Passenger rights tips

The newest FAA reauthorization bills in the House and the Senate include several proposals that could improve air travel for consumers, as well as two terrible ideas and one that could be a blockbuster for travelers fed up with unreasonable airline fees.

Two fast-growing budget carriers that serve the U.S. from Europe, Norwegian and WOW Air, both recently announced cancellations of several transatlantic routes.

The merger of Alaska Airlines and Virgin America has left many travelers bemoaning the impending disappearance of Virgin, one of the industry’s best-loved airlines, as it’s folded into Alaska.

Four airlines—United, American, Southwest, and Alaska—have been fined by the Department of Transportation (DOT) for “providing inaccurate information to passengers about how much compensation they could potentially receive for being denied boarding against their will, or “bumped” on oversold flights, and for lost, damaged, or delayed baggage.”

Airline fees remain a “pain point” for many travelers, and the pain is getting worse. Despite all the focus, however, you still see some public confusion. The latest exhaustive report (104 pages!) from IdeaWorks presents a good starting point for a dispassionate assessment of the realities and myths of airline fees.

Say you reserve at a hotel that looks nice in its online display, but when you arrive, you find a surly receptionist, inoperative AC, and cockroaches. And say that you report what you experienced, accurately and honestly, on TripAdvisor. Would you then be shocked to receive a $500 credit card charge as a “penalty” for violating the hotel’s contract prohibiting bad reviews? That’s actually happened to a few travelers, but it won’t happen any longer after the Consumer Review Fairness Act outlaws “no bad reviews” language in consumer contracts.

Basic economy fares have taken the airline industry—well, the big three of United, American, and Delta anyway—by storm, for better or worse. On one hand, so-called bare fares give customers more options and the ability to (theoretically) save a few bucks in exchange for stripped-down services.

When it comes to commercial air transportation, consumers have two bottom lines. First, it must be cheap. And second, it must be safe.

If you’re among the many air travelers who believe that the airlines have conspired to keep airfares high by restraining capacity growth, you’re about to have that suspicion reality-checked in a court of law.

The recent computer meltdowns at Southwest and Delta, two of the country’s most efficient and financially sound carriers, resulted in thousands of cancelled and delayed flights, disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of travelers. And they were just the latest incidents in what has come to seem like a systemic problem.

If current practice is any indication, cellphone calls aboard U.S. flights might as well be banned. Technically, that’s not currently the case. But it might be soon.

One of the many irritants of travel-rewards programs is expiring miles. Typically, miles or points expire if there’s no account activity during a two- or three-year period. It’s a policy that’s irrelevant to high-frequency travelers, because they’re constantly on the go, pushing the expiration date forward with every trip. But for the great majority of travelers, who fly infrequently, the danger of allowing hard-earned miles to disappear is clear and present.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer has looked into United’s Basic Economy fares, set to launch early next year, and he doesn’t like what he sees. He’s particularly outraged that the new ultra-low-priced fares will restrict customers to a single small carry-on, leaving the overhead bins for the exclusive use of those paying higher fares.

Earlier this summer, two of the world’s most financially and operationally sound airlines, Delta and Southwest, were forced to delay and cancel thousands of flights due to problems with their respective software systems.

Love ’em or hate ’em, most travelers would agree that kids on a plane can make for a stressful flight experience.

Airline pricing transparency: Who’s for it, and who’s against it?

Free meals in coach—that relic of a bygone, gilded era of aviation—might be making a comeback.

In his opening remarks before yesterday’s House Transportation Committee “Oversight of U.S. Airline Customer Service” hearing, committee chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) referred to two recent incidents: United’s forcible removal of a passenger on flight UA3411, and an American Airlines flight attendant’s tussle with a passenger over her child’s stroller.

First-class seats aren’t exactly meant for the average leisure traveler. Their expensive perks (unlimited drinks, hot towels, lie-flat seats) aren’t must-haves for most people. But what happens when a low-cost U.S. airline adopts their own first-class experience? I tried flying JetBlue Mint to find out.

Smaller seats, cheaper flights, passengers behaving badly—whether you believe flying has improved or gotten worse in recent years, until now the skies have remained a Wild West in at least one way: in-flight sexual assaults. The FBI said that in 2018 it saw “more reports of in-flight sexual assault than ever before.”

If you like the idea of using a travel agent to ensure you’re getting the best hotel deal, but hate the idea of contacting one and waiting for their search to end, SnapTravel may be the site you’ve been waiting for. It’s a half-bot, half-human hotel booking service that can secure some of the lowest negotiated hotel deals around, and it sends them right to your Facebook Messenger inbox.