Since this is the Pit: fuck you (and fuck the airlines).
U.S. airlines made tens of billions of dollars in profit over the last decade. They didn’t put any of this money away for a rainy day, and they sure as hell didn’t spend it on their customers (which they have nickel-and-dimed to an increasingly greater extent with ever-higher bullshit fees* and every decreasing amounts of legroom).
It’s bad enough that the airlines have once again privatized their profits while trying to socialize their losses (in demanding a bailout from the U.S. government), but you think they should also be able to hold onto their customers’ money for no service in return? :rolleyes:
There’s no guarantee the airlines won’t start declaring bankruptcy, and the travel vouchers they are offering now may or may not be worth anything in the future. Even if that doesn’t happen, why should the airlines get to hold onto customers’ money for an indefinite period of time until it is safe to fly again?
More cites: U.S. airlines want a $50 billion bailout. They spent $45 billion buying back their stock.
For what it’s worth, United Airlines recently canceled one leg of my upcoming international flight (making the trip unworkable even if there wasn’t a public health crisis).
Per the DOT rules, I was entitled to a full refund. However, United instead told me that they were “not offering refunds at this time.” The best I got out the representative was that if I didn’t use the travel credit within a year, I could then ask for a refund then.
This was clearly against the rules, emphasized by an enforcement notice issued by DOT, so I called back the next day. It took two more phone calls, but I finally got a full refund a few days ago.
In terms of companies that are doing something right—
Showtime, including their On Demand titles is free in April, on my cable system ( Spectrum). I’m not sure if this is a gift from Spectrum or Showtime, though. But it’s been nice to have while I’m grounded. And HBO GO is offering a wide selection of free titles.
The developer of Candy Crush offered unlimited lives on their games for the first week in April - that’s expired now - but it was still a thoughtful gesture,.
I got my money from United. I called them and referred to the regulation and they gave me back my money minus some airport fee of $30. I don’t think I’m going to forget their behavior going forward, they will have to represent a noticable discount to American to get my business.
Glad to hear that, though I would try to get your airport fee back, too. If any segment of your flight is canceled or significantly modified by the airline, they are supposed to refund everything, including seating fees, bag fees, etc.
In any event, good job on being persistent with calling them. It’s always best to exhaust all attempts in dealing directly with a large business, starting with phone calls to representatives and supervisors, and escalating to emails and letters to people higher in the company, before resorting to more extreme measures like credit card disputes and lawsuits.
A police officer in Chicago instead filed a federal lawsuit last week. IMHO, this seems to be both jumping the gun and short-sighted (since if he wins, his lawyer will get a portion of the settlement), unless he’s hoping for punitive damages.
Seriously? Probably a million people caught a virus from somebody they sat next to at the movies or on a subway train. They’re just not immediately identifiable.
Major League Baseball, under some delusion that they will be actually playing baseball games in front of fans anytime soon…gets sued by fans for ticket refunds:
And big business just can’t help to wet their beaks into federal funds meant for small business. The list of Shame is here:
Leaving the middle seat empty is not social distancing, sorry Government Official, dumb idea.
As to the CEO, if you can’t make money with 33% empty seats, you could raise the cost of the remaining seats by 50% and it would work out, wouldn’t it. So no geniuses in this one at all.
Be that as it may, saying you’ll refuse to do business with a country because of their social distancing measures, effective or not, is always bad optics. You would look better saying we disagree and are working with the country to see if we can come up with a compromise, and here is our idea:
Whole Foods used to have a “liberal” image. Guess that ended when Amazon bought them and they join their giant owner in union busting when worker’s rights are needed more in decades:
Disney, you know Magic Kingdom, Mickey Mouse, Wish upon a Star, all that warm and fuzzy stuff? Yet another company cashing in for its fat cat stockholders, while fucking 100,000 employees:
The Los Angeles Lakers, a NBA franchise valued at $4 billion returns a $4.6 million loan from the Paycheck Protection Program, part of the recent COVID-19 stimulus package:
. . .after “learning” that the program was out of funds.
No you didn’t. You grabbed the cash and only returned it after you got caught by the media. In other words, you would have kept the loan if you could get away with it.
