Last weekend’s blizzard was a warning to air travelers: Winter is only starting, and when bad weather moves in, your flight schedule isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
Posts tagged as:
delay
The October tarmac delay numbers have just been released by the Transportation Department, and there’s good news: No one had to wait on a parked plane for more than four hours.
That’s a question worth asking after the Secretary of Transportation posted a response to a column I wrote about tarmac delays.
Unlike some of my esteemed travel writing colleagues, I won’t make the mistake of confusing a few tarmac delay activists with the entire passenger rights movement. Still, the August airline performance numbers, which have just been released by our friends at the Department of Transportation, merit a closer look.
Almost seven hours on the tarmac? Have these people lost their minds?
Another day, another tarmac delay.
Oh no, they’ve done it again.
Passengers on ExpressJet Airlines flight 2816 from Houston to Minneapolis spent the night trapped inside a small airplane parked at the Rochester, Minn., airport, “complete with crying babies and the aroma of over-used toilets,” according to reports.
As the airline industry toasts its latest on-time arrival record — 79.1 percent of flights in April arrived on schedule, up just a fraction from the previous month and about one percentage point higher than a year ago — no one seems to be paying much attention to the price we pay for this improvement.
If you’re delayed on your way to the airport because of a summer thunderstorm, you might think you’re out of luck. Most airlines now gladly charge you a full walk-up fare for the next flight when you don’t get to the gate on time — even if it’s for a reason beyond your control. But here’s a secret.
American Airlines recommends you check in two hours before an international flight. But Fran Mingle’s friend showed up two hours and twenty minutes before her flight from Orlando back to Japan, missed the plane and had to pay $2,600 to get home. What gives?
Does an airline owe you anything for a five-day delay? William Danylchuk was held up in Syracuse for the better part of the week, while trying to get home to Des Moines for Christmas. American Airlines offered him nothing for the inconvenience. Can it do that?
If you’re making air travel plans for the Christmas holiday, you’ll want to check out these numbers from a new site called Airport Butler. A review of last year’s on-time data by the airline statistics company suggests you might want to avoid flying on JetBlue, Northwest or going anywhere near the Minneapolis airport.
As we observe the American Labor Day holiday today, here’s a document that could probably use a little work: the government just released a draft of its contingency plans for lengthy airline onboard ground delays.
There are 15 cities without American Airlines service this morning. A total of 255 aircraft — all MD80s — are grounded. That translates into 991 flights canceled today, resulting in hundreds of thousands of passengers jamming the phone lines at the world’s largest air carrier.
Think you’re protected by European consumer laws like EU 261/2004, which forces air carriers to compensate passengers in the event of a delay or cancellation? Think again. A report by the UK watchdog Air Transport Users Council concludes airlines have found a clever way around the rule.
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