British Airways booked a husband and wife from Washington DC via London to Granada, West Indies instead of Granada, Spain. They claimed their confirmation didn’t give airport codes or countries, and just said ‘Grenada’. They discovered the mixup when they boarded the flight from London back to the Caribbean. They sued, representing themselves. British Airways successfully removed the case to federal court, where they sought a dismissal. The court ruled against British Airways, instead remanding the case back to Superior Court. BA had ruled that the Montreal Convention applied and claims under that Convention had to be heard in federal court. Instead, the DC Circuit Court ruled (.pdf) that the claim didn’t arise from actual transportation covered by the Convention but instead from the making of the booking itself which would not be covered.. and…
About Gary Leff
I’m Flying Economy More and More.. and Loving It!
Four years ago I told you about my so-called travel life. It isn’t all suites in the air and on the ground. Two years ago I even shared my renewed appreciation for coach. Well I’ve been flying more coach recently. See the Most Valuable Way to Use Miles for Domestic Flights. The truth is – under the right circumstances, it isn’t bad at all. Although I get that my circumstances are not the same as the median traveler’s. I’ve got a day trip (miles and points-related, so on my own dime). I used British Airways Avios for the 612 mile flight, 9000 miles roundtrip instead of spending $650. I finally got Global Entry a year ago, so i don’t have to rely on my elite status to qualify for TSA PreCheck. This morning the PreCheck…
Here’s Why I Don’t Want American Airlines to Offer Unlimited Complimentary Upgrades to Elites
With the merger between US Airways and American Airlines, the two carriers are in the midst of working through their differences and figuring out the policies and procedures that will prevail when the two airlines actually combine into one. We don’t know for sure when that will happen. I’m still betting it’s about two months into 2015, but there’s real risk that if the airlines aren’t ready that there will be an operational disaster — Delta and Northwest’s combination wasn’t smooth but it was much better than US Airways/America West (everyone was told to check-in online when the airlines combined, but even the website and kiosks didn’t work). And both were better than the disaster of United-Continental with missing reservations, missing miles, and hours-long telephone hold times. Nonetheless, one of the major issues to be…
Hey, Orbitz, I Used to Live in East L.A., Man!
I found myself needing a car from an in-town rental car location. I don’t remember the last time I rented a car that I didn’t pick up at an airport. The good news is I would be saving on airport taxes, at least. I turned to Orbitz first for a quick search, to get an order of magnitude sense of what I would be looking at. They give a nice grid of different rental companies and vehicle types. Wow, great price jumped out at me. My quest was pretty much over, just as it started! So I went ahead and made the booking, from a National Car Rental in-town location I didn’t even know existed. Glad I checked the confirmation. I wanted to figure out just where I’d be picking up the car. I searched…
Maldivian Domestic Lounge, Flight, and Boat Transfer to the Park Hyatt Maldives
Passengers arriving in the Maldives often have a bit of a ‘black box’ getting between the airport and their resort. With the ‘better’ properties either they’ll be taken directly from the airport by boat or seaplane to their resort, or they’ll need to take a domestic flight first to a farther out domestic airport before making the journey to their island home. In either case, these properties meet you on arrival once you clear customs and guide you the rest of the way. That can actually be frustrating for the super-intense planner, although with questions to your resort they will try to reassure you. For properties that require a domestic flight, you’re somewhat at the mercy of the domestic airline whose flight schedules are far from fixed. But the resort is on top of it.…
Got $180mm? The Dirtiest Hotel in America is For Sale (and How to Actually Benefit from TripAdvisor Reviews)
The ‘dirtiest hotel in America’ is for sale. It’s expected to fetch $180 million. The Hotel Carter is on West 43rd St off Times Square. “It’s the dirtiest, and best located hotel in New York City,” Lawrence Wolfe, who has been handling the sale for the seller, said Tuesday. “It was under-managed and neglected.” The 1930s property was voted nation’s dirtiest in poll TripAdvisor discontinued in 2012. I don’t put much stock in TripAdvisor surveys. I think TripAdvisor is great for: User photos to get a real visual sense for a property, although I don’t put too much stock in a single photo of a problem (I want to see the same problem recur before I write off a hotel). Patterns in reviews. I don’t want to know how many people loved a hotel, I…
North Korea Kim Jong-un’s Private Jet
Here’s North Korea’s Kim Jong-un in his private jet. (HT: @CurtisMelvin) “It’s good to be the king.” – Mel Brooks Don’t forget that communist North Korea’s state-owned Air Koryo offers more than one class of service. Even though he’s not a qualified pilot, the North Korean dictator apparently likes to steer the plane. He reportedly has a private island as well. While it’s always wise to be skeptical of good news reports coming out of North Korea, it’s possible that some North Koreans are getting new televisions so it may not be all bad. And this is arguably better than commandeering scheduled commercial aircraft for your travels as happens elsewhere. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail…
Three Cards You Rarely Hear Me Talking About But That 17 Of You Should Still Consider
Let me introduce you to three cards you rarely hear me talking about. Reader Matt K. e-mailed asking whether — as a Minnesota resident — he should consider getting The Sun Country uFly Rewards Card. I’m neither a fan of Sun Country Airlines, or of their rewards program. They went revenue-based a year ago, and they offer a low cost product. I view the program as suffering from the Greyhound Road Rewards problem (where the ‘reward’ for taking 10 bus trips is… another bus trip). But for someone who will fly Sun Country, in a place where it’s convenient to do so, a free flight for getting a getting a credit card isn’t a terrible choice. That’s especially true because Sun Country’s card is issed by First Premier Bank. You usually see me recommend really…
Hyatt Points at 1 Cent: the Only Daily Getaways Deal So Far Worth Telling You About
US Travel Association/American Express ‘Daily Getaway’ deals come around once a year. They used to be fantastic Groupon-style deals (back when Groupon was good). Limited in quantity, they offered deep discounts on things that were actually good. They weren’t all good, I found the first two weeks of 2012’s deals disappointing. But they’ve on the whole gotten worse. That’s not entirely about price, in cases where they’re selling hotel points (usually marketed as hotel stays) those points just don’t go as far as they used to. Same price, same number of points, you’ll get less in Marriott with big award category shifts, Hyatt with a new more expensive award category 7 and other changes. Wyndham devalued their award chart, and also transfers of their points to miles (so buying discounted Wyndham points as a means…
The DOT Wants to Clamp Down on Forums and Blogs Spreading Mistake Fares and Having them Honored
The Department of Transportation posted its notice of proposed rulemaking (and thus opened the ‘comment period’) on changes it wants to make to consumer protection rules. But one nugget is included of interest to ‘travel hackers’ that could actually weaken their protections. Cranky Flier reviewed DOT’s plans for making airline fees more transparent, even on third party aggregator sites like Kayak and Google Flights. Today he went back to those proposed rules and called them not terrible. Cranky pointed out something that actually got me to read the proposed rulemaking. DOT defends the policy of requiring airlines to honor mistake fares, but also calls out “bad actors” who are buying mistake fares in “bad faith.” The rulemaking reveals the Department of Transportation’s intention to weaken one aspect of existing consumer protections.
