“If you’ve got a complaint about an airline, or you want to find out more about whether your complaint is valid, oh boy is there a treat in store for you! Earlier this month, the DOT launched a redesigned consumer aviation website at airconsumer.dot.gov..

. The goal of the site is “to make it as easy as possible for consumers to find the information they need to make their air travel experience as smooth and hassle-free as possible…” ” (via consumerist.com  ) by Chris Walters

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read the rest of – Got a complaint about an airline?

From a post on Timeshareforums.com …

How worthless is the new Delta SkyMiles?…  Some on FlyerTalk call it SkyPiles, and for good reason…

I was once a DL SkyMiles Gold Medallion before Rob Borden gutted the program, when I bailed out to NW…

Now that DL has taken over NW, some of my NW Worldperks miles that I had not been able to burn have been involuntarily converted to SkyPiles, and the Jeff Robertson version of SkyPiles is much worse than the Borden version…

I recently checked several TATL (trans-Atlantic) itineraries on the DL and NW websites for award availbility. At NW and in the Borden and pre-Borden days at DL there was reasonable TATL availibility at normal miles, even if you were flexible a few weeks out in high season. Ten months out, almost everything was availible. That has all changed.

After checking US to Dublin for a relative and finding nothing at anything but high miles (and with their unique and disadvantageous 3-tier award system, high means sky high) over multiple months, I checked US to Bucharest over the entire upcoming ten months and found nothing but high miles seats the whole time, including low season. This really stinks.

And DL raised the minimum number of miles for TATL award tickets to 60K, although those seem to be extreme rarities these days. Usually, one has to part with far more miles than that on DL. On AA, in comparision, a low or shoulder season TATL award ticket is 40K miles and they are actually availible at that level. On BMI they are 45K miles all year and they are actually availible.

BMI has even got me one way award tickets KIV to VIE on their partner Austrian airlines’ Friday afternoon flights that are usually sold out and often oversold for a mere 6K miles on several occaisions a month or two before the flight.

FF programs are all about incentives. DL has certainly given me an incentive to avoid buying tickets on it or its partners like the plague. They have stolen my NW miles and they will not get any of my cash or my employers cash for my work related travel in the future.

DELTA = Driving Every Loyal Traveller Away

Carolinian – member

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We have found Delta charges more than other airlines. We used ours to fly to Hawaii last summer. It cost 52,000 miles per person, while my parents, daughter, son-in-law, son and daughter-in-law only used 40,000 flying United. We booked ours as soon as we could as did they. This year we used United. 40,000. At the same time Delta was 78,000. I just checked and Delta is now down to 62,000. We cancelled our American Express Sky Miles Card and are using our United card only. When we talked to American Express, they asked why we were cancelling. We told them two reasons, your fee went up $15 and it was not easy getting flights to where we wanted to go.

The three tier can be a joke. We tried high, medium and low, different days, they were the same amount. Maybe it was just when we tried, but it did not leave a good feeling. A high out and a medium back. No difference. Same with a high out and a low back. It was so crazy, we thought what the heck, try first class. It was marked LOW when economy was marked HIGH. The first class ticket was only 2000 miles more.

We talked to an agent, “We just can’t give our product away”. Had to remind her, that American Express pays for those miles, so the flights are not exactly free using the credit card miles.

d1950m -Member

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Delta indeed seems to have far fewer point saver award tickets for FF’s. If they weren’t cheaper than everyone else we probably wouldn’t fly them. Unfortunately, since all airlines are about at bad as the other, price wins the day, even if we have a tough time spending those miles

dougp26364 – Member

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to follow this thread on Timeshareforums.com

“A quarter-century ago, Ralph Nader’s Aviation Consumer Action Project fought for passenger rights and won major victories, such as the requirement that airlines compensate passengers who are bumped from an oversold flight.

Today, the organization exists in name only, and as carriers focus on controlling costs to stay afloat, consumer protections are getting short shrift: Congress recently let lapse a rule that protected passengers from losing the value of their tickets if they book on an airline that goes out of business.

Apart from an increase in the compensation offered to bumped passengers, there’s been little progress on other fronts. Flight delays have been at record levels for the past two years, with one of every four planes arriving late, and more fliers are enduring long waits on the tarmac. The government’s response has been to form a passel of task forces and commissions, a time-honored Washington tactic.

On each of these panels there is at least one representative from the many organizations that claim to represent the interests of fliers. A look at these self-styled advocates suggests why they haven’t been more effective.

Flyersrights.org has the highest profile, though it was founded less than two years ago by former Napa Valley real estate agent Kate Hanni, after she and her family were stuck on an airport tarmac for nine hours. Hanni runs her organization on a shoestring budget, and its roughly 25,000 members need only sign a petition in favor of a passenger bill of rights to join. Her main goal: a law that would guarantee basic amenities to travelers trapped on a plane for more than three hours. The cause has had some setbacks: A “bill of rights” enacted in New York State was overturned on appeal by the airlines, and in October, Congress left town without acting on a federal version of the bill. Hanni also runs a hotline for fliers to call while stuck on a delayed plane.

The Air Travelers Association appears to be a one-man operation run by Maryland-based attorney and former airline executive David Stempler ” ( via www.msnbc.msn.com) by By Barbara Peterson Condé Nast Traveler

Pointswizard.com Spin: Click here to read the rest of  this article – Flier rights: Who’s really on your side?

“Here’s an interesting situation. When babies fly domestically, they fly for free — but international flights require a ticket and, apparently, a huge fuel surcharge.

From Elliott.org:

The agent asked for our ticket for our son. I will not go into all of the details, but an hour later (and 35 minutes to flight departure), we were forced to pay 332 euros ($423.10) to get my son a ticket so he could return back to the states.

Words cannot describe my outrage at the time, especially the justification of the fees ($320 fuel surcharge – $160 each way??!!). How can they legally charge that much when our ten pound infant does not even have a seat?

Delta responded to this complaint with a form letter explaining that kids need a ticket — which is 10% of the regular fare. The only problem? He’d already paid that fee when he booked the tickets. The $320 was explained to him as a fuel surcharge.

Should passengers who don’t even get a seat and weigh 10 lbs be charged this fee? Seems a little silly doesn’t it?” (via consumerist.com) by Meg Marco (Photo: So Cal Metro )

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