Some days in the airline industry, it seems a neverending stream of negative publicity. Here are a few things we caught over the last few days. It fails to inspire us. (Note: In every one of our roundups, links to a news source are provided for each item. Feel free to click through for more information)
- Today in the Sky reports that eight Maryland Girl Scouts lost out on their dream trip to Hawaii after US Airways cancelled the first leg of their trip to Phoenix and then advised them that no other flights would be available to them until a day before they were supposed to return. None of the passengers off of the flight, which was cancelled for mechanical reasons, including the scouts, were offered vouchers. The troop sold thousands of Thin Mints and Shortbread cookies for years to earn the money. The troop leader commented, “They’re going to be traveling a lot in their futures, and now they know how to handle the bumps in the road.”
- United has vowed to pay the passengers they abandoned in Cheyenne, Wyoming on December 20th(our report on that here). We picked the story up on February 20th from USA Today, and they now report that when United found out USA Today was planning a followup story, they agreed to provide full reimbursement for all expenses related to the diversion…meals, hotels, car rentals, and other transportation and airline tickets. Passengers who did receive communications from United after the last article were offered little or insulted by discount certificates that didn’t cover the full cost of a future ticket.
- A Delta Airlines flight from Cincinatti to Honolulu was diverted to San Francisco on Tuesday. The plane was already over the Pacific when a female passenger caught smoking in the lavatory became ‘unruly’. The plane was turned around after she hit a pilot who left the cockpit to investigate. A passenger who was interviewed believed Delta made the right decision. The woman was given oxygen and taken to the hospital.
- The Consumerist has a video of a US Airways baggage handler practicing his baseball swing with customer packages, namely a poster tube and another package.
- NY1, Time Warner’s NYC news network(Check them out if you can…especially in the morning where they read the newspaper to you), reports that some passengers feel Jetblue still isn’t trying hard enough. Jetblue told a couple that their return flight from Las Vegas to New York was cancelled due to bad weather. When trying to rebook, the next flight they could get was two days later, requiring extra hotel stays and two extra days off from work. After calling twice and being promised vouchers, a third call to inquire as to their status, they were told that since the cancelled flight had been changed to delayed, they did not qualify. But no move was made to advise passengers…so theoretically, under the intent of the Bill of Rights, it is an example of Jetblue failing to live up to its expectations.