Commentary

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Here’s How an Unaccompanied Minor Wound Up on a Plane Headed to Germany Yesterday

by Gary Leff

united-plane
Jul 01 2019

This morning I learned the shocking story of a United Airlines unaccompanied minor being put on a flight to Germany instead of Sweden.

Though an adult put him on the plane — a flight he didn’t have a boarding pass for — he realized he was heading to Germany and let his mother know. That began an odyssey during which she desperately tried to get United’s help to stop the plane from taking off with her son on it. She tweeted, she called, she sat on hold for over an hour and tried to get supervisors to do something. But how did this even happen?

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Woman Kicked Off European Flight for Being Too Sexy

by Gary Leff

easyjet
Jul 01 2019

When you’re flying a European holiday airline, you’re likely if passengers are wearing any clothing at all. And if the budget carrier is flying between the UK and the south of Spain it’s a miracle if they’re sober enough to make it to their seats unassisted.

So the biggest news in a woman being booted off an easyJet flight from Malaga to London Stansted on June 23 was that she still had on her top at all.

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United Puts Unaccompanied Minor on Flight to the Wrong Country

by Gary Leff

united-plane
Jul 01 2019

Last night Brenda Berg reported on Twitter that her son had flown as an unaccompanied minor on United Airlines from Raleigh Durham to Newark, intending to connect on to Stockholm on SAS. However United put him on a Eurowings flight to Germany instead.

I can only imagine this woman’s horror because she couldn’t even get through to United. If you don’t have elite status telephone wait times are interminable, and that’s just to get access to an agent without much motivation or empowerment to do anything that requires more than keystrokes on their computer.

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Free the Slots: Stop Subsidizing Airlines and Protecting Them from Competition

by Gary Leff

british airways plane
Jun 29 2019

Government-granted airline privileges are a driver of industry consolidation. The primary reason Alaska Airlines acquired Virgin America was for access to gates and slots at congested airports. Badly run carriers, that provide poor passenger experience, are protected from market discipline because more innovative startups aren’t permitted to compete and incumbents can continue earning off inferior products because passengers lack other options.

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