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U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds

nytimes.com

51–60 of 242 posts

Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds

#51
You know, my return flight from the holidays last year was suddenly canceled the day I was supposed to fly back (ofc they didn’t announce it till much later)

I ended up having to purchase a new last minute flight from another airline. I was supposed to get a refund for the cancelled flight, but I’m not sure I ever did.

Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds

#52
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually fairly upset when airlines _don't_ do this. They're just leaving money on the table. If you want to pick your seat, pay for it.

>If you want to pick your seat, pay for it. Ya its called a ticket, which are typically received in exchange for money. Should airlines also charge a disembarking fee? pay up or don't get off the plane? Seems like that's more money left on the table, captive audience and all.

You're still going to get to where you want to go and you'll still get a seat. That's the service you're paying for.

Disregarding the kidnapping part of your straw man: we also do already charge for priority disembark. This is why premium seating is typically near the boarding door.

Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds

#53
I have a voucher from a cancelled flight on JetBlue stuck in the abyss of their computer systems. In order to use it I've been told I have to call, but the wait times are hours long. I can use their text message interface on iOS to get someone to call me back instead of waiting on hold (which is nice), but the couple times I've tried there's been some ridiculous problem with actually using the voucher: They can't find it. Or I need some confirmation number that is different from the one they gave me that I swear doesn't exist. Or they can't transfer the credit into my actual account so I can book a flight on my own.

It expires in a couple weeks from today and I just assume I'm never going to use it. I'm also always going to avoid JetBlue in the future. They don't even advertise prices that include carry on bags anymore, you have to pay extra to bring a change of clothes with you.

Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds

#54
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually fairly upset when airlines _don't_ do this. They're just leaving money on the table. If you want to pick your seat, pay for it.

>If you want to pick your seat, pay for it. Ya its called a ticket, which are typically received in exchange for money. Should airlines also charge a disembarking fee? pay up or don't get off the plane? Seems like that's more money left on the table, captive audience and all.

The ticket in this case is for a flight, not a particular seat on that flight.

Think of it like buying lawn seating at a concert. Best spot is taken? Tough luck.

Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds

#55

I am relieved to see that regulators appear aware of the game that Frontier seems to be playing. I flew to Denver recently and didn't need to travel heavy so I went with their cheap fare. The flight from SFO was fine. The flight from DEN to SFO was extremely frustrating. We arrived at DEN early because we got a text message warning us about major TSA delays. Literally the moment we were about to board Frontier change…

> major TSA delays. This infuriates me. Last week I was stuck in line for TSA for an hour and a half at Sea-Tac. The TSA clowns had one guy looking at the X-rays of luggage at the speed of molasses. Am I to believe that the TSA, FAA and airlines can't coordinate to determine when gluts of incoming passengers are expected? Bullshit. Why didn't they have more TSA workers on shift? Because they don't give a shit, nothin…

Last year I made the mistake of flying up to visit family on Christmas Eve. The TSA line wrapped around the entire airport. Luckily I made it just barely in time. I was already delayed when a nasty accident shit down the interstate and added an extra hour to my airport trip.

Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds

#56
In my experience, you can get the attention of an airline by complaining about them to the DOT (in the US).

I had an airline change my ticket from refundable/changeable to non-refundable/non-changeable. The airline refused to acknowledge our original contract. A complaint to the DOT got their attention quickly and I was refunded quickly.

https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/complaint-process

Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds

#57
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are the scum of the universe. If you don't pay for your seats, they will separate you and your party even if there are available seats together, because they know you'll shell out cash to fix it. (I think American does this now too, and possibly others but I haven't confirmed they also do it when there's available seats).

Isn't that their whole game? If you're going to fly them you should know it. They have the cheapest fares, but they do that by upselling everything and any mistake will be expensive. If that's worth it to you (and sometimes the cost difference is big enough for it to be worth it imo) then it can be a reasonable tradeoff. Flying an extreme lost cost airline that's entire existence is predicated on this model and expec…

A large chunk of people think that every product should be certified as 100% effective and that just being able to read two numbers and see which one is the smaller number is the absolute maximum amount of work that should be required to be an informed customer of any product on the planet. Any defect in the product is "a scam," yet, anyone who pays anything more than the absolute minimum viable option is a total sucker. It's honestly a very strange way to view the world that I don't really understand. My source is that my mother is an ardent member of this group of peole. I find that it mostly just leads to the opportunity to complain about everything and build up a complex around you being "slighted" by the universe all the time.

Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds

#58
post #6

When COVID caused a trip I had planned to be cancelled, I had flights with Iceland Air, TAP Air, Easyjet, and Brussels Airlines... - Iceland Air and Easyjet issued refunds quickly - Brussels took a few months, but communicated proactively that they were working on it and provided updates without me reaching out - TAP never picked up the phone and I ended up having to force a charge after every other airline had come…

Loved EasyJet for that.

I also had a buttload of flights planned for March/April 2020 and EasyJet was by far the easiest. I got a Trenitalia refund probably 18 months later and I had to PayPal-chargeback some OTA which eventually emailed me asking to reverse the chargeback. Sure. The OTA capitulated soon after.

Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds

#59
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll believe it when I see it. Threatening to take a kid's toy away when they know you won't cause you never do doesn't teach a good lesson.

Has the US threatened to ratchet up fines in the past and not done so?

Spam callers come to mind. Some of it may be due to some technical nature that made it difficult/impossible to enforce but we've had donotcall.gov and all sorts of legislation for fines and penalitoes and I still get slews of spam solicitations to this day.

I think the general consensus for your average citizen and consumer these days is that they are voiceless and powerless in most these situations while lots of posturing and theatrics go on between government and businesses, all while fleecing your average citizen and consumer.

Most see a lot more erosion than we see realized improvements in daily life from rights, regulatory action, or market trends/shifts.

Re: U.S. fines airlines more than $7M for not providing refunds

#60

I spent $600 on a flight from London, to San Diego. There's a stopover in New York - but the connecting flight is delayed for six hours. At this point it's 10pm, but they get a plane, we board, we're actually taxing to the runway... and then the flight is canceled. Turns out it would arrive too late in San Diego for noise regulation. We all get off, I get another flight with a different company next thing in the morn…

Did they not offer to rebook you? I've never had an airline not offer to rebook someone at the airline's expense for an airline-canceled flight, whether in the US or Europe.

As an aside, originally written as a response to a now-deleted comment about noise regulations that shouldn't excuse your compensation situation at all:

> The airport in San Diego is abnormally close to the downtown area more than virtually any other major airport in the US or Europe, barring dedicated urban airports like London City. To paint a picture, while landing there it feels like you're flying between skyscrapers, and that's probably actually the case. If there's any commercial airport that should have noise/time regulations, SAN is probably up there on the list.

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