Department Of Transportation Proposes New Rules For When Airlines Must Provide Refunds To Passengers

Aug 03 2022

The Department of Transportation has published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would codify circumstances in which a passenger is entitled to a refund for their ticket, and rules for a future pandemic making passengers entitled to a voucher if it’s inadvisable for them to travel for public health reasons. DOT even wants to pre-write customer refunds into future pandemic bailouts of the airlines.

Mostly the rule would formalize current practice, after several airlines broke with convention during the pandemic and held their customers’ money hostage. There is much to like here, as a result of bad actors among the airlines and how tilted the law is in favor of air carriers. But there’s also some overreach as well.

Continue Reading »

Delta Flight Attendants May Unionize Even Though Unionized Crew Are Deeply Unhappy Elsewhere

Aug 03 2022

Airlines are one of the most heavily unionized industries in the country. That works out well for customers and investors at Southwest, but less well at other airlines. Delta, the other historically strong performer, is mostly non-union. Their largest unionized work group is their pilots. Delta’s dispatchers are also unionized.

The biggest flight attendants union is working hard to change that – even as they publish data that 97% of flight attendants they represent at United are deeply unhappy.

Continue Reading »

Loyalty Lobby Blogger Kicked Out Of Bali For False Story About Long Immigration Lines

shrine
Aug 03 2022

The Loyalty Lobby blog recently wrote a post, that apparently went viral, claiming that immigration lines in Bali were five hours long, that the airport had “Become A Total Hellhole” and warning people to stay away. He said people were crying and needed medical attention during their waits.

In fact it took the blogger who writes under the name Sebastian Powell 53 minutes to get through immigration. His story was apparently based on what one traveler told him about their experience.

Continue Reading »

Watch: Tug Get Stuck Underneath An American Airlines Boeing 737 At LaGuardia Airport

Aug 02 2022

The American Airlines Boeing 737-800, came in from Miami on Monday night. It was scheduled to fly as American Airlines 2036 from New York LaGuardia to Charlotte on Tuesday morning. That didn’t quite happen.

Instead, a tug got caught underneath the aircraft. It’s amazing and cringeworthy to watch at the same time. Thankfully everyone involved is ok.

Continue Reading »

The Most Tracked Plane In History Touches Down In Taiwan With Nancy Pelosi On Board

Aug 02 2022

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s military plane has touched down in Taiwan. It’s been the most tracked aircraft movement in history. The Boeing C-40C using call sign SPAR19 took off from Kuala Lumpur and over 300,000 people were tracking the plane in real time at once. So many people were watching it that tracking sites couldn’t handle the server loads.

Continue Reading »