Airlines

Between that and the general chaos surrounding flying through Heathrow, why would anyone fly them anymore?

BA is still my number one choice flying out of London, crazy baggage rules or no, just because they fly more places I need to get to, direct. Virgin sucks.

(Seriously though, train is good, I will show you how to get it cheap)

Even more sadly, that shitface Michael O'Leary wants to buy Aer Lingus too, and there will be no way to get out of Ireland without giving him money.

xpost, you must swim.

Actually, getting the train to Amsterdam would be cool.

Ryanair's a bit crap, yes, due to gazillion miles between airport and actual destination. BA is great though, I've NEVER had a problem with them (ditto easyJet for teh cheapness)

(or learn to put up with a caravan in Skeggie for the summer)

who has flown Virgin America? thoughts?

I've got to rant a bit.
We should be on our way to Seattle, but they overbooked our flight. They gave us vouchers, which are probably useless. They rescheduled us on another flight with another airline, but it's hours away before we leave, so we just came home to regroup, nap, and eat. This sux. I hope this isn't setting the tone for our vacation!

How did big business get so bad? Why are customers treated like the enemy? Aaaah!

I'm done.

So, has anyone ever taken Frontier Air?

Wait, I'm not done.

I feel so helpless! What if our next flight is overbooked, too? There's no real help for travelers, is there?

be first on the check in on the next flight.

this can happen, airline overbook flights according to past statistics of no shows of passangers, but it's not accurate all the time.
they should,though, if they are serious, offer you a hotel till yr nest flight and vouchers for food

We'll go early, thanks for the advice.

I like Froniter if I'm in one of their Airbus planes. They feel so...wide.
Did you have seat assignments and they still bumped you?

So, has anyone ever taken Frontier Air?

-- Ai Lien, Saturday, 31 May 2008 14:56 (27 minutes ago) Link

Frontier are probably the next airline in line to go out of business. They are already in chapter 11.

4 hour delay with Ryanair yesterday - we were all the way to the gate, having checked in bags and gone through security, before they let us know that the plane hadn't even left Glasgow yet. We were shunted back to arrivals and had to go through passport control to get back into Poland, as it were, and then wait about hours before having to go through security again.

Quite a boring one as I hadn't put enough amusements in my hand luggage for such a long wait along with the flight and didn't have enough spare Polish money left to buy anything at airport prices, so I ended up both insanely bored and thirsty & starving as all hell. Fun budget carrier times.

The lucky bastards going to Copenhagen on some fancy carrier, who were delayed coincidently at around the same time, were given free refreshment vouchers by their airline. I was jealous.

4 hour delay means that under european regs ryanair have to compensate you, plus they should have offered you refreshments and a phone call. You shouldn't have to ask but Ryanair are notorious for not displaying the posters and not abiding by these rules as Michael O'Leary thinks they are a crock.

Will not fly Ryanair Michael O'Leary is a grade A cunt.

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/passenger_rights/doc/2005_factsheet/2005_01_19_apr_factsheet_en.pdf

International freephone hotline:

00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11

Thanks, I didn't know what the rules were, but I got the Ryanair compensations details from their representative at the airport and was planning to give them a call anyway.

I think they may have just sneaked us off under the four hour barrier, as it all got a bit hectic when the plane did actually arrive and a multitude of calls went out to rush us through to the gate ASAP.

We'll see what they say.

frontier fuckin rules. figures that they may be going out of business.

Can’t fault BA, they broke a clip on a backpack I had and replaced it with a brand new £100 top notch one. I got the clip fixed for £2, now I have 2 bags :)

I’m flying with Thompson to Salzburg on the 2nd of next month; I hope they’re ok as I’ve never used them before.

According to flightstats, you hit the runway 4 hrs 5 minutes late. However the free refreshments threshold for a flight of that length is 3 hrs, I think, so even if you pushed back under 4 hrs late they should still have given you something.

http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightStatus/flightStatusByFlight.do?&id=128744756&airlineCode=FR&flightNumber=7853

Can’t fault BA, they broke a clip on a backpack I had and replaced it with a brand new £100 top notch one. I got the clip fixed for £2, now I have 2 bags :)

Similar story with Lufthansa, only they gave me the £100 cash to go off and buy one.

Lufthansa rule. not once did I think the plane was going to crash and OMG German beer.

RIP Oasis Airline

How did big business get so bad? Why are customers treated like the enemy? Aaaah!

Yeah you better get used to it. US domestic flight capacity is getting cut by 15'ish percent, so expect higher fares, more overbooked planes, and more grumpy service. Thank god I have platinum status on American

ATA, Skybus, Aloha - all RIP. Frontier to follow, especially with Southwest expanding in Denver. They're fuuuucked. And expect at least one of the big legacy carriers to go bye-bye as well.

So yeah, use your Frontier voucher ASAP because it might not be around much longer

Oh, and oil went up $11/barrel to $136... More bad news for airlines...

Got the notice that Alaska is only allowing one free checked bag per customer unless 1st class or gold (was 2), and heard that American has started charging $15/bag for the first 2.

an easy way to get platinum status on american is to sign up for the platinum challenge. you call aadvantage customer service, and you have three months to get 10,000 elite qualifying POINTS (not miles.. impt distinction) then you get Plat status for the rest of the year, and if you qualify after like june or july or something, then you get it for the following year too. But make sure you read the rules. BEcause deep discount fares only get you 0.5x the points per mile. But one R/T ticket from the states to Tokyo should put you over the 10,000.

so many perks

i guess an added one being that you dont have to pay the checked bag fee anymore...

american used to (still does?) have this program where you could earn points at select restaurants around town if you paid with a registered card. my old local was one of those places and i'd pay my bar tab with my debit card and earn points that way. originally it was one point per dollar spent then it went up to 3 for one then 5 for one and by the time i stopped drinking there it was up to 10 points per dollar. i can all but guarantee you i got a trip to memphis out of using my debit card to pay my bar bill.

I'm flying Frontier on the 19th & 30th. Plz stay around until July, guys. Please?

oh you'll be fine. i dont think they're going under THAT soon...

I reckoned!

Hardly seems worthwhile since they're all going bust.

-- Tom, Tuesday, December 4, 2001 1:00 AM (6 years ago) Bookmark Link

ugh, praying my upgrade request goes thru JFK-SFO... 5 business class seats left :(

In reference to the delayed Krakow -> Glasgow flight discussed above, I sent a letter off to the Ryanair Compensations department a couple of weeks ago (I figured that for the price of a stamp it was hardly a big waste). If I ever hear back from my missive into the void I'll return here.

so it's like delta gives you all the peanuts and soft drink you want for free (i know wtf), but i don't think you can order cocktails.

can someone verify? i want to know whether or not i can order a bloody fuckin mary on the thing

on my recent delta flight i don't recall anyone around me ordering cocktails, tho someone i was flying with ordered a li'l bottle of JD

for the record, this flight was at 9:30am

that'll work

nervous flyer?

bored flyer :/

Predictably, I never heard back from Ryanair about my above complaint.

Delta only serve drinks on flights above two hours I think, website should reveal. They certainly did LGA-MSP, but not JFK-BOS.

I am starting an Airline Death Pool at work (acquisitions and "mergers" count). I'm putting United down as my top pick.

so my flight is listed as delayed by 4 hours on the Continental website - I called and they said 'it's recommended you arrive by the originally scheduled departure time, then just wait"

it's about a 2 hour drive to the airport, should I go to the airport and wait 4 hours like some shmuck or should I sit home and twiddle my thumbs and live DANGEROUSLY CLOSE to the edge?

If they move it up without leaving you time to make the drive, when is the next flight to yr destination today? On the route I usually fly, there might only be two plans per day going there, and they could be full already. In which case, go the airport.

yeah.

it'll be tomorrow - flying internationally to Hong Kong. my flight's about half empty though, which makes me suspicious that they're trying to cram it full at the last moment by delaying it for 4 hours.

also the reasons given is 'maintenance,' I'm just going to wonder out loud right now whether or not that means my plane will go up in flames as soon as it lifts off, just to jinx the possibility of that event actually happening

Maintenance, my arse. You are right, CO want a full plane if they're flying to HKG.

Do Continental have online check-in yet? If so, do that and turn up for the later scheduled time - if not, you'll have to bite the bullet just in case (because they'll make it INCREDIBLY hard for you to get on another flight/refund your money if it takes off as usual) and loudly demand food and beverage vouchers. And ask for access to the airline lounge if you're feeling bold.

so this morning delta sent me an email with the subject, 'Your Itinerary Has Changed'.
they've moved my outgoing flight up 45 min, which is fine, bc it's still essentially the same flight, but my return flight now has a 2nd connection, through minneapolis, which i painstakingly avoided in my original planning so that i would not risk getting stuck in a snow storm.
what the fuck???

That is some bullshit, IMO, and they should owe you a future upgrade or vouchers for that.

CONSIDER THIS: I missed my direct flight, and was NOT ALLOWED to re-route to a flight with a connection, even though it would have been a downgrade in level of service. They FORCED me to wait for a direct flight so they wouldn't have to pay airport fees for an extra passenger (<---me).

Now they're FORCIBLY downgrading your flight from the one you paid for, also to save themselves money (they probably consolidated two not-full flights) -- by no fault of your own.

I think you shd pwn them.

yeah i'm just figuring out how. there is NO reason i should be taking 3 planes to get back here. in fact, i booked my return out of charlotte to avoid that!!!!

i'm sure it's in the fine print somewhere that they can change all this but that is drastically altering my trip! last year they couldn't even get me home when they kept canceling my flights. now they want me to just hop all over the country? seriously, it would be charlotte-memphis-minneapolis-seattle. that is insane.

i am so sick of air travel. they keep charging more and more and more and then think they can jerk you around however they please? and really, they can, because you are dependent upon them to get you wherever. ugh.

It's way more useful to make a fuss at the airport, because they want to minimize embarrassment. You might be stuck with the extra layover, but you should be able to get some credit or return for it, I think.

On the other hand, call them up and say, screw you, have you SEEN this itinerary?? Maybe they can re-route.

yeah i kind of want them to fix it now before we get into crazy holiday travel zone. but my guess is they won't do anything. sigh.

If you have the time to go to the airport before the crazy Thanksgiving stuff starts, you'll probably get more help from an agent in person than over the phone.

It think the general general Ts&Cs of airline tickets is that they guarantee to get you from A to B is you fulfil certain requirements like turing up and checking in at the allotted time but beyond that nothing is guaranteed, not a seat not a timing, not a number of stops, not even take off.

Things are a little better in europe where they are obliged by law to compensate you in cash (not vouchers) if the deny you boarding on the the flight you booked, re route you or take off excessively late.

Er, they're not going to give you any compensation. Not in a billion years. As ED said, they are guaranteeing to get you from A to B - unfortunately, it doesn't matter how many flights you are now forced to take getting from A to B.

Anyway, I've seen worse from DL.

they canceled my original connection, i'm guessing, and now have me rerouted on the last flights of the day, which will totally screw me if there are any delays. there are more workable options available w/in their flights schedule so i think i'm going to call and demand they give me one of those.

One consolation with DL is that, in my experience, you always make the last flight connections because the connecting flight is always later than the one you are coming off. COming back to pittsburgh on the last DL from atlanta I have never had it be less than 3 hours late leaving ATL, even in good weather.

I realise that this is scant consolation and don't envy your cross country trek next week.

hah it's for december holiday travel, not thanksgiving! they've given me lots of notice that they're screwing me over.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/11/19/335225/european-court-long-delayed-flights-are-not-cancellations.html

Mmm this happened last time I bought flight tickets for xmas...I purchased them pretty far in advance, so they'd be cheap, and I think they changed the itinerary on me 4 times before the actual flight.

VICTORY!!!!!

this worked out amazingly. i think i was originally leaving from CLT because it was cheaper, but since CLT is less than 100 miles from GSP i could get my changed flight out of GSP, through ATL with direct flight from ATL to SEA :D :D :D so i'm probably getting a more expensive but more efficient trip now than i was originally when i would have driven to CLT and had a layover in memphis! and they said there is no charge because the change is due to their schedule changes. ask and you shall receive :)

Airlines advice: My folks are flying round trip California to London. There are similarly priced tickets on United and Continental, with nearly identical itineraries (via Dulles in D.C.).

Which airline would you go with?

the last Continental flight I took was pretty cool - each seat had a built-in LCD screen monitor on the headrest, and you could choose from about a hundred movies to watch. also they had regular power sockets so you didn't need to buy an expensive empower converter.

i'd choose continental as well. i mean, ppl are gonna have bad stories abt every airline. me, i've had good luck with continental from the west coast to europe-surprising lot of empty seats on my flights

I got an email today that said continental was merging with united? or combining with them? so be careful of cross branded routes.

Thanks a lot... yeah, I just saw the article about the United/Continental mega-airline merger on the BBC website! Weird...

dang, southwest has some primo deals going on for the next three days. $39 (0-450 miles), $79 (451-100), and $139 (1001+). only applies to flights between september 8 and november 17.

makes me wish i had somewhere to be this fall (other than where i usually am)

oh, here is an internet hyperlink to said deals http://www.southwest.com/birthdaysale/?src=PREMFBKLNKWOWSALE100622

It says you have to book by June 24th, ie tomorrow!

I had a terrible flight with Continental so I have 2x $200 vouchers to use.. but for every flight I look up on kayak etc, Continental are more than $200 dearer than the cheaper airlines! This seems... wrong?

Is Quantas any good for Economy flights? I'm not massively fussy but have seen mixed reviews.

christmas is canceled mother fuckers https://t.co/xIYhWeCXPv

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) November 29, 2017