swap it out, premeditation etc.

People exhibit abject apathy to these sorts of topics, lengthy Ts&Cs should be made illegal - edge cases that allow people to sue (in America I guess) companies for silly and stupid things should be dealt with by evolving the legal system, not with endless text nobody can or should have to read.

But even in an ideal no slippery Ts&Cs world, you'd still have to catch them making premeditated decisions to swap out equipment using that clause.

Here in Germany "surprising" clauses in T&C's are void in contracts with end customers as the legislators know that nobody bothers to read them

Traveling in a different vehicle than originally intended is not fraud. Rental car companies do this all the time.

Large countries without free market capitalism have much worse safety records for flying from a historical perspective. To be clear, i’m referring to Russia and China.

In Russia they can sell you fake plastic cheese that catches fire, and you still have zero chance of winning a lawsuit. You compensation for wrongdoing or death will be minimal. So it’s more capitalist that US in this regard.

https://www.obozrevatel.com/curious/48293-zato-otechestvenny...

If I pay for beef, but you sell me pork, that’s fraud. If I pay for organic eggs, but you sell me ‘normal’ eggs, that’s fraud. Eggs are literally the same thing, but you can sell me the wrong airplane?

Why is the market freer for some than for others?

If you buy the airplane, you definitely get the airplane you bought. When you buy a ticket, you aren't buying an airplane, you're buying transportation on whatever airplane is most convenient for the airline

The contract says they just need to get you there

Does it really? Can they use an old Cessna piston powered biplane?

Usually the Cessna won’t be certified for commercial operation or make the time window but yes. A train/bus can be used as well

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