ECONOMY CLASS

Delta Economy “Comfort” fell short — can we get a refund?

delta jetRod and Carol Mourant recently flew from Seattle to Miami on Delta Air Lines, and they didn’t like it. Amid their list of complaints is one that stuck, and made me wonder if maybe they had a case.

They played by the rules, and lost. Now they want my help in righting a wrong.

“There were several events that made the trip less than enjoyable,” says Rod Mourant. “From our perspective, the most irritating were Delta’s attitude and their baggage policy. Through actual experience, we found out that Delta’s carry-on and checked baggage policies are a joke.”
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97 comments

Downgraded on Air France, but where’s their refund?

air franceLisa and Wayne Roccaforte felt lucky to have premium economy class seats on their recent Air France flight from Paris to Houston.

With good reason: The seats have 38 inches of “pitch” and are 19 inches wide, a sharp contrast to the medieval 32 inches of legroom and 17 inches of seat space in economy class. (Seriously, folks, that should be illegal.)

But try as hard as they might, the Roccafortes couldn’t avoid Torture Class on their transatlantic flight.

“We arrived at Charles de Gaulle three hours before our flight to check in and were told that the flight was very full,” remembers Lisa Roccaforte. “The woman that checked us in told us we may be moved to business class.”
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Should I add involuntary downgrade cases to my “do not mediate” list?

I‘m considering an outright ban on certain cases, and maybe you can help me make a decision. I already have an informal moratorium on recovering missing frequent flier miles and mediating expired-passport problems, although every now and then, I’ll let one slip in.

Walter Miller brings us another kind of trouble today: the involuntary downgrade/insufficient refund conundrum. After I tell you his story, I’ll explain why I think his type of problem may deserve to be blacklisted.
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73 comments

US Airways charges family extra to sit together

When Molly Todd tried to secure seat assignments for a recent US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Cancun, Mexico, she made a disappointing discovery.

In order to sit next to her children, ages 7 and 10, she’d have to pay extra for her economy class seat.
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170 comments

Bitten by bugs on my Delta Air Lines flight to New York

Patricia Sweeney says she suffered multiple insect bites on a recent Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to New York. “The bites were most likely bed bugs or fleas,” she says. “I had a severe reaction to them and developed an infection.”

But that wasn’t the worst part. Sweeney, who later that day made a connection to another Delta flight to Shannon, Ireland, notified her flight crew about the bites. She says they gave her three choices:
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36 comments