Thank You American

I need a flight. That was one of my first thoughts after hearing that my aunt Anne had died. I need to be in North Carolina, not London, so I called American Airlines.

I explained to the woman on the other end of the phone, I don’t remember her name, that there had been a death in the family and I understood most airlines had special “bereavement” fares. It felt disrespectful even to ask. Someone has died, so can I get a cheap ticket please. But the American Airlines representative handled it all beautifully. She explained that the airline understood that there were times when a passenger was not able to book in advance. She checked availability on the next morning's flight, quoted a fare that I would have received had I booked way in advance, reserved a nice aisle seat at the front of the plane, processed my credit card and sent me my e-ticket, all in a matter of minutes.

I’ve said tons of ugly things about airlines in this blog. Still, I thought I’d use this chance to thank American for being so nice about one of the saddest requests I’ve ever had to make.

FYI – American Airlines has a daily non-stop from London Heathrow to Raleigh Durham Airport with a terrific new terminal where I cleared US Customs and Immigration in less than 10 minutes. Right now, I can’t think of a nicer or more efficient place for foreign nationals to enter the United States.

There's No Such Thing as a Free Flight

Everyone knows that there is no such thing as a free lunch. I know this. I've heard it from my parents and told it to my children. So why did I waste an hour of my time chasing an illusion?

I was supposed to be working on an article for my church magazine but found it hard going and decided to reward myself with a bit of distracting email. In my inbox was this weeks Top 20 travel deals from Travelzoo where the editors comb hundreds of companies for their best sales and offers. It’s a bit of middle class travel porn, fun to look at but I’ve never been tempted to do more than that.

Then one of those offers from Ryanair caught my eye

£0.02 return flights to Europe including ALL taxes.

Wow, I wonder where you can go? Maybe I’ll surprise the editor with a quick trip somewhere if it really is only £0.02 per round trip flight.

I do lots of research and spend lots of time doing it. Then I decide I will only use the airport close to our home in southwest London because the expense and hassle of getting to the northern airports ruins the fun and savings. This pretty much limits our options to Ireland. So I find some free flights to Dublin, spend lots of time filling out stuff and declining the extra charges for priority boarding, luggage and travel insurance. I confirm that I am a citizen of an EU country and have the docs to prove it (you can’t check in online unless you are, otherwise, there is a charge for airport check-in). I provide all my credit card details and then, Ryanair hits me up with £16.04 of handling charges for using a credit or debit card – or any card for that matter.

OK, I've had enough. I exit the Ryanair site having successfully wasted an hour and not bought any free tickets which really cost £16.04.

You were right Dad, about a lot of stuff and especially about those lunches.

Image courtesy of the San Diego Zoo website.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Passenger Refunds

Recently, a NoCrowds reader sent us information about refunds due British Airways and Virgin Atlantic passengers resulting from a proposed $200 million (£102 million) settlement of a class action case over price fixing. Ordinarily, we’re not big supporters of class action suits, feeling that the lawyers are the only real beneficiaries, but when we saw in the press coverage that Goldman Sachs was expected to receive a multimillion dollar payout (as if they need it), we thought it would be a good thing to pass along the information and help NoCrowds readers who qualify get in on the action. This story first appeared on February 15 so if it is old news to you, we apologise. If not, here’s the deal.

If you bought a British Airways or Virgin Atlantic ticket for a transatlantic or long haul flight anytime between August 11, 2004 and March 23, 2006, you could be entitled to a refund of up to £20/$40 for that flight. All the details you need to register are on the British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Passenger Refunds websites. If you bought your ticket in the United States go to http://www.airpassengerrefund.com/ and if you bought your ticket in the UK go to http://www.airpassengerrefund.co.uk/.

Fight Airline Abuse

Have you ever heard of EC Regulation 261/2004? Did you know that as an European air passenger you have rights, regardless of your nationality or the cost of your ticket? In place since February 17, 2005, I had never heard of EC Regulation 261/2004 until my sister showed up in London with €1,200 cash in her pocket after being bumped off an Alitalia flight from Rome with her children. Come to think of it, there is nothing in my recent experience with air travel which has given me any indication that passengers had any rights. This looked interesting.

Bearing in mind that I am pretty useless in both following regulations and explaining them, here is what I have found out about EC Reg. 261/2004

The regulation applies to any passenger (regardless of nationality) on any scheduled and non-scheduled (charter) flight within the EU and any flight into the EU on an EU carrier (For example, British Airways from New York to London).


If you meet the above criteria and have met your responsibilities as a passenger (holding a valid ticket, arriving on time etc.) and your flight is cancelled, seriously delayed or you are denied boarding, there is a standard set of rules for how the airline must treat you, no matter how little you paid for your ticket.


Depending on the circumstances, the airlines are obligated to provide passengers with assistance such as meals, accommodations and communication facilities, offer re-routing and refunds, pay compensation of up to €600 per passenger and proactively inform passengers of their rights under the Regulation.

Of course, there is wording in the Regulation about “circumstances beyond their control” which the airlines can use to try to get out from underneath the obligation to pay you the money but from what I was reading, current enforcement of this regulation often favours the passenger.

So here is my point. The next time you experience a cancellation, delay or are denied boarding, start telling the airline that under EU Reg. 261/2004 you are due assistance and compensation. Ask to see the information where they proactively inform you of your rights under the Regulation. If they can't or won't produce it, they are already non-compliant. If they don’t “get it”, start talking about reporting the incident to a National Enforcement Authority such as the Air Transportation Council in the UK. Ask to talk to a manager and start talking about sanctions for non-compliance. This is no panacea for the chaos that is air travel these days, but if more of us knew our rights and were prepared to fight for them, it would be a start.



Useful information on EC Reg 261-2004 and many other issues related to air travel can be found at the Air Transportation Council website http://www.caa.co.uk/.



Click here for a copy of EC Reg. 261-2004