Crazy Airline Business

1-2 trips per month, sometimes more. Delays do happen, but I’m more in awe over what the Airlines get done than anything else.

During winter, it can get bad. But I’ve been in worse circumstances.
 
Salty said:
...I should take 3 weeks of vacation so I can take a week to get there, enjoy it for a week, and another week to get back.

Sometimes I wonder about you guys.
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That sounds like the schedule of a J3 owner on a three State cross country. ;)
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Wow. Really? I started doing my preflight announcement like that on my own recently. The passenger seem to appreciate it.
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Yea they want the gate announcements especially during IROPs and want us to update the pax about every 15 minutes. Most of the captains don’t do the PAs in the galley.
 
Wingsofglass said:
In reality though this is complete BS. If I pay $500 for a round trip ticket and my return leg is cancelled due to a mechanical issue and I ask for a refund, my refund will be far less than $250.
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That's not true. If you cancel one half of a round trip the refund will be half.

You may be thinking of cancelling one leg of a connecting flight. i.e. DFW-ATL-FLL or DFW-IAH-FLL. The two halfs of a connecting flight are unlikely to be of equal value.

The fare breakdown, per leg, is in your reservation though you may have to dig a bit to find it.
 
mscard88 said:
You know, we didn't make the couple miss their Tokyo flight. Common to get delays flying into ATL, the world's busiest airport. Most likely their travel agent booked the flights and there really wasn't enough ground time between the flights, to get from concourse to course, accommodate delays, etc, probably 45 minutes if I had to guess. I was saying what I would done, ME, not what YOU or anybody else had to do. Pilots don't intentionally make it inconvenient for passengers. It's airline management and the FAA who really make all the decisions. We just "fly the plane".

We fly you there safely and hopefully on time.

You need to get off your soapbox Salty.
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I wasn't on a soapbox. Well, not until I got chewed out for making a fairly innocuous comment.
 
Salty said:
I wasn't on a soapbox. Well, not until I got chewed out for making a fairly innocuous comment.
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Are you the least bit surprised that you were called out on your bull?
 
mscard88 said:
Most likely their travel agent booked the flights and there really wasn't enough ground time between the flights
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I didn't know anyone still used travel agents. I thought those went the way of the dinosaurs years ago? :dunno:
 
Clark1961 said:
Are you the least bit surprised that you were called out on your bull?
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I have a valid point even if you choose to degrade me for making it.
 
skier said:
I didn't know anyone still used travel agents. I thought those went the way of the dinosaurs years ago? :dunno:
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Still around. Used one for my Alaska trip a couple years ago.
 
Salty said:
I have a valid point even if you choose to degrade me for making it.
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Even with a historical 80%+ on-time rate, if being 30 minutes late is going to delay your arrival by 24 hours due to there being only one onward connection per day, it might be worth considering an earlier flight against the <20% probability of being delayed for a full day.

When the delay means missing a cruise, where there's not another ship you can take the next day, arriving the day before might be worth considering.

OTOH, If there are several later flights to your destination the same day then a short 35 minute connection presents very little risk and can save you some time. There is no one right answer for everyone and every situation.
 
Larry in TN said:
That's not true. If you cancel one half of a round trip the refund will be half.
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Based on ample personal experience, your statement is false. The refund will not be half. It is often significantly less. So much less that the airline will refuse to sell you the same leg for the same amount on any future flight.
 
Wingsofglass said:
Based on ample personal experience, your statement is false. The refund will not be half. It is often significantly less. So much less that the airline will refuse to sell you the same leg for the same amount on any future flight.
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The entire fare paid is allocated leg-by-leg at the time of purchase. They don't move the money around after a cancellation in order them to refund less for the unused leg. If one leg is less, another must be more.
 
Salty said:
I have a valid point even if you choose to degrade me for making it.
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If you want to take things personal that is your call. I just pointed out the fact that you didn’t have a point and exaggeration didn’t help.
 
Clark1961 said:
If you want to take things personal that is your call. I just pointed out the fact that you didn’t have a point and exaggeration didn’t help.
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Just because you don't agree, doesn't mean I don't have a point.
 
If roundtrip tickets are offered at a discounted rate, it would make no sense for airlines to refund half that fee for return flight cancellation. It makes sense for there to be a penalty.
 
mscard88 said:
You don't have a point because you implied it was the crew's fault. It's not.
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I have no idea how you came to that conclusion.
 
Salty said:
Just because you don't agree, doesn't mean I don't have a point.
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Just because you think you have a point doesn’t mean that you do. In this case it is well documented that aircraft aren’t always on schedule and passengers should allow for late flights. If you are flying out of podunk and there is only one flight a day then that means you may need to go a day early.

No one even mentioned baggage but it is another problem on connecting flights that needs to be considered. Maybe the ground crew can get bags off, sorted, and delivered in 30 minutes...and maybe they can’t. My experience hasn’t been good on this one.

At any rate once you typed the stuff about a week early it was quite clear to me that you had no point.

The old saw about the difference between theory and practice comes to mind here. In theory the short connection time to catch the international flight should work. In practice it won’t work all the time and the wise traveler finds a practical solution.
 
For crying out loud. You guys aren't even trying to understand my point.
 
mscard88 said:
You didn't have one.
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Give it a rest. You aren't listening to me anyway. Let it go. Telling me I don't have a point is rather rude, just because you don't want to bother to understand it. But I'm done with this.
 
Salty said:
Give it a rest. You aren't listening to me anyway. Let it go. Telling me I don't have a point is rather rude, just because you don't want to bother to understand it. But I'm done with this.
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not how this works.jpeg

Look at what you wrote in post 29.

"Sometimes I wonder about you guys"
 
Larry in TN said:
The entire fare paid is allocated leg-by-leg at the time of purchase. They don't move the money around after a cancellation in order them to refund less for the unused leg. If one leg is less, another must be more.
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Exactly. My experience is that the return leg is less. So if you use the first half of the ticket and then the airline cancels your return flight and you go with a different option, you get less than half your money back. My experience is also that it is impossible to buy a ticket for the fare allocated to the second leg. It's too low. Now if the airline cancels the first leg of your trip, and you go with another option to get to your destination, your whole ticket cancels. You can never get a refund for the more valuable first half and keep the second half. Southwest may be different but this is certainly the case on Delta.
 
we-got-your-money-bro-now-get-some-recon-skillz.jpg
 
Wingsofglass said:
Exactly. My experience is that the return leg is less. So if you use the first half of the ticket and then the airline cancels your return flight and you go with a different option, you get less than half your money back.
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But, on average, wouldn't half the plane be on their outbound leg when you're on your return leg?

I think it has more to do with which flights and/or days you've selected for your return leg. Some days are more expensive than others.

Another possibility is that you're only electing to arrange your own replacement transportation on routes that have a lot of options/flights which means that the fares are usually lower.
 
In my limited experience in buying tickets, it seems as though all are sold by the leg these days. No more "one way or round trip".
Prices shown are per leg, and vary greatly by time and day of the week.
So.... one leg on a Saturday at 0800 (for example) could be way more than the return leg on Tuesday at 2200.
 
Larry in TN said:
But, on average, wouldn't half the plane be on their outbound leg when you're on your return leg?

I think it has more to do with which flights and/or days you've selected for your return leg. Some days are more expensive than others.
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I agree if Delta were fair and reasonable, this would be the case. But it's not. I have flown just under two million miles on Delta. I have run into this situation numerous times across all sorts of routes. This issue only arises when you are legitimately due a refund on a return leg due to an airline issue such as a cancelled flight (not for weather) or mechanical and you elect to cancel the return for a refund.. The amount of the ticket price assigned to the return leg is less than half. Always in my experience. The leg value for this purpose is hidden. It's not what you see when you buy the ticket. I have to book a ticket this week. I'll get the details and post it. I'm not picking on Delta here, I think all the majors play the same game.
 
Salty said:
IMO,you just did what you complained about me doing. Flying in a day before and renting a room is a LONG stretch from taking the last possible flight. And that is what I was referring to. Expecting people to essentially wait a day for each leg of a half way around the world trip isn't much of a stretch to say a week early.
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There is a reasonable chance there is only one flight a day at the airport in the story. So if you take the next earliest flight then you’re leaving the day before.
 
Little Timmy Leary flys up in the sky,
Flying higher and higher, until he is up so high.

Since this poem is for kiddies,
How will I explain,
That little Timmy Leary isn't on a plane....

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