New Regulations Will Force Airlines to Refund Air Travelers for Broken Wi-Fi - ExtremeTech:
Air travel must often be approached with the same attitude you'd bring to a game show: wary yet eager as you throw caution to the wind and embrace the unknown in the name of a new adventure. Maybe you'll have a good experience, with straightforward ticket prices and working in-flight Wi-Fi; maybe you'll lose everything at the last minute, having been hit with a canceled flight just moments after unexpectedly having to pony up for a checked bag. A lack of airline accountability can make for a whirlpool of exasperating (and financially painful) circumstances. Soon, this could change, as yesterday the White House proposed a slew of regulations that would protect air travelers from shady airline practices.
First up on the docket would be disclosing flight-related fees upfront. As of now, you often don't see extraneous fees until you go to pay for a flight. Other times, it's not clear what fees might be charged to change your flight, or you could get to the gate without ever having learned the cost of sitting with your child. The White House's new rule would require that airlines and travel search websites "disclose upfront—the first time an airfare is displayed—any fees charged to sit with your child, for changing or canceling your flight, and for checked or carry-on baggage."
A second proposed rule would require airlines to refund travelers for in-flight Wi-Fi that they purchased but couldn't use. (Yes, you read that right: airlines can currently charge you for internet connectivity, fail to provide it, and then refuse to give you a refund.) Though only Wi-Fi was named in the US Department of Transportation's press release, the rule would also protect other services purchased yet never fulfilled.
What sort of fees have you unexpectedly been hit with on a flight?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 02 2022, @07:11AM (5 children)
New Regulations Will Force US Airlines To Refund Passengers For Nondelivery of Services
(Score: 3, Flamebait) by requerdanos on Sunday October 02 2022, @07:48AM
Well, it's Extremetech, so including some sort of tech in the headline makes sense.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Sunday October 02 2022, @08:07AM (1 child)
Presumably the T&Cs say words like "we might bother to give you all this nice stuff but we might not".
I wonder if contract law is "unfair", in that advertising can say anything and the contract/T&C/EULA can disclaim any liability? So legislature are forced to legislate for this or that specific instance of poor advertising practice.
"Our plane has unlimited chocolate fountains and flying magic elephants*"
*subject to availability
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 02 2022, @06:59PM
My favorite is "void where prohibited"
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday October 03 2022, @03:00AM (1 child)
Not fees, unfulfilled promises. I got flown up to Martha's Vinyard with promises of a job from some guy Ron something-or-other but I'm still waiting for the promised job to appear. I want my money back!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 03 2022, @03:17AM
Did you at least get to 'own any libs' when you got there?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 02 2022, @12:12PM (2 children)
They could just stop offering the service if it becomes more trouble than it's worth.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 02 2022, @01:47PM
They could also offer free Wi-Fi and not have to worry about refunding anything.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday October 03 2022, @09:50PM
That is not an option. Everything is cloud connected these days. How is someone going to check that their cloud connected pet food feeder is feeding their pet. Or look in and make sure their pet might still be alive. Or other things that are really important, like Twitter.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday October 02 2022, @03:48PM (7 children)
Hop a plane, go wherever, and the air travel was the biggest part of the fun.
Anymore it is a dreaded means to an end, as I suppose an industry that emits so much carbon per customer should be. Still, they have fallen a long long way from the mysoginistic caterers to the wants and desires of businessmen and tourists.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 02 2022, @05:07PM (6 children)
Came here to say the same things. A note to all you younger folks, air travel really used to be fun, I did enough that I had frequent first class upgrades--which meant a complimentary drink as I boarded and one or two more if desired.
The counter people were friendly and helpful if something was amiss, now there are kiosks with limited capability for customer service.
Security was by sensible people, not idiot TSA drones.
The flight crews were generally happy and even joked around--I remember one flight in the evening that was nearly empty, the flight attendant reciting the emergency script made all sorts of funny substitutions to the text.
On longer flights, I could ask the meal servers if there was an extra meal...and often get one.
Seats had more knee room (I'm tall).
Now? If I can get there in a day or so, I drive instead. Or don't go at all, Zoom (etc) is often good enough.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday October 02 2022, @06:00PM (5 children)
My Aunt was a stewardess for National in the 70s, pre-de-regulation. Then she was "bought" by PanAm, and she continued with them until PanAm's bankruptcy which I believe was in the late 80s/early 90s? Anyway, with National she was well paid with travel perks galore. While at PanAm they introduced "B-scale" flight attendants, the new hires who basically worked for minimum wage-ish plus flight discount benefits. Those flight attendants were... less attentive than the ones who had been doing it for decades.
The whole industry has been circling the drain of a Port-o-let for a while now... competition can do that.
In the late 80s, I took interviews with bigger companies (DuPont, NRC) that I had basically no intent of working for, A) for the experience of the interview, and B) because air-travel, on the planes and in the airports even, was fun, and C) they covered all costs including room, ground transport, and a per-diem for meals. In the mid-2000s I wanted to move cross-country, but due to the state of air-travel at the time I only took interviews with pretty attractive sounding offers over the phone, even killed a couple of potential interviews over the phone because: who the hell wants to spend all that time in airports and folded into too-small plane seats for an opportunity that sounds less than stellar, even if it is all expenses paid? Since then it seems like it has only gone downhill - our trip to the Caribbean in the late 2010s had no option but air-travel, and the transfer experience at MIA on the way home was Khafkaesque... we did get home on the planned night, only 2 hours late, but not without outrageous stress the whole time from landing in MIA - waiting on the tarmac 45 minutes for a gate to open, the US Customs entry procedure was outrageous - we only got through in time to catch our late outbound flight because we were a pitiful family with all US passports given a bump past about a 50-deep queue for internationals - then through the levels of baggage claim and another inspection line, then a sprint across the terminal to our departing gate where we arrived 10 minutes after scheduled departure, but it didn't actually close the boarding doors for another 90 minutes, but we got to spend most of that time lined up standing, waiting, outside - so those plans of having a bite to eat during our transfer window were shot, but hey, 2 rounds of juice and crackers is plenty to get you through from 9am to midnight, right?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 02 2022, @07:14PM (1 child)
The lack of competition did that. We used to have a bunch of different airlines, that could still cooperate and accept your ticket between them if a flight was cancelled, or even if you arrive late to the airport. Remember when you could just grab an empty seat and go?
Besides all that, the air isn't very clear anymore. The haze is global now from all the contamination
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 03 2022, @05:26AM
Troll?
Obviously modded by some punk with no idea what it was like to fly 50 years ago
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday October 02 2022, @07:51PM (2 children)
Pan Am's bankruptcy was in the very early 90's (1991) as a result of the Lockerbie bombing [wikipedia.org] in 1988.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday October 03 2022, @01:20AM (1 child)
One bomb didn't single handedly take down the airline, it was on thin ice for a long time before that.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 03 2022, @04:50PM
Correct, it took more than one bomb to take down PanAm. My guess is the competition had lower costs (thus more profit)?
I flew them from JFK (NY City) to London once, just before they folded. It was a fluke, my Northwest Air flight was cancelled for some reason, I got to a pay phone, waited on hold, and raised a stink (politely) with NWA--and they re-booked me on PanAm. It was wonderful, the cabin crew were experienced and pleasant. The plane interior looked a little tired (due for upgrade) but it was spotlessly clean and odorless, the food was good and everything was just smooth. I had the impression that the whole PanAm culture was focused, from long experience, on making air travel the best it could be for the customers. That one flight sold me, I would have gladly used PanAm again, but by my next overseas trip they were gone.
Never flew on TWA, my guess is they were similar to PanAm, real experts in creating a good customer experience...but knocked out by cheaper competition.
Fast forward about 10 years, traveling between France and England on Ryan Air in the mid-2000s. The cabin crew insisted on trying to sell me things through the whole flight, wouldn't let me nap, even when I asked them to not disturb me. Yuck.