Virgin Atlantic promises Jerry Levine it will send him a paper ticket for his flight from San Francisco to Johannesburg. But when it doesn’t, the airline is less than helpful in tracking it down. Is his lost ticket a lost cause? And what should he do now?
From the monthly archives:
November 2008
If you’re an American Airlines frequent flier, you might want to check your last mileage statement. There’s evidence the airline is shortchanging its passengers by a mile or two per flight — a potential savings of tens of millions of points a year to the company.
Airlines almost never tell their customers the truth. But from time to time, they tell their own employees — more or less. Here’s a memo sent out to US Airways employees a few days ago, for example.
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Looks like Sigmund Freud is inspiring the marketing folks at Delta Air Lines who have the unenviable task of telling us what else we will have to pay for when we fly. The airline’s latest letter to its customers would probably make the good doctor proud.
What will the airlines start charging us for next? After you read this, you’ll be sorry you asked. Nigel Appleby’s daughter recently got a survey from WestJet which offers some clues about the Canadian carrier’s next move. It’s troubling, to say the least.
What’s so fair about flying? If you said “nothing,” you’re right. Air travel has become so Balkanized in the last few months that flying is — and I want to be careful not to overstate this — almost un-American.
Before Sophia Mei books a cruise online through Travelocity, her screen goes blank and she loses her reservation. Or so she thinks. A phone agent helps here complete her booking, but soon it’s clear that she has two reservations for the same cruise. And before long, a collections agency is after her to pay for both tickets. What should she do?
The European Union’s new regulation on airline ticket transparency, which requires airlines to quote a fare including all taxes, fees and surcharges, went into effect Nov. 1. How will the new rules affect air travelers here and in Europe? I asked Meglena Kuneva, the EU commissioner for consumer affairs.
Brandy Hamill knows the importance of reviewing her credit card statement after booking a trip. If she hadn’t taken a look at hers, she might have missed the strange surcharge when she booked a flight on Travelocity.
What is it with airlines redefining a year? Seems that after I wrote about this bizarre reshuffling of the calendar, more air carriers have joined the fun.
It is no small irony that Daniel Sylvester, a.k.a. the magician Sylvester the Jester, contacted me several days ago to reveal his mistreatment at the hands of the Transportation Security Administration — and to share his troubling conclusions about a federal agency that likes to think of itself as our last line of defense against terrorism.
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• 6 reasons we love to travel now
• The right backpack for your digital camera
• Editors note: Don’t like our politics? Then write for us
• How to reach yours truly
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To say that the major presidential candidates are indifferent to the needs of travelers may be something of an understatement. No matter what your political views may be, it should be clear to you by now that Barack Obama and John McCain take the jet set for granted.
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