Then another part thinks: But it was in writing. It’s fair game.
Free fares on Northwest Airlines posted last Thursday were snatched up by happy travelers, then reneged a few days later. The spokesman from Delta Airlines (who bought out Northwest back in October) confirmed that it was an error and said that the only people he would honor would be those customers already in flight. The tickets for everyone else–who started planning their trips around these tickets–would be cancelled.
The fare wasn’t posted on nwa.com or delta.com–just on a few other sites like Travelocity. Most flights affected departed from the Twin Cities.
Does it come as a surprise that something like is already covered in legal print? Northwest’s fare tariff states that it reserves the right to cancel a ticket if it was bought at an erroneous fare. No doubt the airline could use the money and isn’t eager to give away free tickets willy-nilly.
But I still think that as a token of good faith, a customer service-based airline would honor the tickets. It’s easier to keep the good standing of current customers and the friends that they tell, than to gain new customers after these folks have been put off, right?
When any Virgin company throws a party, it’s usually in your best interest to show up. Whether this is a Virgin American inaugural flight with Victoria’s Secret models, a Virgin Galactic tour in the Mojave Desert or plain old marketing schlep, you’re almost always guaranteed to meet a few friendly faces, have a few drinks and learn something interesting about the Virgin brand.
Last week’s introduction to V Australia‘s 777 in Los Angeles was no different. Members from all branches of the media were on hand to witness the aircraft’s arrival from the factory in Washington, and to keep us entertained at the Flight Path Museum (just off the LAX tarmac,) organizers had a DJ, snacks, all sorts of literature and even a faction of the USC marching band and cheerleaders (?!) on hand to play a few tunes.
Most interesting, however, were the people. As usual, our old friend The Cranky Flier was on hand to deliver the down and dirty on all of the recent airline gossip (“OMG OMG did you hear about the Virgin America numbers??”), Juliana from Jaunted was armed with her Twitter entourage and suits from Expedia, Hilton and other travel brands were on site. On the flight’s arrival, Richard Branson also brought a few celebrities, including Australian celebrities, Brett Godfrey, the CEO of V Australia and other fancy headliners. Cranky also swears that he saw Chase from House MD, but I think that was just the Wild Turkey talking. %Gallery-44370%Once the tour of the aircraft started, I found myself walking towards the airplane with Richard Branson and Godfrey, the former of whom barged up the steps towards the door while the latter ushered me up. And as I passed the first class cabin and rounded into the aircraft bar, I suddenly found myself standing in the compartment alone with Branson.
I asked him if we could jump on the beds. In my defense, the invitation that I got from V Australia specifically said that we could, but I doubt that he knew that. Branson looked at me like I was some sort of squirrel and replied “Sure… In a minute,” and promptly opened up a bottle of Champagne.
Then the mayor of LA, Antonio Villaraigosa, showed up and ruined all of the fun, sucking down a glass of Champagne and spouting off some senseless marketing drivel. With him came the rest of the media, including questions like “Will trips to Australia be non-stop?” (Answer from Branson: Well, it’s over the ocean, so I should hope so.) so I headed to the back of the aircraft to meet some more people and take some pictures.
Finding myself in the cockpit, I ran into Ken Pascoe, one of the pilots of the aircraft who was currently sitting in the right seat. After a couple of pictures and some plans to visit the 777 simulator in Sydney, we took this video:
Overall, everyone seems really excited about the new service that’s coming up. Once the 777 reaches Australia, the airline is going to spend a few weeks acclimating, training and preparing their crew, then first flight is later this month. Stay tuned for a review of the inflight service.
Here is a bit of feel good news from the travel world – hidden between all the bad news was an announcement from United Airlines that they were going to move 165 call center positions from their International Call Center back to the USA.
The new jobs will be added to their existing centers in Chicago and Honolulu.
This news is great for several reasons – it creates new (and badly needed) jobs here in the US, and it means you can call the call center without having to explain everything twice.
No offense to the hard working people in their International Call Center, but if I’m completely honest, it was always quite the hassle to deal with them, especially if it involved anything a little more complicated than a simple itinerary change.
Of course – with good news also comes some bad news; none of these new workers will be anxiously awaiting your reservations. All the new positions will be used to respond to complaints sent to the airline.
In fact – United Airlines is so tired of people picking up the phone to complain, that as of April 2009, you will no longer be able to call them with your rants, and complaints will only be accepted through email or regular mail.
Boston‘s day has finally come. At 2:30 this afternoon, the inaugural San Francisco – Boston flight lands, kicking off service from the carrier out of Beantown.
As part of the launch effort, the airline recently launched the Revolution Takes Flight website, where fans can nominate a non profit organization to which Virgin will soon donate a healthy $25,000.
Voting and selection for the winning organization culminate tomorrow evening, at which point Sir Richard Branson is going award the winners at the Liberty Hotel.
Gadling bloggers Grant Martin and Justin Glow will be tweeting onsite and causing the normal ruckus, so make sure to subscribe to our feed to catch any live updates/muses/throwdowns. But keep in mind: Boston is known for its potential to bring out the worst in travel bloggers.
Southwest Airlines just announced their first inflight WiFi trial. The service is installed on one of their 540 planes, with an additional 3 planes to be equipped by March.
Access is provided by Row 44 – who opted for a satellite-to-plane system, unlike the technology in use by Aircell who use a ground-to-plane system.
In addition to the inflight internet access, Southwest also partnered with Yahoo! to create a custom homepage for each flight. The page contains destination information, a live route map as well as a collection of Yahoo! games.
Southwest is the last of the major carriers to commit to bringing wireless Internet access to their fleet, but as the largest US carrier (in terms of passenger numbers), I’m sure a commitment like this is not something you do overnight.
The Southwest Airlines inflight Internet service has not yet received FCC approval, and no pricing has been determined. During the trial, passengers can connect to the service for free. Any WiFi enabled device should be able to get online during the flight, including laptops, iPhones and any other smartphone.
Pretty soon the news we post about airborne Internet will be about the airlines that do not offer this service. Oh, and just so we are clear about something, the term “Superskyway” is theirs – not mine!