"Presumably The Flight Crew Was In Montreal"
Noreastern is miffed because his connecting US Air flight was canceled due to weather. Thing is, he was flying from Philly to Ohio, and it was snowing in neither of these two places.
Rather, it was snowing in Montreal, where the connecting flight was coming from. Delays due to weather or other acts of god usually don't get much in the way of rebates or refunds.
Regardless, Noreastern remains unbowed; he has a stratagem for getting his hotel stay comped, encapsulated in the phrase, "Presumably the flight crew was in Montreal..."
(Photo: MicAttAck)
noreastern: ahoy
benpopken: howdy
noreastern: how's everything where you are today?
benpopken: cold!
noreastern: ah, yes. here as well.
noreastern: and that reminds me of the consumerist type question I had for you
noreastern: you see, I had the pleasure of spending a week in florida, away from the dreadful cold of ohio
noreastern: the trip was good, until the flight home when US Air decided to strand me in philly for the night
noreastern: they decided to cancel my connecting flight because of bad weather
noreastern: that's all well and good, except there was no bad weather where I was (in philly) or where I was flying (ohio)
noreastern: turns out there was some snow in montreal that screwed them up
noreastern: to make a long story shorter, I spent the night in a crappy hotel and flew out the next day (after a 3 hour delay, of course)
noreastern: my gripe is that not only didn't I get a free flight for my troubles, but I actually had to shell out $80 for the crappy hotel room
noreastern: they were kind enough to give me some airport food vouchers and cover about $30 of the hotel
noreastern: the csr people I talked to kept repeating the mantra - we don't reimburse people for weather related cancellations/delays
noreastern: but the way I see it, they can point to any storm anywhere in the world and say it affected travel somewhere in their system
noreastern: I call that a logistical problem on their end, not a weather problem
noreastern: so, in addition to simply venting to you, I'm wondering if you've had any successes dealing with airlines for this type of situation
benpopken: interesting
benpopken: well one of your connecting flights was coming from Montreal, yes?
noreastern: I think the plane that was eventually going to bring me to ohio was coming from montreal. I don't really know.
noreastern: I flew from orlando
benpopken: Sorry to say, but I don't think you have much of a leg to stand on
benpopken: The connecting flight was adversely affected by the weather
benpopken: They didn't point to a random weather somewhere and say it was responsible for the delay
benpopken: They made a monetary gesture with the coupons and vouchers
benpopken: It seems they covered their end of the bargain as best they could
noreastern: the best they could would be to get another plane, but I do see what you're saying
benpopken: I was going to say that I wondered if there wasn't another flight out to Ohio?
benpopken: Either with them or another carrier?
noreastern: the only other carrier was Southwest, who apparently doesn't play well with other airlines
noreastern: I would have had to buy a new ticket from them
benpopken: it's not the best of bargains, to be sure
noreastern: do you think its even worth writing a letter asking for some additional compensation?
benpopken: sure
benpopken: you could say that you found the compensation inadequate
benpopken: express how you feel it didn't match the discomfort you experienced
benpopken: might be able to wring a few more vouchers out of them, or monies off your next flight
noreastern: I think I will. one csr suggested I say the cancellation was because of flight crew unavailability. given the latest mess with the us air/america west merger, they might not even know what's going on
noreastern: thanks for the advice
benpopken: an intriguing stratagem, though dishonest
noreastern: maybe not completely dishonest - presumably the flight crew was in montreal
— BEN POPKEN
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Comments:
Bah. They can't just steal pictures from somewhere, if you want to get a picture of US Air we'll need to take pictures of US Air.
Whatever, it's a snowed in airplane! Fits the bill.
First American's "inferior" voice menus, and now this. Well we all need a scapegoat.
"noreastern: but the way I see it, they can point to any storm anywhere in the world and say it affected travel somewhere in their system"
I'm going to start using this as an excuse for everything.
Editor: Why'd you miss deadline on that gamer?
Me: It's snowing in Montreal.
Sure Ben, keep telling yourself that.
That's like saying it's a package that didn't get delivered but it's ok we show a photo of FedEx when it was a UPS shipment.
Sign yourself up for an integrity class please.
@Ben Popken: Sure Ben, whatever you say.
Next time there is a problem with UPS show a photo of FedEx, they are both shippers.
How about some integrity? I, for one, expect more.
Maybe just photoshop
I meant to say, "maybe just photoshop in the USAir logo next time!"
@Squishy: Ok, maybe the picture wasn't such a good choice. I found another one. The eagle-eyed may notice that the photo was taken in Sweden, yet our article takes place in America. This is because we have zero integrity and are just out to exploit the readership because everyone knows Sweden just sells better.
@Ben Popken: I always THOUGHT this site had a pro-Sweden slant, but now those suspicions have been CONFIRMED!
@Ben Popken: I don't know why you gave in to idiotic whining in the comments. Who cares if you put a picture thats unrelated, only an idiot actually would try to pick apart something like that.
@Ben Popken: BTW, the photo on this page remained the original for me. I cleared the cache but it may just be me.
@Scazza: Only a moron would accept the inaccuracy especially on a site that attacks inaccuracies in companies on a regular basis.
@Squishy: Can you give Ben some credit here? You are talking about him like he is Scooter Libby or something, sheesh...
New photo shows up now.
@suckonthat: I didn't think this site gave credit for doing the right thing. I know Ben doesn't. The right thing is the bare minimum. That is what is expected.
If you don't want to be inconvenienced by a connecting flight, choose a flight that doesn't require a connection...
Ahh, sage advice. You've obviously never seen how northwest charges $150-400 more for direct flights in hub cities, then. :) You start taking those connecting flights because you'd like to stay in a hotel at your destination rather than a cardboard box.
@dieman: No, Swalve is right. Clearly, the consumer is in the wrong in this case because he unrealistically expected the airline to abide by its end of the contract.
If you don't want to be inconvenienced by a connecting flight or by commercial airlines generally, charter a plane. Or better yet, buy your own personal plane. You'll never wait in line again. :>
I had a similar experience with United. I left Philadelphia on my way to Spokane, WA through Denver. The flight in Philly was seriously delayed due to weather. We eventually leave, arrive in Denver and I've already missed my connection (along with everyone else). The next one is in the morning. The airline refuses to pay for the hotel because it was weather. Well, It was late and I was tired. Later, I realized that United boarded all of the passengers on that plane knowing that none of us would make our connections. I wish I had paid more attention. I could've refused to board in Philly and made them re-book me for the next day. To summarize, because we left more than one hour late, we had all missed our connections in Denver before ever taking off in Philly. United sucks, but I don't think any of the other airlines would've acted differently.
Cool!
My photo has been used. What a great day for the CC licence.
Now I am seen on Wikipedia, Consumerist and on an online recipe site.
I feel sooo proud :-)
MicAttAck
Once again with the pictures. Must we use a photo of an AA plane to illustrate a problem with US Air?