Speaking of pro-passenger decisions:
Two weeks ago I missed my Southwest flight out of Philly. Totally my fault. On my itinerary, I had read "4:50 PM" as "5:40 PM." A guy thing.
No big deal. Southwest just put me on the first flight the next morning.
Last evening, my daughter was flying back from Spain into JFK. Unfortunately, she was scheduled on a Delta flight to complete the trip home. Her Iberian Airlines flight arrived two hours late into JFK. As a result, she missed her Delta flight.
No big deal, I thought.
I thought wrong.
Not only would Delta not put her on the next flight in the morning after already reaping one fare, they would charge her an additional full, one-way fare if she had elected to fly home with them today.
She instead chose to take a flight with a different airline today from LaGuardia instead.
Guess which one?
(Moral of the story: Never schedule yourself on the last Delta flight of the day!)
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You probably saw the chart in USA Today this week that shows how the other airlines are gouging their customers with nickel-and-dime fees.
Could you imagine a Southwest commercial that showed the executives from these other airlines in a meeting (shown as children in business suits - because this issue is so juvenile) discussing ways to extract extra pesky charges from their customers (with a little "c"):
"Nobody likes to sit in the middle seat. Let's make the middle seat free and charge $15 to sit either in the window or aisle seat. We can call it 'premium seating.'"
The next executive laughs, "Yeah, and if anybody rings the attendant call button, we'll charge $5 each time they do. Just like with a doctor, it will be our 'flight attendant consultation fee.'"
A final executive chimes in, "Even better. . . The flight attendant can stand outside the lavatory door with a credit card machine. If anyone has to use the rest room - zap! - we've got 'em!"
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