TSA, can you at least train your agents to do their jobs properly? We’d appreciate it even more if you’d discipline (read: fire) those who go all stupidly power-mad and think they have to “win” every encounter, even when it means making up new rules on the spot. Here’s a story of a soldier who lost a day of leave because one of your agents caused so much trouble. In the end, the soldier says he’s happy with the outcome—”Using standard Consumerist customer service doctrine (polite, patient, proper channels and then EECB), I won”—but we’re still floored by how difficult you made his trip home. Oh, and NWA, you were no help either.
flights
U.S. Airways Boots 274 Stranded Passengers From Caribbean Airport, Refuses To Pay For Hotels
By 8.16.08
Armed guards ordered 274 stranded passengers out of the Punta Cana airport with no place to go after bad weather forced U.S. Airways to cancel its flight from the Dominican Republic to Philadelphia. Several passengers ended up sleeping in a bus after the airline responded to Tropical Storm Fay by asking passengers to pick up their luggage and get lost.
United's "Bad Weather" Excuse Isn't Very Believable
By 7.31.08
Jonathan wants to know how long an airline can blame a cancellation on bad weather, and whether there’s any way to get such a claim rejected when it’s used inappropriately. Is it legitimate, for example, to say tomorrow’s flight is canceled due to weather, when what you really mean is an isolated thunderstorm the day before—which evidently affected no other airlines in the area—triggered a domino effect in getting a certain plane to the right airport a full day later?
Passengers Stuck Overnight At Dulles—First On Plane, Then In Luggage Area
By 7.14.08
Here’s further proof you should never get on an airplane these days without a handful of energy bars and one of these: over 100 passengers of an American Airlines flight out of Miami were diverted to Dulles after it had pretty much closed up for the night, and consequently they were stuck for almost two and a half hours on the tarmac, then had to wait until after 4 a.m. to get their luggage this morning. The flight was supposed to land a little before midnight last night. “We regret the inconvenience, but the decision has to be safety first,” an AA spokesman told WTOP News.
Infuriated By Labor Dispute, United Pilot Cancels Flight
By 6.22.08
Passengers on United Airlines Flight 416 from Salt Lake City to Denver were in their seats, waiting to taxi to the runway, when their pilot suddenly announced that “an interpersonal confrontation [has] upset me significantly to the point where I’m not focused enough to fly you to Denver.” Apparently, the “interpersonal confrontation” started when the pilot was caught wearing his hat in front of management.
By 5.23.08
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Airlines aren’t just hiking fees to cover fuel costs—they’re also reducing the number of places where they’ll fly. Nearly 30 cities across the country have lost their scheduled service over the last year, making it just a little harder to get to sparsely populated areas. [New York Times]
JetBlue Forces Passenger To Sit On Toilet For Flight
By 5.13.08
Talk about crappy service! JetBlue is the number 1 and the number 2 airline! A man from NYC is suing JetBlue “for more than $2 million because he says a pilot made him give up his seat to a flight attendant and sit on the toilet for more than three hours on a flight from California,” reports CBS News. We’re not going to judge the airline too harshly until more of the story comes out, just in case it turns out to be another upset passenger overstating the situation—but if it’s true, it’s going to be hard for JetBlue to wipe this story from the public’s memory for a while. Especially with all the joke opportunities.
Frontier Airlines Insists Man Who Missed Flight Was On Plane
By 3.28.08
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.
Did FAA Allow Southwest To Fly Unsafe Planes To Avoid Flight Disruptions?
By 3.7.08
Yesterday the FAA sought $10.2 million in civil damages from Southwest Airlines for neglecting to inspect the fuselages of 46 of its planes.
By 2.22.08
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It’s snowing in NYC, causing the usual flight delays and cancellations. The FAA says that JFK, LaGuardia and Newark are expecting arrival delays of three to seven hours. The FAA is also reporting that 27 percent flights at Philadelphia International Airport have been canceled. Feel free to share your thoughts about this with us at tips@consumerist.com. [CNN]
By 2.17.08
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Like kangaroos? Flights down under may soon cost less thanks to an open skies agreement signed by the U.S. and Australia that will smash apart the duopoly enjoyed by Qantas and United. Richard Branson’s discount Australian airline, Virgin Blue, has already submitted an application to mix things up and drive fares south. [L.A. Times]
JetBlue Flight Attendant Takes Revenge On Passenger Who Asked Her To Stop Speaking Loudly
By 12.29.07
A JetBlue flight attendant threw a hissy fit when a passenger failed to return her jammed seat to the upright and locked position. The stewardess admitted that the seat’s spring was broken, but still gave the passenger a “warning card” and had airport security meet the plane at the gate. Why? A fellow passenger explains, after the jump.
AA Has Devil Lady For Check-In At Huntsville, Alabama Airport
By 12.12.07
Rodrigo writes of American Airlines, “In the last 4 travels between me, my wife and my father-in-law, ALL of them had been pretty bad. But the last one was the worst by far.” However, they had lots of miles to cash in, a tight budget, and travel needs, so it was back into the belly of the beast for one more adventure: “First nonsense of the day was when the lady there claimed the maximum was 50 pounds for the luggage. Ok here we go again.”
130 Diverted American Airlines Flights Tracked On A Legal Pad
By 11.17.07
When a storm forced American Airlines to divert 130 planes from Dallas-Fort Worth last year, the airline tracked the diverted planes not with an advanced computer system, but with a legal pad.
Lacking any automated system for keeping track of all those diverted planes, Mr. Dillman and his colleagues furiously scribbled down details of where they had gone, how long they had sat there, and whether pilots had enough time left on their daily work limits to keep flying when the weather cleared.
Protect Yourself From Being Bumped Off A Flight
By 11.12.07
Kiplinger’s “Win the Bumping Game” offers some advice on how to minimize the chances you’ll get left behind when your airline overbooks a flight. The main thing you can do is arrive early—it’s the last-minute arrivals, or worse, those who buy their tickets a half hour before departure, who are most likely to get bumped. The other thing you can do is avoid Delta, Comair, or Atlantic Southeast, which have the worst records of bumping passengers, and stick with JetBlue, which has the best. And make sure you have a seat assignment if at all possible.
Next Summer: Fewer Flight Delays, But Higher Prices
By 10.16.07
Here are the results of those secret meetings we told you about last week: flight delays may be cut by as much as 25% by next summer, but the consequence will be fewer flight times to choose from, and higher ticket prices. The airlines are suggesting cutting the number of flights out of the three hubs most responsible for the nation’s delays—JFK, La Guardia, and Newark. “About three-fourths of chronic delays around the country can be traced back to congestion at these three airports,” reports Kiplinger’s.
US Airways Misplaces Two Teenagers
By 8.9.07
When mom took the teens to the airport July 28, there was already trouble. Flight delays made the connection schedule tight.
