While 2012 may have been the safest year in decades, the Department of Transportation levied a record number of fines against airlines for consumer rules violations, assessed 49 fines and $3,610,000 in penalties, up from 47/$3,264,000 in 2011, and 27/1,700,000 in 2010. The airlines are not doing business in a significantly different manner,…
Earlier this month, Janice Hough at Consumer Traveler wrotethat coming anti-consumer “interline” baggage rules were worse than baggage fees. With all respect to Ms. Hough, who is a travel agent, in this regard, we believe she is wrong, although we can understand her point of view. Let’s go over the issue. Interline baggage refers to…
Back in July of 2011, we made the Case against Codesharing. But lately, we’ve seen a few articles that have made us revisit the issue. Codesharing is where the airline that operates a flight(operating carrier), allows a second airline(marketing carrier) to place its flight number on the flight, and sell it as if it was…
American Airlines is coming under fire today, and it isn’t just because they allegedlydiscriminated against Glenn Beck. This is for their actions involving a sixteen year old with Down Syndrome and his family. The teenager was booked with his parents in first class from Newark to Los Angeles on Sunday. American Airlines commented that the…
In June of 2009, we reported on how Continental Airlines had lost a young girl who was travelling under its unaccompanied minor program. Another similar situation has arisen with United Airlines, which merged with Continental, to the point that there is a petition on change.org, asking United to either redesign or discontinue its Unaccompanied Minors…
Fare mistakes are very dangerous. At least once every few months, some airline makes a typo, and sells tickets at a price no rational person could think was correct. Yet they jump on it, post it to forums and blogs before the airline can fix it. In January, the DOT prohibited airlines from increasing the…
The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is the 22nd busiest in the United States- and it’s about to get busier. On Monday, a ground-breaking ceremony was heldat the airport, marking the beginning of a $791 million runway expansion project. A princely sum, indeed, but the project which will lengthen an existing secondary runway from 5,276 to…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l9ZEsOwyDqk Just yesterday, we commented briefly on JetBlue’s response to their 2007 Valentine’s Day meltdown. Today, JetBlue’s Chief Operating Officer took to the Youtubes to issue a public apology. As we said yesterday, everyone failed in this, not just the airlines. Blame should be apportioned evenly and fairly. JetBlue and American Airlines face millions in…
Image via Wikipedia The Cranky Flier noted today that Spirit Airlines, known for its lack of taste and ultra-low-fares philosophy is instituing a Passenger Usage Fee of $4.90 per person per sector for anyone who doesn’t book their ticket at a ticket counter. Spirit tried charging a $7.90 passenger usage fee last year, along with…