Back Again: First Impressions

[sleslie23]

Not necessarily..I am United Premier Platinum..and even if I buy the cheapest economy, i always get to chose any seat I want in the economy plus section in any united flight. When I had just enrolled for United and not achieved even silver status, they used to ask huge amounts of money to chose those economy plus seats.

I have never been a AA or a Delta member, but I am assuming having so many miles in AA would most likely get you automatic upgrade on AA or at least a preferred seat for *free*

Even the lowly Premier Silver gets complimentary upgrades to Economy Plus at checkin.

 

[sleslie23]

Oooohhh get you with yer fancy economy plus.

Anyway, have a good month back in the jungle. Hopefully you miss the seasonal saqueos by a week or two!

Ha ha, first world problems! I don't miss getting paid in pesos.

 

[ben]

Not sure how it works on other airlines (pretty sure it's the same), but on AA the terms and conditions clearly state:

• American Airlines reserves the right to assign or reassign a Main Cabin Extra or a Preferred seat at any time, for operational, safety or security reasons. In situations where this occurs and you're not reseated into a like seat you will be eligible for a refund.

Where 'operational' is a fancy word that is completely devoid of meaning - it's a catchall for any decision made by any AA staff, for any reason. So talk of suing them is silly - they've written their own rules.
In general, though, they are not looking to be in combat with their passengers, so being confrontational may sometimes be a successful tactic - in aviation much as anywhere else.

 

[Ceviche]

Not sure how it works on other airlines (pretty sure it's the same), but on AA the terms and conditions clearly state:

• American Airlines reserves the right to assign or reassign a Main Cabin Extra or a Preferred seat at any time, for operational, safety or security reasons. In situations where this occurs and you're not reseated into a like seat you will be eligible for a refund.

So talk of suing them is silly - they've written their own rules.

So you are back abusing me again?

Agreed :- Yes, that way any airlines in the world can get away with anything in name of safety/security after 9/11. And I guess, no one can do absolutely anything about it.

Just because a joint family of 6-8 people want to be together on a "family vacation", what is safety and security issue about it? But yes, the airlines has the whip in their hand thanks to 9/11 and they can whip you anytime...most especially the three US airlines

But these airlines also make money from you and especially from frequent fliers ..so they may not want to annoy them on "operational, safety and security" just because a joint family of 6-8 can be together for a 9 hour flight? That is, if they have some business sense and they are there to do business than to be swept away in emotions and call it a 'operational reason'!

When I did use the word "sue"..thats the only reason she backed off as she clearly wanted to please the joint family of 8 argies and she was v v v pushy ( and she never said the safety and security of the plane was at stake because I did not want to change my preferred bought seat)...though me having emerald (comodoro black) status on their partner Lan, may have helped too, to have her back off eventually.

Finally, if everything was so easily black and white as per the rules of a company which is a vendor then their would be no need of consumer courts worldwide. Every company can get away with anything by quoting their rule books! Poor customer will only gasp in silence and say "Yes, the company is right. Damn! Why did I not read all their rules/fine print/all aviation regulations first before opening mouth? I was so silly to put up a voice and express my concern and even more sillier to threaten to take my grieviance to a court. Where the judge would at least analyse the situation and understand on what pretext I have a concern and what was exactly the operational, safety and security issue exactly there ,other than the airline calling it a operational/safety/security issue ( if at all)".

 

[ben]

Calling suing an airline for switching a seat silly is abuse? Oh dear... Good thing my wife has different notions of abuse, or we'd both be in the slammer for aggravated spousal abuse (battery?) a while ago.

As I said in my previous post, without spelling it out fully, the part about 'security' and 'safety' reasons is there just to make the policy look nice and justifiable. 'Operational' covers anything and everything else - the airline does not need to make an appeal to security reasons or to justify their basis with a safety rationale. We decided it'll be easier to serve this family if they're seated together - that's operational. Is the deck stacked? Yes.

Next - I only said that actually seriously considering suing is silly, the threat of suing can be a smart tactic to put bozos in their place. It doesn't even matter if you will sue or not - they're just looking for an easy target, as soon as you make yourself a difficult one, they'll simply move on to easier fruit. As I said, not at all facetiously, confrontation sometimes works. And yes, Emerald status helps a great deal. There is no doubt that a complaint by an elite member is something an airline employee would prefer to avoid.

Finally, there definitely is such a thing as an unenforceable contract, or clauses of an agreement that cannot be enforced because they run afoul of consumer protection laws or whatnot. That said, it usually has to be something pretty egregious - witness how long it's taking Congress to do anything about various banking and lending practices, particularly with credit cards, that in some cases are clearly predatory. And people are talking and talking for years - nobody is suggesting that the contracts simply not be enforced. And all in all, that's a good thing - once rules don't exist or can be bent, even bad ones, it's an awfully slippery slope to total anarchy that benefits no one.

 

[jeff1234]

In the 1980's I travelled a lot for business. The airlines encouraged us to carry our hanging suitcases on board. Flight attendants would greet us at the cabin door, take the bags and hang them in closets near the door. When we landed they'd hand us the bags and we'd walk right off the plane and out of the airport. Airlines also used pretty young and friendly flight attendants as a selling feature.

 

[semigoodlookin]

Calling suing an airline for switching a seat silly is abuse? Oh dear... Good thing my wife has different notions of abuse, or we'd both be in the slammer for aggravated spousal abuse (battery?) a while ago.

As I said in my previous post, without spelling it out fully, the part about 'security' and 'safety' reasons is there just to make the policy look nice and justifiable. 'Operational' covers anything and everything else - the airline does not need to make an appeal to security reasons or to justify their basis with a safety rationale. We decided it'll be easier to serve this family if they're seated together - that's operational. Is the deck stacked? Yes.

Next - I only said that actually seriously considering suing is silly, the threat of suing can be a smart tactic to put bozos in their place. It doesn't even matter if you will sue or not - they're just looking for an easy target, as soon as you make yourself a difficult one, they'll simply move on to easier fruit. As I said, not at all facetiously, confrontation sometimes works. And yes, Emerald status helps a great deal. There is no doubt that a complaint by an elite member is something an airline employee would prefer to avoid.

Finally, there definitely is such a thing as an unenforceable contract, or clauses of an agreement that cannot be enforced because they run afoul of consumer protection laws or whatnot. That said, it usually has to be something pretty egregious - witness how long it's taking Congress to do anything about various banking and lending practices, particularly with credit cards, that in some cases are clearly predatory. And people are talking and talking for years - nobody is suggesting that the contracts simply not be enforced. And all in all, that's a good thing - once rules don't exist or can be bent, even bad ones, it's an awfully slippery slope to total anarchy that benefits no one.

The guy was never saying he had a legitimate chance of suing the company, only that it seemed to work as a tactic in him retaining his seat. He also mentioned that no refund was offered even though the rules seem to state he was entitled to one. What an utter dick he is for wanting the seat that he actually paid for instead of giving it away to some random people who didn't pay for it.

 

[Jaredberryman]

At 6 foot 5, I always do my best to avoid a middle seat or window seat. Invariably, for some reason someone always asks to trade seats with me that is in a middle or window seat. For someone tall, flying is extremely uncomfortable. If you need to change your seat for some reason, don't ask the tall person to trade that's in an exit row or aisle seat. It's incredibly rude. You would think people would think about that, but it happens nearly every time I get on a flight. BA to wherever is often a long flight. Use common sense.

 

[ben]

The guy was never saying he had a legitimate chance of suing the company, only that it seemed to work as a tactic in him retaining his seat. He also mentioned that no refund was offered even though the rules seem to state he was entitled to one. What an utter dick he is for wanting the seat that he actually paid for instead of giving it away to some random people who didn't pay for it.

I'm trying to find where I called him a dick for wanting the seat that he actually paid for. I think I've found it:

the threat of suing can be a smart tactic to put bozos in their place. It doesn't even matter if you will sue or not - they're just looking for an easy target, as soon as you make yourself a difficult one, they'll simply move on to easier fruit. ... And yes, Emerald status helps a great deal.

 

[Somewhereinba]

People in EZE seem to struggle to understand how the baggage collection system should work. It is not a matter of everybody rushing to stand 1mm away from the belt or god forbid the bag comes flying past at 100km/hr and you miss it. In more civilised airports people actually stand a few meters back BEHIND the clearly marked yellow line and wait so that everyone has a chance to see their bag coming and go forward to collect it and then move back. A lot of people also seem to not understand the seat belt sign - since when is it OK to stand up and start grabbing your bags a few seconds after the plane has just turned off the runway?? Where are these people educated?? God forbid there is a real emergency and they have to actually listen to what the cabin attendants are telling them - what hope is there if they can't understand a simple concept like the seat belt sign?