Fat finger deals – should your airline or hotel honor them?

by Scott Carmichael on

A fat finger deal is the name given to airline deals where someone “with fat fingers” missed a zero, or put a comma in the wrong place when entering air or hotel prices.

The deals pop up more often than you’d think in this day and age, but airlines are starting to fight back. In recent years, some of the better fat finger deals would get you from the US to most European destinations for $20, or from LA to Fiji for just $50.

The mistakes are human, and despite all the computerized air fare systems, at the end of the day there is still someone locked away in an office who is responsible for loading the thousands of various air fare combinations into a computer terminal, and I’m sure we all know that when people get involved, something will eventually go wrong.

In the past, airlines would do one of several things;

  • Ignore the problem and let people benefit from the screw-up
  • Let people know the deal would be honored, but only on a smaller scale, hotels would let people stay a few nights instead of the months they’d often book
  • Let people take the trip AND try to benefit from all the good PR they create by honoring it

Nowadays airline are in a world of hurt, and any kind of screw-up that could cost them money has to come to an end. When passengers grab one of these fat finger deals, the airline will simply cancel it, and in most cases won’t even bother to inform them.

A natural reaction to this behavior is that the airline is perfectly within its rights to do so – it was an honest mistake, and they have page after page of fine print protecting their business practices. But there is one very simply reason why I don’t think the airlines deserve to get off easy – mistakes are not a one way street.

If you book a non refundable hotel room and made a mistake entering the date, you are screwed. If you book a ticket on the airline, but make a spelling error in your name, some airlines will charge you $90 to fix it. Airlines have perfected the art of making money off your mistakes, but when they mess up, they simply make the problem go away.

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Airfarewatchdog’s 2009 tips for saving on airfare

by Grant Martin on

Our friends over at Airfarewatchdog are still working hard, day and night, finding cheap tickets for America. Their grass root efforts have gained them a cult following, and these days, most people I know subscribe to their newsletter.

To help us in our daily scouring, George and the team put together a list of 10 tips for saving on airfare in 2009. With the evolving airline industry, crazy oil fluctuations and new carriers on the market, this sort of stuff is important to keep track of every year.

AFWD’s tips range from the simple, like “use flex searches” to the subtle, like using direct airline websites instead of booking engines, but each of the points is relevant, significant and important to keep in mind while doing your fare searching. Make sure you stop by and take a look at the entire list — it could save you a bundle!

Police haul HBO executive, husband off Delta Airlines flight

by Jeffrey White on

A high-profile couple from New York was recently hauled off a Delta Airlines flight after the man allegedly verbally abused a flight attendant because his television in first class didn’t work.

Sheila Nevins, the president of HBO Documentary Films, and her husband Sidney Koch are considering legal action against Delta, the New York Times’s Caucus Blog reports. Their lawyer, John Horan, tells the Times: “They were detained at JFK in a public space for two hours and were humiliated by the experience. It was ghastly and unnecessary.”

What happened, you ask?
The couple was traveling back to New York from the Sundance Film Festival on Inauguration Day, in first class. Apparently they had confirmed ahead of time with Delta that live television would be available in first class, so that they could watch President Obama’s speech. But upon takeoff many of the TVs in first class malfunctioned, including Sheila Nevins’. Compounding this, the pilot reportedly kept pausing the entertainment system — therefore interrupting Obama’s speech — with announcements about various landmarks the plane was flying over.

This was all enough to send Sidney Koch into a rage, says the Times. Delta claims Koch became “verbally abusive” to a flight attendant. Koch admits that he lost his temper, and he says he apologized to the flight attendant.

Nevertheless, local police met the flight at JFK and removed the couple from the plane. They were not issued any summons after their questioning at the airport.

What do you think about this? Did the flight attendant overreact? Does the couple have a case against Delta? In our post-9/11 world, do flight attendants at times appear a little too quick to get law enforcement involved? I mean, the guy was pissed about his TV, so he turns around and, what, pledges to bring down the plane?

Obviously a lot has to do with what was actually said in this case, and maybe we’ll never know that.

I for one find the word’s of Delta’s spokesperson, Betsy Talton, interesting. Speaking to the Times, she says specifically that Koch was “verbally abusive” to the FA. She doesn’t use the word “threat.”

No one has the right to abuse a flight attendant, verbally or otherwise. But what constitutes actually threatening a flight?

Launching into a name-calling, profanity-fueled rage against a FA is wrong, but do you put me in cuffs? Is it tantamount to physically endangering the flight by, say, charging the cockpit or attacking someone?


Aside from snooty cable tv execs, what other odd things have been found on planes? Click the images to find out!

Kuwaiti airline still pushing for $1.3b

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The Iraqi government is going to write a $300 million check to Kuwait Airways. So, the airline believes there’s only another $1 billion to go. The cash is related to damages caused by Saddam Hussein‘s 1990 invasion of its wealthy neighbor.

A spokesman for the Iraq Cabinet, Ali al-Dabbagh says that the approved settlement was “final and comprehensive.” The country’s Justice Ministry will make sure the payments are sent to Kuwait Airways.

Where there are two sides, of course, there are two opinions. Kuwait Airways has stated that the settlement is definitely not final. There’s another billion dollars at play, not to mention nearly two decades of accumulated interest.

It’s a good thing the Iraqi government is nice and stable … and that there isn’t a war to get in the way of these payments …

Maybe you can help Iraq pay its tab to Kuwait Airways. Take a trip to Baghdad, and put some money into the local economy!

[Via USA Today]

[Thanks, Brian Sayler, for the galleries and photo of Saddam’s palace above and the gallery below]

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Sharks circling Hudson landing

by Tom Johansmeyer on

When US Airways ponied up $5,000 a passenger for the passengers of Flight 1549, most seemed skeptical. Commenter Bill opined, “I’m guessing those $5000 checks won’t stop any lawsuits.” A recent story in USA Today confirms this view. And, of course, lawyers have been contacted.

Joe Hart wants his bloody nose and bruises “made whole.” The salesman from Charlotte also says it’s too soon to know what emotional distress he has endured. So, while a hero is lauded, Hart is telegraphing his intentions.

According to US Airways, the $5,000 checks were for “immediate needs” that passengers may have and were not intended to mitigate the risk of litigation. Some say this isn’t enough. Gail Dunham, executive director of the National Air Disaster & Alliance Foundation, a safety advocate, remarks, “We’re grateful everyone survived, and the captain on the plane was so marvelous.” She notes, however, that passengers have lost important personal effects, such as briefcases, cell phones, BlackBerrys and business documents.

Oh, and they “and went through a terrific ordeal.”

The fact that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) may need the recovered personal items for several weeks or more in order to determine their weights does not seem to be a priority for Dunham. Safety, I guess, should take a back seat to remuneration.Several passengers, including Hart, claim that they had more than $5,000 in personal items on the plane. The fact that (a) the check is intended to be a stopgap measure and (b) that it is not intended to stem lawsuits does not seem to have entered into Hart’s thinking (or Dunham’s). Before passengers can be compensated fully, US Airways needs to know what’s been lost … which can’t happen until the NTSB has finished its safety-related exercise.

For some, future lives aren’t as important as adjusting payouts in excess of $5,000.

Even with the entire process beholden to the NTSB’s review, US Airways Vice President Jim Olson has noted that passengers are being contacted by an insurance claims specialist and that they will be reimbursed as necessary above the $5,000 threshold. Per the U.S. Department of Transportation, airlines are only liable for up to $3,300 per passenger for lost or damaged checked bags (on domestic flights). They tend to disclaim liability for carry-ons unless someone on the flight crew has a hand in stowing the bag.

Interestingly, anybody who has not suffered a financial loss of less than $5,000 probably won’t be asked for a refund. I love to pick on the airlines, but this seems downright reasonable!

Several passengers have reached out to Kreindler & Kreindler, a plaintiff firm that specializes in crashes. Attorneys from the firm are looking into the injuries and emotional distress sustained by passengers.

[Via USA Today, photo by jkrums via twitpic]