Outrage over $100 carry-on bag fee
Mary Snow – May 10, 2012
Airlines charging extra for everything is good for consumers, report says (poll)
Janet Cho – May 1, 2012
Brett Snyder, president of Cranky Flier LLC, isn’t surprised by the report’s findings.
“A la carte pricing lets travelers pick and choose exactly what they want when they fly, and that’s a good thing,” he said.
“If someone without a bag to check flies Southwest, they are still paying the same amount as someone who does check a bag even though the latter person is getting more for the money. With other airlines, you get what you pay for, and that’s a good thing.”
Continental’s Airline Quality Rating dropped out of Top 10 in 2011 (take our poll)
Janet Cho – April 5, 2012
Brett Snyder, author of the CrankyFlier blog, doesn’t put much stock in the AQR rankings because he said it’s based on incomplete data.
The mishandled bag rate, for example, is measured per 1,000 passengers instead of against the total number of bags, even though fewer people check bags now because of the higher fees.
He said the complaint rate is based on the number of people who complain to the Department of Transportation when most people now complain to the airlines themselves or via social media.
“The DOT is sort of a last resort,” he said.
Continental, for example, got 821 complaints in 2011, out of 45 million passengers flown. Problems related to merging Continental and United are also likely to skew results, he said.
“Since they did the switchover in March, they have done a terrible job of getting their (on-phone) hold times down,” he said. “There’s no question there’s going to be more complaints” that will throw off United’s data for this year.
United merger’s OK despite problems, experts say
Kiah Collier – March 23, 2012
Brett Snyder, writer for The Cranky Flier, an air travel blog, said that the long phone waits have been the big problem in a transition that otherwise has gone smoothly.
“Contrary to what many have suggested, the technological switch actually went well,” Snyder said in an email. “There were some issues when it first happened but they weren’t grave problems. Since that time, however, United has fallen down. The airline didn’t anticipate that different levels of functionality after the switch would cause travelers to clog phone lines.
“Here we are about three weeks later and the phone lines are still way too long. That has been the biggest issue with this transition and it needed to get fixed yesterday. Some of that has been hindered by weather issues in places like Houston, but even on good days the hold times are still very long.”
YOUR MONEY: New route maps at New York-area airports
Mitch Lipka – March 12, 2012
“This is a very significant change. It is a massive number of slots changing hands, and it does remake the landscape,” said Brett Snyder, who runs the air passenger site Crankyflier.com. “You lose one player in US Airways but you gain a stronger Delta that’s more competitive with United (owned by United Continental Holdings Inc ).”
Bob Hope Airport faces tough times
Mark Kellam – March 12, 2012
Brett Snyder, who runs the airline industry website www.crankyflier.com, said that whenever an airport undertakes a major project, it should be designed to enhance the experience of the majority of patrons and generate more passengers. But he also had concerns that making the airport more accessible via public transportation could further erode parking revenues.
Finding Your Seat On the Go
March 9, 2011
Many cities lose out in Southwest-AirTran merger
Nancy Trejos – February 29, 2012
“Southwest has already changed dramatically from its early days as a scrappy challenger,” says Brett Snyder, founder of the travel assistance website The Cranky Flier. “As its costs have risen — it has incredibly high labor costs compared to other airlines — it has been forced to get more revenue out of its operation, and fares have risen a lot.”
Airline Fee Changes Require Full Disclosure
Lolita Lopez – January 23, 2012
An interview with NBC4 LA on new DOT regulation:
View more videos at: http://nbclosangeles.com.
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