What do you do if you have a flight planned on one of the three airlines, ATA, Champion and Aloha, that filed for bankruptcy and terminated all flights this week? First thing to do is if you paid with a credit card company, call them up and ask for a refund. An ATA insider tells us, “When an airline bills you for your ticket, they don’t receive payment–the money’s escrowed until you fly or the terms of the contract are met, i.e. one year validity limit, so the bankruptcy doesn’t affect those customers.” Elliot.org has the run-down of other options: On the press release level, United Airlines has agreed to take on Aloha Airlines passengers, but anecdotal evidence suggests the ground-level customer service reps are bungling the hand-off. Southwest has agreed to rebook ATA passengers, but the language suggests this deal is only good for flights that were codeshares between the two airlines. Lastly, if you bought your ticket with ATA by check or cash, you can claim a refund, for probably a fraction of its value, after the airline is liquidated.
airlines
Delta Announces Massive Fee Increases For Unaccompanied Minors, Pets
Reader M has forwarded us a memo from Delta detailing massive fee increases for unaccompanied minors, pets, gate checked strollers, “administrative service charges,” curb-side check in and more.
United Airlines Cancels 31 Flights
United Airlines canceled 31 flights today to test the fire suppression system. It’s just the latest in a series of self-imposed groundings and butteningups by airlines hoping to avoid the negative PR Southwest experienced when a CNN investigation three weeks ago revealed the airline flew over 100 plans with thousands of passengers while skipping required safety inspections.
Using Proxies To Get Good Deals When Virgin America Reneges
Reader Tom was all set to buy a ticket on Virgin America when all of a sudden the fare he thought was locked in shot up 33%. The machine told him his reservation had expired. Tom tried redoing the purchase several times, clearing his cookies, changing browsers, only to continue to be denied by Richard Branson’s faceless automoton army. So then he cleared his cookies and then rerouting his signal through another computer so to Virgin America it looks like a different user is trying to buy the ticket (in technical terms, he rerouted his traffic through a SOCKS proxy server on the West Coast). Shazam, he was able to get the ticket at the old price. Whether the deal had expired because he dawdled too long, or whether he was only able to get it because it looked like he was coming from the West Coast and the fare was related to the time of day, Tom felt jerked around. If this happens to you, here’s a how-to on using proxy servers.
British Airways' New Hi-Tech Baggage System Routes All Luggage To A Big Pile
British Airways is having trouble with its new baggage system—namely, that it doesn’t actually sort and route the baggage to the correct flight. On Sunday they claimed that 15,000 bags had missed their flights and were now being stored at Heathrow. However, the UK’s Aviation Minister said yesterday that the number was closer to 28,000.
TSA Freaks Over Speakers, Lets Knife Pass Through. Twice.
TSA throws away passenger’s toothpaste, freaks out over his JBL On Tour speaker system, and lets him pass through with a lock-knife keychain, twice. Couple this with that story a few weeks ago about the Apple Air trying to go through security (it doesn’t have a hard drive! there’s no ports!) and it seems that the TSA’s main concern is that the next terroristic attack will have incredibly attractive design.
$753 Airline Tickets End Up Costing Two Seniors Nearly $10,000
Two seniors who bought $753 roundtrip tickets to Rome ended up paying nearly $10,000, thanks to flight delays and airlines reneging on their promises. The Lopilatos had a flight on American Airlines from LAX to JFK, then continuing on to Rome on Alitalia. The flight was scheduled to arrive in New York three hours before their flight to Rome, but it didn’t and they missed the flight to Rome. At first, American got them seats on a plane to London and then on to Rome on British Airways, for free. But then all of a sudden the seats were gone and now the tickets were $2,065 each. Not wanting to miss their tour group, the couple agreed. Then when they went to come back from Rome, Alitalia canceled their return flight because they missed the outbound, another $2,000+ in return tickets. When they tried to get refunds, each airline blamed the other and denied liability. How to avoid the same thing happening to you? Fly nonstop.
Air New Zealand Takes Fumigating Its Passengers Seriously
THE QUOTE: “It’s not like we don’t take this seriously, which is why we had the [Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry] people come on board.”
TSA Will Allow Women With Nipple Piercings To Fly If They Flash Officials
Your nipple piercings are still a threat to national security, but the TSA will let you fly if you “allow a visual inspection of [your] piercings.” The announcement came after TSA officials in Texas forced Mandi Hamlin to remove her nipple piercings with a pair of pliers before allowing her to board her flight. The TSA stopped short of apologizing to Ms. Hamlin, instead saying: “TSA acknowledges that our procedures caused difficulty for the passenger involved and regrets the situation in which she found herself.”
Frontier Airlines Insists Man Who Missed Flight Was On Plane
Matthew is the center of a Hitchcockian mystery over at Frontier Airlines. He missed his flight from New Mexico to Texas with a connection through Denver (there was a total of 4 segments to the flight), and when he tried to rebook the flight and pay the change fee, Frontier told him he’d already flown to Denver. So who took the flight? One of the flight crew’s friends? A woman too pretty for Southwest? A killer? There’s probably a killer roaming the streets of Denver now.
Mary at Frontier keeps promising Matthew she’ll look into it, but “after weeks and several calls,” nothing’s been fixed, and Matthew still can’t rebook the flight he already purchased.
TSA Forces Woman To Remove Nipple Piercings
Woman Says TSA Forced Piercings Removal [AP] (Thanks to Benny!)
Spirit Airlines Hold "Threesome Sale"
Spirit Airlines, holding a “Threesome Sale”, is apparently desperate for attention and I guess we’ll just have to give it to them. In this sale, members of the $9 Club get fares from $3 each way, seat upgrades for $3, and $33 for 33 hours. This comes on the heels of their last titillatingly titled marketing push, the “M.I.L.F sale,” which simply meant “Many Islands Low Fares,” and in no way, shape, or form, referenced American Pie. Now, before you get all outraged, remember that this is called “targeted marketing.” If you’re buying tickets for $3, classiness is probably not the first thing on your mind. I can’t wait for their next sale. I hear their marketing teams is busy coming up with clever acrostics for “gangbang.”
Delta Canceling 275 Flights Through Friday To Complete Wiring Inspections
It’s official—Delta has said they’re canceling a total of 275 flights, or about 3% of their worldwide schedule (we don’t know what the US percentage is), to complete inspections of wiring in 117 planes. To check whether your flight is impacted, visit this page on Delta’s site.
Delta Says It May Cancel More Flights Today Over Inspection Issues
Delta will announce sometime today whether or not it will ground more of its planes to perform additional inspections, reports CNN. Yesterday, while American Airlines was grounding 200 of its planes for safety inspections, Delta also canceled an unnamed number of flights.
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The TSA is expanding it’s skiing-themed “self-selection” security lanes beyond Denver and into Orlando, Boston, and Spokane [TSA via Gridskipper]
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American Airlines canceled 200 flights today for safety inspections. Concerns arose over how a particular bundle of wires was attached to MD-80 airplanes. This is different from the bolt safety issue affecting Boeing 737s. [CNNMoney]
