Sure, LEDs are a great new energy-saving technology. The problem is, they’re no match for a Midwestern winter. That’s what the town of West Bend, Wis. learned when they installed LED traffic signals. LEDs don’t generate heat, which is normally a selling point. It’s not so appealing when you’re trying to keep traffic signals snow-free, and the ostensibly green move has caused at least one accident. [More]
weather
Texas Car Dealership Will Give Away Cars If It Rains
By 7.23.09
What’s a great way for a car dealer to get attention during a drought? Offer customers a free car if it rains. No, the dealership owner won’t be standing out front in a poncho, handing out keys to everyone who passes by on the appointed day. It’s cleverer than that.
Amtrak Strands Passengers Without Food, Water, Toilets
By 12.23.08
About 450 Amtrak passengers were stranded in Chicago’s Union Station for almost 24 hours — without food, water or access to reliable functioning restrooms.
Delta Helps You Escape Chicago Before The Winter Storm Of Doom
By 12.18.08
There’s a nasty winter storm coming to Chicagoland — a mix of rain, sleet and snow that might result in 12″ of accumulation. Jennifer was scheduled to fly right in the middle of it.
U.S. Airways: Abandoning Passengers "Is Not A Compensation Issue"
By 8.31.08
“In order to ensure that all carriers remain focused on safety, aviation regulations do not require airlines to pay compensation for consequential expenses because of delayed or canceled 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?
Dear American Airlines Employees: "I Hope That One Day You Find A Good Paying Job With An Employer That Cares About You"
By 6.24.08
AJ writes in to let us know that he too was lied to by American Airlines. They canceled his flight(s) from Pittsburgh to Austin (by way of Dallas). He called the 1-800 number but was met with a CSR who used “bad weather in Dallas” as an excuse, and told him there was no way to get him to Austin on time.
Nasty Spring Snowstorm Affecting Flights In And Out Of Chicago
By 3.21.08
Just thought I’d get the word out… Chicago is getting smacked with a spring snowstorm. I just went outside and it’s nearly white-out conditions outside.
The FAA says:
American Airlines Dallas Cancellation Party Not Going So Well
By 3.18.08
Reader Drew is currently stranded at Dallas Fort Worth airport and would like to speak with someone from American Airlines on the telephone. Unfortunately, we’re the only ones he can reach.
By 3.7.08
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Snow in Cleveland is affecting air travel. The FAA says:
Due to WEATHER / SNOW-ICE, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Cleveland, OH (CLE). This is causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 3 hours and 12 minutes.
Continental, which uses Cleveland as a hub, is canceling lots of flights. [Ohio.com]
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]
5 Things Airlines Don't Want You To Know About Weather Delays
By 2.4.08
When an airplane is delayed due to the weather, they get out of a lot of obligations, and there’s little oversight over what they get to call a weather-related delay. Elliot.org interviewed industry experts and came up with five interesting things the industry is keeping from you about weather delays…
American Airline's Weather Delay Excuse Successfully Debunked
By 1.17.08
You don’t need to hire a forensic meteorologist to dispute an airline’s so-called weather delay and get the compensation or rebooking you’re deserved, sometimes you just need the internets! Here’s how Jasmine did just that with a recent flight on American Airlines:
My last canceled flight was blamed on the weather. I called a friend with the internet, had them look up the weather at my destination and en route (which was fine). I went back to the desk and said, “The weather is fine. You sure there aren’t other problems?” That’s when then he said that it was the weather AND technical problems with the plane…
Dispute An Airline's So-Called "Weather Delay"
By 1.16.08
Unless it’s due to the weather, if there’s a flight delay or cancellation, passengers are entitled to some kind of refund, unless of course it’s due to the weather, but are flight delays as due to the weather as often as airlines say they are? And how would you go about proving otherwise? Well, as a fascinating interview posted over at airline blog Elliot.org informs us, you could always hire the services of a forensic meteorologist.
Solve Problems On Cruise Ships By Staging A Mutiny!
By 12.16.07
When storms force your cruise to skip ports of call, don’t sit idly in your cabin watching the whitecaps break menacingly against the ship. Go find your fellow passengers and stage a mutiny! At least that is what passengers onboard the Sapphire Princess did when two typhoons kept the ship from planned port calls in Vietnam, Japan, and Taiwan.
At one point, with passengers assembled in the ship’s theater, she said, “the attorney jumped up and grabbed the microphone away from the assistant cruise director and said: ‘We’re taking over the stage! We have a petition!'”
By 12.13.07
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Some airlines, including JetBlue, Delta and Continental are waiving change fees due to a nasty storm in the northeast. [Newsday]
