Independence Air iClub - Independence Taking Advantage of College Students?

As you can see, I'm new to these boards. I must admit, I don't understand most of the content in these threads (fiscal matters, abbreviations, etc.) and am perhaps a bit out of my league. However, after my recent expereiences with Independence Air I'm left feeling very displeased, and would appreciate your feedback. I might be channeling the activist roots of my hippy parents a bit here, but please bear with me.

I bought a Glide pass. Why wouldn't I have? It's a phenemonal deal for someone with a flexible schedule and dreams of jet setting. I managed to book a ridiculous flight from IND-ORD by was of IAD on May 7th. I wanted to go home for mothers day, and didn't feel like making the drive. With my Glide pass, I figured I could just sit back and enjoy my hot towel and ipod. I was made to check my bag when I arrived at IND over an hour and a half prior to my departure. My IND-IAD flight was delayed due to weather, and the ground staff was nice enough to hold my connecting flight for me. I was on the ground at IAD for 3 minutes max, and realized the chances of my bag making the flight were quite slim. I was told by the flight attendant that in the event it didn't make the connection, I would be kindly rewarded under the Happy Bags promotion. No surprise, when I arrived at ORD my bag was no where to be found. A helpful gate agent helped me complete a lost bag form, but told me that my bag never even made my first flight and was still on the ground in Indianapolis! I was also informed that as a Glide pass flyer, I was ineligible for the Happy Bags promotion. I could have excused my bag not making the connection, as that was a weather delay. But I have a hard time justifying my bag not making it onto the original flight when I checked in 90+ minutes early. After reviewing the online Happy Bags rules, the only wording I could find limiting participation referred to employees and other "non-revenue customers". I take great offense in being called a non-revenue customer as Independence gladly accepted my $249. I certainly paid for my flight, and was as inconvenienced as anyone else would have been by having their bags lost and not delivered until nearly 8 pm on Mother's Day. I feel I'm owed some sort of compensation for my troubles as the Happy Bags promotion promises. Three separate calls to the Dulles Call Center resulted in no help or even an apology. Two emails to the complaints address were returned 8 days later with a rudely worded rejection of my request. I am most concerned that Independence feels they are able to treat college students as second class travelers, as I can't imagine them feeding an adult traveler the type of disrespect and miserable customer service that I was served up.

My most pressing concern is the availability of Glide flights. In early May, these flights were plentiful and easy to book. This is no longer the case. I check the Glide fares every single morning, and for the past two weeks I have not been able to book a single trip. There's one $0 fare flight per week, and rarely a returning flight. This was my greatest fear for the Glide program, and I gave Independence the benefit of the doubt when I jumped into this. I convinced my family and friends to buy these passes because they were such a fantastic deal, and now feel absolutely awful that they've proven to be nothing more than a useless $249 iClub account. I've sent several emails to the complaints address about this as well, none of which have been responded to.

I think Independence Air is a great airline. I'd rather have a crumby flight with them than a good flight on just about any other airline. I've stood up for them through several fumbles on their part, and encouraged others to give them a shot. In return, I am left feelings like Independence Air has absolutely taken advantage of me as a college student. They have taken money I don't have, and treated me poorly throughout. Regretfully, I will not be sticking up for this airline again until I see a major shift in the way they handle customer service.

As you can see, I'm new to these boards. I must admit, I don't understand most of the content in these threads (fiscal matters, abbreviations, etc.) and am perhaps a bit out of my league. However, after my recent expereiences with Independence Air I'm left feeling very displeased, and would appreciate your feedback. I might be channeling the activist roots of my hippy parents a bit here, but please bear with me.

I bought a Glide pass. Why wouldn't I have? It's a phenemonal deal for someone with a flexible schedule and dreams of jet setting. I managed to book a ridiculous flight from IND-ORD by was of IAD on May 7th. I wanted to go home for mothers day, and didn't feel like making the drive. With my Glide pass, I figured I could just sit back and enjoy my hot towel and ipod. I was made to check my bag when I arrived at IND over an hour and a half prior to my departure. My IND-IAD flight was delayed due to weather, and the ground staff was nice enough to hold my connecting flight for me. I was on the ground at IAD for 3 minutes max, and realized the chances of my bag making the flight were quite slim. I was told by the flight attendant that in the event it didn't make the connection, I would be kindly rewarded under the Happy Bags promotion. No surprise, when I arrived at ORD my bag was no where to be found. A helpful gate agent helped me complete a lost bag form, but told me that my bag never even made my first flight and was still on the ground in Indianapolis! I was also informed that as a Glide pass flyer, I was ineligible for the Happy Bags promotion. I could have excused my bag not making the connection, as that was a weather delay. But I have a hard time justifying my bag not making it onto the original flight when I checked in 90+ minutes early. After reviewing the online Happy Bags rules, the only wording I could find limiting participation referred to employees and other "non-revenue customers". I take great offense in being called a non-revenue customer as Independence gladly accepted my $249. I certainly paid for my flight, and was as inconvenienced as anyone else would have been by having their bags lost and not delivered until nearly 8 pm on Mother's Day. I feel I'm owed some sort of compensation for my troubles as the Happy Bags promotion promises. Three separate calls to the Dulles Call Center resulted in no help or even an apology. Two emails to the complaints address were returned 8 days later with a rudely worded rejection of my request. I am most concerned that Independence feels they are able to treat college students as second class travelers, as I can't imagine them feeding an adult traveler the type of disrespect and miserable customer service that I was served up.

My most pressing concern is the availability of Glide flights. In early May, these flights were plentiful and easy to book. This is no longer the case. I check the Glide fares every single morning, and for the past two weeks I have not been able to book a single trip. There's one $0 fare flight per week, and rarely a returning flight. This was my greatest fear for the Glide program, and I gave Independence the benefit of the doubt when I jumped into this. I convinced my family and friends to buy these passes because they were such a fantastic deal, and now feel absolutely awful that they've proven to be nothing more than a useless $249 iClub account. I've sent several emails to the complaints address about this as well, none of which have been responded to.

I think Independence Air is a great airline. I'd rather have a crumby flight with them than a good flight on just about any other airline. I've stood up for them through several fumbles on their part, and encouraged others to give them a shot. In return, I am left feelings like Independence Air has absolutely taken advantage of me as a college student. They have taken money I don't have, and treated me poorly throughout. Regretfully, I will not be sticking up for this airline again until I see a major shift in the way they handle customer service.

That is very interesting. That deal did seem to be better then it looked.

P.S. I can't believe you flew from IND to ORD via IAD. I love flying more then the next guy, but i would have just drove. Or at least take southwest to MDW.

P.S. I can't believe you flew from IND to ORD via IAD. I love flying more then the next guy, but i would have just drove. Or at least take southwest to MDW.

Well that plan was to stop over in IAD to have dinner with my father, but that plan was squashed by a weather delay. I'd still fly that route again, if I could find a flight on Glide. It's still cheaper than gas!

Welcome to Flyertalk. You obviously know airport codes, which 99% of flyers don't know, so don't worry about the other confusing codes we use around here. The help section ( http://www.flyertalk.com/help/ ) has an explanation on a lot of these codes.

If FlyI doesn't reply to your emails there are some FlyI employees who post here that hopefully can provide you with help or who to contact. If you still can't get anywhere, you might need to take it up with the DOT. If the number of seats/flights they are making available each week is miniscule and unusable, then I would bet the DOT would be interested to know about how much they advertised and promoted the Glide pass and how no one can use it.

Thanks for your help. This is exactly what I was hoping to find in these forums. In the heat of anger, you start to question whether your gut instinct is correct. It's good to know my complaints have at least some validity as I continue to press Independence for a sympathetic response to my requests.

i don't have the number in front of me but you may want to call the 1800 number (18003593594)and ask for customer advocacy. They should be able to transfer you or at least get you the number. The ladies that work there are very nice and will try to help you out the best they can. Sorry for the delayed bag. but bags do get delayed. there is no way around that but we do try to keep it to a minimum. our delayed bag number for the month is somewhere around 3.4, which is pretty good. that means 3.4 bags mishandled (delayed, damaged, etc) for every 1,000 customers. ORD to IND thru IAD. Even i wouldn't do that and i fly for free. Good luck to you.

i don't have the number in front of me but you may want to call the 1800 number (18003593594)and ask for customer advocacy. They should be able to transfer you or at least get you the number. The ladies that work there are very nice and will try to help you out the best they can. Sorry for the delayed bag. but bags do get delayed. there is no way around that but we do try to keep it to a minimum. our delayed bag number for the month is somewhere around 3.4, which is pretty good. that means 3.4 bags mishandled (delayed, damaged, etc) for every 1,000 customers. ORD to IND thru IAD. Even i wouldn't do that and i fly for free. Good luck to you.

Thanks, I'll give that number a shot. I understand that delayed bags happen. I just resent being excluded from the Happy Bags promotion because I am a Glide passenger. That combined with the almost non-existent Glide fares has made it seem as though Independence has taken my money and run with it. I wouldn't expect a refund of my entire $249, but do feel I should be compensated as anyone else would have been. Even an apology for my inconvenience might have left me with out such a bad taste in my mouth. As for the inconvenience of flying through IAD to get to ORD, that type of flight was sort of my reasoning behind Glide. College students have a little more time and patience to take a ridiculous flight such as that, which may have some empty seats.

A little off topic but remember that Independence is the old ACA. ACA used to manage United Express check-in in Nashville and after my experience with them, I will never fly or reccomend that anyone flies Independence. In all of my years of travel I have never had a Ticket Agent flat out ignore me when I was talking to him and when I asked of a supervisor, wait until I repeat the request three times before he acknowledged it and rudely told the supervisor I wished to speak with them. Without looking up from her computer, the supervisor shoved the United Customer Relations # in my face and ignored my follow-up requests for their names. These are the same people which make up Independence today so it doesn't surprise me in the least your disastisfied.

Beyond Independence I avoid LCC's like the plague - haven't flown one in years. They are just not worth it. Customer Service on the legacies can be just as bad at times but in general you get a professional experience and a lot more protection in the case of travel irregularities.

I'm not 100% for sure, but I believe BNA was not staffed by ACA employees when we were flying there. Even though they flew to a LOT of stations as ACA, not all of the stations were staffed with ACA gate agents / customer service... most of the bigger cities which UAL also served were staffed by UAL ground crews, and the rest of the stations were split between ACA / AWAC ground crew. It was not uncommon for ACA passengers to receive sub-standard treatment from both UAL or AWAC employees, even though we were all supposed to be working for the same "team". As an employee I stopped using the UAL travel priviledges all-together when I had a series of unpleasent run-ins with UAL employees, and witnessed a UAL gate agent working an ACA flight in LGA scream at a passenger who thought his bag could fit in the overhead compartment, and wanted to try it before he left his bag planeside to be put in the cargo hold. This is not to say that this could not have happened in ACA days at one of our stations, but from my experience with UAL / AWAC ground crews I think it is MUCH more likely that you had a run in with them instead.
Sounds like you've already ruled out LCC's altogether, but the only thing I can say is that if you are ever in a position to try FLYI you should give it a shot / second chance... things have changed despite the negative slant to this thread.

........

I am most concerned that Independence feels they are able to treat college students as second class travelers, as I can't imagine them feeding an adult traveler the type of disrespect and miserable customer service that I was served up.
First of all welcome to FlyerTalk...

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences with your bags. I can't remember where I saw it, but I am pretty sure that I heard that GLiDE passes were not eligible for the "Happy Bags" promotion. Don't quote me, but I believe the reason given was that since your base fare was $0 and the Happy Bag doesn't refund taxes or fees, there would be nothing to refund. I know this doesn't take into account the $249+ you have already dropped on the pass itself, but from that angle it really isn't that different from policy's at other carriers (example - certaiin fares may not be eligible for upgrades, FF miles, etc...). I know you are upset, but the idea that FLYI treats college students flying on this pass as "second class travelers" is pretty far out in left field. If anything FLYI wants to retain these travelers so that when they graduate college and move on they will become loyal FLYI customers... and despite any negative experiences (which are inevitable from time to time) I think you will find that FLYI tries to bend over backwards for the customer... HOWEVER, you have to draw the line somewhere. Just as other carriers set rules and policies in place for their fare codes (as mentioned above) FLYI must do the same.

My most pressing concern is the availability of Glide flights.
Once again, I'm sorry for the inability of flights... however, once again I fail to see how FLYI is "taking advantage" of college students on this one. If you go to the FLYI website and look up the GLiDE program rules #2 states very clearly:

2. While $0 fare seats will be available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, they are limited and may not be available on all flights and heavy demand may cause some Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays to sell out early.
FLYI made it very clear that the seats were limited and might sell out.
The summer travel season is historically busier than most times of the year, and when you add that to the HUGE popularity of the GLiDE program (more people looking for those discounted seats), it makes sense that the flights would be limited... that is why they stressed flexibility.

I haven't flown I-Air yet, nor have I had an opportunity to, as most of my travel is international.

Checked baggage: this happens from time to time regardless of what carrier I take. FWIW, I had a checked bag left in BUD (Budapest) which was never loaded onto my Malev flight. I then made it to AMS and continued onto BOS with NW. By the time Malev got my bag to AMS there was no way to get it to the states. BOS was only a stop en-route to see some family. The next day I flew back to SDF (Louisville). NW authorized $200 for clothing purchases, but I didn't have the time to shop and survived with what I had.

My baggage finally made it to BOS, had to overnight there and then NW had to get it to SDF. It took close to a week for me to get my luggage back. I did get a $50 Travel Voucher after kindly speaking to the luggage agents in BOS. (FWIW: My SDF-BOS-BUD ticket was about $1000~ ).

Unfortunately, it's one of those things that happen. I now carry-on 90% of the time unless I am flying between the US & Australia where it is necessary for me to check a couple of bags.

As FlyI operates RJ's, find a decent sized roll-a-board (I know it's hard on a college budget; I'm still paying my student loans; thankfully I made my last Indiana University Loan payment! Now I just have to pay the federal stafford loans). With a roll-a-board, perhaps combined with a backpack, you can gate-check the roll-a-board (this way you know it gets on the plane and you get it back at IAD to gate check it for the next flight) and the backpack can go on the floor in the seat in front of you, providing it's not too big.

I now use a max size roll-a-board and a backpack when traveling. If on an RJ, roll-a-board gets gate checked, backpack goes in overhead or under seat. This is the best way to protect yourself from luggage going walkabout. I can get 5 days of clothing into my roll-a-board. The same roll-a-board fits perfectly into overhead bins on mainline aircraft, including the smaller DC-9's (must go over the 3 side though). Only problem is some of the older 757s which have a lip on the overhead - but it still fits with adjustment. Otherwise, perfect for DC-9/DC-10/MD-11/MD-88 and the 737/747/757/767/777 and Airbus A300/A319/A320/A330 (I haven't flown the 717, A310 or A340, but I'm sure it would fit. 727 is now obsolete).

Second Issue - lack of availability of Flyer Pass: If you do not get anywhere with I-Air, file a written complaint with the State of Indiana Attorney General's office (I assume Indiana is your current state of residence for college purposes). It seems deceptive to me if they sell these passes but offer no seats for weeks at a time. Secondly, contact the DOT. Look around the web, you should be able to find their address. The Indiana Attorney General's office should easily be found on the web - it may take a bit more digging to find the correct address for DOT complaints.

Best of luck,

SDF_Traveler

spampurse, while its understandable there there is not a lot of capacity on the Glide fare, having almost NO activity should not be acceptable and would indeed be taking advantage of customers who purchased this fare. Its definitely showing bad faith and its a stupid business move if the airline has hopes for long term survival because one of these days those poor college kids will be frequent business travelers.

First of all welcome to FlyerTalk...

Sorry to hear about your bad experiences with your bags. I can't remember where I saw it, but I am pretty sure that I heard that GLiDE passes were not eligible for the "Happy Bags" promotion. Don't quote me, but I believe the reason given was that since your base fare was $0 and the Happy Bag doesn't refund taxes or fees, there would be nothing to refund. I know this doesn't take into account the $249+ you have already dropped on the pass itself, but from that angle it really isn't that different from policy's at other carriers (example - certaiin fares may not be eligible for upgrades, FF miles, etc...). I know you are upset, but the idea that FLYI treats college students flying on this pass as "second class travelers" is pretty far out in left field. If anything FLYI wants to retain these travelers so that when they graduate college and move on they will become loyal FLYI customers... and despite any negative experiences (which are inevitable from time to time) I think you will find that FLYI tries to bend over backwards for the customer... HOWEVER, you have to draw the line somewhere. Just as other carriers set rules and policies in place for their fare codes (as mentioned above) FLYI must do the same.


Once again, I'm sorry for the inability of flights... however, once again I fail to see how FLYI is "taking advantage" of college students on this one. If you go to the FLYI website and look up the GLiDE program rules #2 states very clearly:

2. While $0 fare seats will be available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, they are limited and may not be available on all flights and heavy demand may cause some Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays to sell out early.
FLYI made it very clear that the seats were limited and might sell out.
The summer travel season is historically busier than most times of the year, and when you add that to the HUGE popularity of the GLiDE program (more people looking for those discounted seats), it makes sense that the flights would be limited... that is why they stressed flexibility.



That wording was definitely very clear when buying the Glide pass. I never expected availability on all FlyI flights. However it's been two weeks now of complete unavilability. While there's no doubt that these fares are snatched up quickly, I'm not sure how much more effective my searching can be. I check the fares each morning and have been unable to book anything in weeks.
I understand that it becomes difficult to refund a ticket that was technically a $0 fare. I do think that FLYI is an inovative enough organization that they could figure out a way to compensate me for my trouble, however minimal it may have been. As I said before, I didn't even recieve an apology. I know this isn't common practice on all carriers, but this airline has gone out of its way to promote a program specifically to compensate travelers who's bags are lost. Nowhere in the wording do the Happy Bags rules mention Glide passengers. And no where in the Glide rules does it mention that I'd be traveling as a "non-revenue flyer". I'm still really insulted by that term, as I now know I could have put my $249 to much better use with a company that would count me as a revenue customer.
I'm sorry if I insinuated that FLYI preys on college students. I understand that not every passenger can be completely satisfied all the time. But, I've experienced a complete failure of customer service on the several occassions I've contacted FLYI about my concerns. It makes sense that FLYI would try to build customer loyalty through these programs, but I'd say their follow through has been miserable enough to drive me the complete opposite direction in my future travels.
I'll hold off contacting DOT until I recieve a response from my last email, but I appreciate that suggestion.

That wording was definitely very clear when buying the Glide pass. I never expected availability on all FlyI flights. However it's been two weeks now of complete unavilability. While there's no doubt that these fares are snatched up quickly, I'm not sure how much more effective my searching can be. I check the fares each morning and have been unable to book anything in weeks.
I understand that it becomes difficult to refund a ticket that was technically a $0 fare. I do think that FLYI is an inovative enough organization that they could figure out a way to compensate me for my trouble, however minimal it may have been. As I said before, I didn't even recieve an apology. I know this isn't common practice on all carriers, but this airline has gone out of its way to promote a program specifically to compensate travelers who's bags are lost. Nowhere in the wording do the Happy Bags rules mention Glide passengers. And no where in the Glide rules does it mention that I'd be traveling as a "non-revenue flyer". I'm still really insulted by that term, as I now know I could have put my $249 to much better use with a company that would count me as a revenue customer.
I'm sorry if I insinuated that FLYI preys on college students. I understand that not every passenger can be completely satisfied all the time. But, I've experienced a complete failure of customer service on the several occassions I've contacted FLYI about my concerns. It makes sense that FLYI would try to build customer loyalty through these programs, but I'd say their follow through has been miserable enough to drive me the complete opposite direction in my future travels.
I'll hold off contacting DOT until I recieve a response from my last email, but I appreciate that suggestion.

Have you tried emailing their college person? It was on the old 20% off site (which i can't find anymore) but i think it was college.marketing@flyi.com.

Hope this helps.

Have you tried emailing their college person? It was on the old 20% off site (which i can't find anymore) but i think it was college.marketing@flyi.com.

Hope this helps.


Just emailed them. Thanks!

A little off topic but remember that Independence is the old ACA. ACA used to manage United Express check-in in Nashville and after my experience with them, I will never fly or reccomend that anyone flies Independence. actually, every employee had to go through independence brand training to get away from those filthy habits that ual passed down to uax. we weeded out a lot of crabby people from the workforce. you should check us out. you might be surprised! i think ACA took over from UAL in BNA back in 2001. air wisconsin may have been in there at some point as well. skywest also operated crj's for uax from bna. :)

Is there any other unusual treatment to Glide fare pax? or are they treated like everyone else (Except in situations like a missing bag). What is the procedure when first checking in, just a simple ID check?

spampurse, while its understandable there there is not a lot of capacity on the Glide fare, having almost NO activity should not be acceptable and would indeed be taking advantage of customers who purchased this fare. Its definitely showing bad faith and its a stupid business move if the airline has hopes for long term survival because one of these days those poor college kids will be frequent business travelers.

You misunderstood me...

You are correct... IF FLYI was purposefully limiting these seats to just a very few dates, yes that would be wrong... but I don't think that is what is happening. The GLiDE program has been EXTREMELY popular and a LOT of college students have signed up. I am assuming that the GLiDE fares are loaded like any other fare class on a "first come first serve" basis. What makes more sense, that FLYI is purposefully not loading GLiDE fares knowing that doing so will piss off college students and turn them agains FLYI forever... OR there is heavy demand for the GLiDE fares due to its popularity and the OP has just had the bad luck of being a bit behind the pack in purchasing these tickets.

Without knowing the complete story, I can't say for sure... but I've talked to several people using the GLiDE program and I haven't heard any similar complaints, so I am going to have to go with the second explaination.

Are there any other GLiDE program travelers / FT'ers out there that have had this same experience?

Is there any other unusual treatment to Glide fare pax? or are they treated like everyone else (Except in situations like a missing bag). What is the procedure when first checking in, just a simple ID check?

I would assume that the check-in process is the same the only difference is that you must show your ID to confirm your age and that you are in college.

I would assume that the check-in process is the same the only difference is that you must show your ID to confirm your age and that you are in college.

Actually, I've never been asked for my school ID. This includes previous travel under the 20% college discount.

To the best of my knowledge there's no indication on the boarding pass or to the cabin crew that students are traveling on the GLiDE pass. The treatment on the ground and in the air is the type of fantastic service that I really appreciate about FLYI. The problems I've encountered have all been in my experiences with customer service and management.

Jasamuel,

The reference to "non-rev" is not a reference to how much you paid for your ticket, but a reference to the type of ticket. It's hard to define what is and what is not a non-rev ticket, because there are exceptions to the rule. "Non-rev" tickets are typically non-revenue space available travel provided to industry employees andtheir friends and family. This is your typical employee pass or buddy/companion pass. These types of tickets are space available, are not covered under the contract of carriage (there is no contract), and are not figured into the DOT statistics. Oddly, these types of tickets can incur a hefty fee (running into the hundereds of dollars), and when they do, are still considered "non revenue space available." There is such a thing as a "Non revenue, Positive Space" ticket, which is a positive space ticket given to FAA/NTSB employees on emergency travel, airline employees on company travel, and one or two other categories as well. There are also such things as "non-revenue positive space" pleasure passes. These are all not covered under the CoC. The significance of this category of ticket is that the airline incurs no liability if they fail to transport you on the flight/time on which you are attempting to travel, and is independent of the dollar value of the transaction. The key here is that you have to have some industry connection, and also that these revenues are counted under a different line item.

The type of fare you are travelling on is what is called zero fare. It is not "non-revenue." The program rules (I just read them, you can find them via google, I couldn't get a direct link from the main page) make no mention that these are "industry discounted", "Non-revenue", or any other mention of the fact that the CoC does not apply to a booked flight. This means that you are a revenue traveller, albeit at a $0 fare. I've always thought that any question of revenue status could be avoided by charging a $1 fare for any $0 fare ticket (like glide, or an award ticket).

As far as the glide program goes, they did cover their butts. They aren't offering you something they had no intention of providing, because part of the deal allows you to get 20% off of any fare at any time. On the other hand, you can't book seats until you're within a 21-day window, so you should be able to find some evidence of available or unavailable seats. If you can't find any at all, write them a polite but strong letter.

With respect to Happy Bags, no matter what terminology you use, if you are travelling on a zero-fare ticket, that is exactly what you'll get refunded if there is a mishandled bag.

As far as BNA goes, it was an ACA operated station before the switch.

I've had nothing but positive experiences for both of my college students. One flys BNA-MHT and the other flys CRW-MHT. Both have used the Glide pass and have had no problems. One is flying today MHT-BNA. I bought the ticket 5/20/05 and was able to get the "0" fare, althoiugh the flight selection wasn't that great. Coming home he has to fly BNA-PWM, but it"s probably because I waited too long??
I just checked availabilty for June 11-14 and everything is wide open. the OP must have waited too long.

I've had nothing but positive experiences for both of my college students. One flys BNA-MHT and the other flys CRW-MHT. Both have used the Glide pass and have had no problems. One is flying today MHT-BNA. I bought the ticket 5/20/05 and was able to get the "0" fare, althoiugh the flight selection wasn't that great. Coming home he has to fly BNA-PWM, but it"s probably because I waited too long??
I just checked availabilty for June 11-14 and everything is wide open. the OP must have waited too long.


I'm pretty stunned. I searched BNA-MHT flights for 6/11-6/14 and they are in deed wide open. The same search for IND-JFK, IND-EWR, or just IND-IAD yield no $0 fares. It looks as though the source of my problem is IND. Apparently this is a very popular route. I apologize for attacking the entire GLiDE program, without researching other routes. My problem still stands though, as I am unable to access any viable flights from either IND or ORD.

I'm pretty stunned. I searched BNA-MHT flights for 6/11-6/14 and they are in deed wide open. The same search for IND-JFK, IND-EWR, or just IND-IAD yield no $0 fares. It looks as though the source of my problem is IND. Apparently this is a very popular route. I apologize for attacking the entire GLiDE program, without researching other routes. My problem still stands though, as I am unable to access any viable flights from either IND or ORD.

If you can't get the IND-IAD leg or any leg out of ORD, the pass is almost of no use for you. A couple of possible scenarios - perhaps many people in the IND market have these passes and use them frequently - or the loads are 'high' and yield management isn't allocatinting any seats.

One thing to keep in mind - this is the start of the summer travel season and I know even on other carriers in the next few weeks, many routes are heavily sold out of SDF.

Perhaps this is something that will pass in a couple of weeks -- if not and you can't use the pass, I would let I-air know this. If they can't do anything about it, I'd ask them for a refund or to have yield management open a seat or two. With a pass such as this, I wouldn't expect "great" availability, but I would expect some 'reasonable' ability to use it now and then. At least have a seat or two available to get from IND-IAD (and beyond).

You can always try driving to SDF or another fly-i airport within a 3 hr radius if you can get seats out of there, but if you live in IND, I would expect some type of availability to exist. There is no reason you should have to drive 2 hours to SDF or 3 to ORD (if you could get a seat) when you have a perfectly good airport in IND with Fly-I service.

Worst case scenario there is always the consumer protection division of the Indiana Attorney General's office who could probably assist you - and the DOT to lodge a complaint (I would expect more result from the Indiana AG office) -- but if you continue to find no availabilty over the next month or so, I would do something -- but try working with I-Air first.

Does the pass allow for Standby Travel if "$0 GLiDE fares" don't exist before-hand?

SDF_Traveler

If you can't get the IND-IAD leg or any leg out of ORD, the pass is almost of no use for you. A couple of possible scenarios - perhaps many people in the IND market have these passes and use them frequently - or the loads are 'high' and yield management isn't allocatinting any seats.

One thing to keep in mind - this is the start of the summer travel season and I know even on other carriers in the next few weeks, many routes are heavily sold out of SDF.

Perhaps this is something that will pass in a couple of weeks -- if not and you can't use the pass, I would let I-air know this. If they can't do anything about it, I'd ask them for a refund or to have yield management open a seat or two. With a pass such as this, I wouldn't expect "great" availability, but I would expect some 'reasonable' ability to use it now and then. At least have a seat or two available to get from IND-IAD (and beyond).

You can always try driving to SDF or another fly-i airport within a 3 hr radius if you can get seats out of there, but if you live in IND, I would expect some type of availability to exist. There is no reason you should have to drive 2 hours to SDF or 3 to ORD (if you could get a seat) when you have a perfectly good airport in IND with Fly-I service.

Worst case scenario there is always the consumer protection division of the Indiana Attorney General's office who could probably assist you - and the DOT to lodge a complaint (I would expect more result from the Indiana AG office) -- but if you continue to find no availabilty over the next month or so, I would do something -- but try working with I-Air first.

Does the pass allow for Standby Travel if "$0 GLiDE fares" don't exist before-hand?

SDF_Traveler

That's exactly my concern. A single $0 fare from IND-IAD with no return flight for two weeks is of little use to me. I can't believe the availability from other cities is so great, while IND doesn't have anything. I had no idea IAD-IND was such a popular route as all of my FLYI flights between these cities have been at about half of capacity. After the previous post about BNA-MHT I started checking other airports in my area. SDF is a pretty viable option and seems to have singificantly more GLiDE availability than IND. I don't love the idea of tacking a two hour drive onto a day of travel, but am willing to do so to reach the cities I was excited about visiting this summer. I've already seen trips planned for 6/7-6/8 and 6/14-6/15 go out the window because no flights were available. A one day trip to IAD for a father's day visit has also been scratched. I checked all of these flights exactly 21 days prior to the departure date. Nothing. I have sent several emails to FLYI about these concerns, and haven't gotten any response yet. I hope they would be responsive, but after my previous experiences I'm not expecting any real assistance from them. An email to the college marketing division containing a link to this thread did yield an email from the marketing director requesting I call him to discuss my concerns, but he has been unavailable and has yet to return my call.

An email to the college marketing division containing a link to this thread did yield an email from the marketing director requesting I call him to discuss my concerns, but he has been unavailable and has yet to return my call.

Not to play devils advocate, but it sounds like you got enough of a response to get a phone #, and it IS a holiday weekend. Maybe the person hasn't gotten the call yet.

Not to play devils advocate, but it sounds like you got enough of a response to get a phone #, and it IS a holiday weekend. Maybe the person hasn't gotten the call yet.

I completely agree. He responded to my initial email almost immediately. I imagine he's a difficult person to get ahold of, and was very pleased to receive his email. Especially since he's picking up slack for a customer service department that takes over a week to reply to an email.

Are Glide pax allowed to standby for earlier flights if seats are available, even though they aren't Glide seat availability.

Here's an apdate. Tony Verrocchio, Marketing Manager at FLYI has been helping me out the past few days. He has been really tremendous and has addressed all of my concerns. GLiDE availability out of IND and ORD is definitely harder to come by as they are both very popular markets for FLYI. There's not a whole lot that can be done about that. I wish I had known about that prior to purchasing the pass though. FLYI doesn't offer stand-by service as it would slow down their rapid turnovers in IAD. I do think that finding a way to let GLiDE flyers take vaccant seats closer to departure would be a great idea. It took a little time and persistance, but I'm finally pleased with the way FLYI handled the situation.

Are you saying if there is an empty seat and a Glide pax is standing at the gate trying to get on they wont give it to them since they are standing by for an earlier flight?

Are you saying if there is an empty seat and a Glide pax is standing at the gate trying to get on they wont give it to them since they are standing by for an earlier flight?

I think that Glide passengers are the same as all others. if you have a CONFIRMED seat on a later flight, and show up early, they will move you. I think what jasamuel was saying is that there is no provision for them to show up at the airport and just go standby without having a previously booked reservation. That has the potential to throw off operations, weight and balance, etc.

My concern is quite similar to jasumeal's original problem. I too have an activated Glide travel pass, which I intended to use to travel exclusively from Boston to Atlanta and back. When I first purchased the glide pass, my parents were skeptical of such an amazing deal; however, after making an initial search of available flights from BOS to ATL for the month of May, we were all very impressed. I was able to get a ticket to ATL and back once so far in late May and was very pleased with the options of flights and the friendliness of the crew on the plane.

However, in the last couple weeks, I have been searching glide flights to ATL everday as well. There are no free flights to ATL. I understand that these passes are limited, but I have been checking for flights for the dates I want exactly 21 days within the day I want to travel. There are absolutely NO free flights to ATL. I was just wondering, does I-Air even set aside at least a few glide passes to and from every destination? It is just a bit annoying that I rework my work schedule, so that I would be free on the Tues, Wed, and Sat's...then look for flights as soon as they would be available (within the 21 days)...only to find absolutely no free flights.

I guess my question here is: Does I-Air set aside X amount of tickets to/from each destination, particularly ATL since that is the only place I intend to use my Glide pass for? And if I am always unable to find an available flight even if I check as soon as free glide passes would open up, would I be able to get a refund for my pass?

Thanks for reading.

If you're going BOS-ATL, you might want to look at Air Tran's X-fares program:

http://www.airtran.com/specials/xfares/index.jsp

But I understand you've purchased your GLiDE pass and want to use it, as well you should.

I guess my question here is: Does I-Air set aside X amount of tickets to/from each destination, particularly ATL since that is the only place I intend to use my Glide pass for? And if I am always unable to find an available flight even if I check as soon as free glide passes would open up, would I be able to get a refund for my pass?


I have used mine to travel all over the east coast and haven't had a problem. Have you tried checkin multiple flights on a given day, or are you trying to fly at peak times during the day? those are going to be the first to sell out, especially if ATL is a popular destination. If you have used your pass, i don't see how they could refund you. That would be giving you something for nothing, and that wouldn't be fair to them, either.

If you can't go to ATL, why not take your days off to go day trip somewhere else? there have got to be places you want to explore! i think the whole point of the pass was the concept of spontenaity (sp?) and adventure. At least that's the message i got, and I am having a blast doing it!

actually, every employee had to go through independence brand training to get away from those filthy habits that ual passed down to uax. we weeded out a lot of crabby people from the workforce. you should check us out. you might be surprised! i think ACA took over from UAL in BNA back in 2001. air wisconsin may have been in there at some point as well. skywest also operated crj's for uax from bna. :)

Good to hear that some re-training and weeding out was done. While old preferences die hard....I'll consider giving it a try sometime in the future.

I am flexible enough to take nearly ANY time of flight from BOS to ATL on certain Tues Wed and Sat's, but the problem is that there is not even one available, even when I do check exactly 21 days before the Tues, Wed, or Sat that I intend to fly. I have even looked back to see the availability of any of the days that are within 21, and there is perhaps about 1 or 2 flights total between BOS and ATL.

About the refund, I guess I didn't mean a full refund...but I would be a bit upset if I am not able to use it at least twice, which I would need to pay off the amount of the pass + taxes from the one flight I was lucky to get. Concerning the spontaneity, I purchased my pass to travel to ATL only.

I have used mine to travel all over the east coast and haven't had a problem. Have you tried checkin multiple flights on a given day, or are you trying to fly at peak times during the day? those are going to be the first to sell out, especially if ATL is a popular destination. If you have used your pass, i don't see how they could refund you. That would be giving you something for nothing, and that wouldn't be fair to them, either.

If you can't go to ATL, why not take your days off to go day trip somewhere else? there have got to be places you want to explore! i think the whole point of the pass was the concept of spontenaity (sp?) and adventure. At least that's the message i got, and I am having a blast doing it!


GLiDE pass availability seems to be pretty hit or miss depending on which city you intend to travel to/from. Some cities have all daily flights available, while others don't have a single $0 fare. I am still compltely unable to find a fare out of IND to anywhere. While I'd intended to be spontaneous with my pass as well, I'm not able to make the IND to IAD leg of any flight, therefore I can't connect to anywhere. I too was at least lucky enough to make one flight using my pass. My sister is having an even more difficult time flying out of ORD, where there is absolutely not a single GLiDE fare at any time. My correspondence with FLYI revealed that both IND and especially ORD are extremely popular routes and are going to have extremely limited GLiDE availability. My question is, do you think its fair for FLYI to sell these passes to customers who will have to fly out of a city where GLiDE availability is nonexistent? Or perhaps there should have been an additional warning that these routes are routinely sold out. I paid the same $249 as someone in Nashville, but they can use there pass almost every Tues, Wed, and Sat where I can't find a single flight. I understand their logic, but I hope they realize how incredibly frustrating this is for me as I had no idea my route was insanely popular prior to purchasing the pass.

Load factors are up across the board and there are very few routes on any airline which are not "popular," esp. during the summer months. I'm sure flyI could have given you some insight into which routes sell out more than others but I don't think it's a case of deceptive marketing. Air Tran's X-fares program is nice but it again guarantees you of nothing. Air Tran is currently having a big sale - Delta may well have matched on BOS-ATL non-stops. If you have to go you may be better off purchasing a few tickets.

I think that Glide passengers are the same as all others. if you have a CONFIRMED seat on a later flight, and show up early, they will move you. I think what jasamuel was saying is that there is no provision for them to show up at the airport and just go standby without having a previously booked reservation. That has the potential to throw off operations, weight and balance, etc.

I don't buy this explanation one bit - all airlines accept employees and other airline employees on a standby basis - oftentimes, especially on flights that are not full, a substantial number of seats remaining just before departure are occupied by non-revenue standby's. This must "throw off" the weight and balance as well. I don't see how allowing Glide passengers to stand by is any different from letting non-revenue passengers stand by.

As to the question of availability, I think from a business perspective, FlyI can't possibly offer more than a couple of free seats per flight, at best. At $249, they are really just desperate for cash it seems, and allowing that much $0 revenue passengers on each flight (when most only hold 50 passengers) is really not good business.

I don't buy this explanation one bit - all airlines accept employees and other airline employees on a standby basis - oftentimes, especially on flights that are not full, a substantial number of seats remaining just before departure are occupied by non-revenue standby's. This must "throw off" the weight and balance as well. I don't see how allowing Glide passengers to stand by is any different from letting non-revenue passengers stand by.


The Glide pass would be a whole lot more useful if it permitted standby travel without a reservation. I understand why FlyI doesn't want to allocate a large number of seats to Glide passengers in advance (after all, they can probably sell them at a much higher price to others) but they should at least give Glide pass holders the same opportunities for spontaneous standby that they give non-rev employees.

The Glide pass would be a whole lot more useful if it permitted standby travel without a reservation. I understand why FlyI doesn't want to allocate a large number of seats to Glide passengers in advance (after all, they can probably sell them at a much higher price to others) but they should at least give Glide pass holders the same opportunities for spontaneous standby that they give non-rev employees.

Agreed - the $249 should be a price paid as a privilege to stand by without a reservation. This shouldn't be difficult to do. If I were to create such a college student program, I would structure it with multiple-tiered pricing.

Glide Pass Lite:
$199 - good for eight segments during the summer period

Glide Pass Standard:
$299 - good for 14 segments during the summer period

Glide Pass Super:
$399 - good for 21 segments during the summer period with the option to purchase additional segments for $18 per segment after that.

All travel must be stand-by space available only. Boarding priority is after revenue same-day standby passengers but before Non-Revenue standby passengers (employees and companions).

I am flexible enough to take nearly ANY time of flight from BOS to ATL on certain Tues Wed and Sat's, but the problem is that there is not even one available, even when I do check exactly 21 days before the Tues, Wed, or Sat that I intend to fly. I have even looked back to see the availability of any of the days that are within 21, and there is perhaps about 1 or 2 flights total between BOS and ATL.

About the refund, I guess I didn't mean a full refund...but I would be a bit upset if I am not able to use it at least twice, which I would need to pay off the amount of the pass + taxes from the one flight I was lucky to get. Concerning the spontaneity, I purchased my pass to travel to ATL only.


I've had the exact same problem with ATL. I'm staying home in upstate New York and have been trying to get to ATL for a while now. I'm quite flexible as to where I can fly from as I'm only a few hours from SYR, ROC, and even SWF/HPN if need be but for the next month I think there is only one single flight that I can take to get to ATL.

If demand is the issue I'd like to know when these kids are getting on their computers because I looked for June 25 yesterday (exactly 21 days ahead and still nothing). They clearly book flights too early. A friend of mine flew to BUF from ATL and booked the flight about 30 days ahead. This really bothers me because basically this means that since I didn't book ALL my travel for the summer months ago I'm pretty much screwed.

I had the exact same problem getting from ORD to SYR. I even referred my girlfriend and another friend of mine to this (before knowing how awful it is) and am quite embarassed now as they both feel they wasted $250.

Overall my experience with flyI has not been good. I called multiple times to customer service to express my concerns (selling fares before the 21 day mark) as well as lack of availability and only went in circles with very rude employees. I can't look ahead to see if there are $0 fares beyond the 21 days and when the 21 day mark comes all fares are gone which I cannot comprehend. I tried to explain this to the people on the phone but all they would do is basically read the terms and conditions. No refunds, no apologies.

I would not use this airline after this experience as they clearly do not have their act together and don't particually care about the students who spent a decent amount of money for something we can't use. Not only that their "low fares" aren't even that low. When I look at Travelocity there are plenty of other airlines that offer cheaper flights than flyI.

How is $166 for a o/w flight (IAD-ATL) a low fare?

I've had the exact same problem with ATL. I'm staying home in upstate New York and have been trying to get to ATL for a while now. I'm quite flexible as to where I can fly from as I'm only a few hours from SYR, ROC, and even SWF/HPN if need be but for the next month I think there is only one single flight that I can take to get to ATL.

If demand is the issue I'd like to know when these kids are getting on their computers because I looked for June 25 yesterday (exactly 21 days ahead and still nothing). They clearly book flights too early. A friend of mine flew to BUF from ATL and booked the flight about 30 days ahead. This really bothers me because basically this means that since I didn't book ALL my travel for the summer months ago I'm pretty much screwed.

I had the exact same problem getting from ORD to SYR. I even referred my girlfriend and another friend of mine to this (before knowing how awful it is) and am quite embarassed now as they both feel they wasted $250.

Overall my experience with flyI has not been good. I called multiple times to customer service to express my concerns (selling fares before the 21 day mark) as well as lack of availability and only went in circles with very rude employees. I can't look ahead to see if there are $0 fares beyond the 21 days and when the 21 day mark comes all fares are gone which I cannot comprehend. I tried to explain this to the people on the phone but all they would do is basically read the terms and conditions. No refunds, no apologies.

I would not use this airline after this experience as they clearly do not have their act together and don't particually care about the students who spent a decent amount of money for something we can't use. Not only that their "low fares" aren't even that low. When I look at Travelocity there are plenty of other airlines that offer cheaper flights than flyI.

How is $166 for a o/w flight (IAD-ATL) a low fare?



I definitely understand this concern. I encouraged all of my friends and family to buy these passes as well and join me on my travels. So far, no one's been able to use it. Specifically my own sister who had hoped to fly out of ORD all summer to visit her friends from school has been unable to find a single flight segment. I'm in the doghouse bigtime with my family for pushing this one.

As for the 20% discount they give once GLiDE fares are gone, I agree that they are hardly an alternative. Almost always those fares can be beat on other airlines that don't require connections through IAD.

I purchased a Glide pass in late April, and was able to purchase two tickets in early May for the 0$ fare. I too noticed the signifigant availability of the 0$ fares in late april/early may. After noticing the reduced availability of 0$ fares, I spoke with an independence airlines associate during a flight between dulles and RSW. She wasnt able to offer any helpful information.

I agree with the previous posters who are upset that tickets were issued outside the 21 day departure window. I easily could have purchased my summer tickets in May. Because I was under the impression that I could not purchase tickets outside of the 21 day departure window, I did not attempt to do so. My market is not extremely tough, as per some of the earlier posters. I live in Columbia, SC and have found some tickets to EWR/JFK. However, my parents purchased the glide pass for me to travel to/from Ft. Myers, Fl to visit my sick grandmother. The RSW -> IAD route does have limited availability, unfortunatly. I'd like to use the X fares, but I am 25 years old, and do not qualify.

I would like to note that I've never experienced poor service on Independence Airlines. I've flown twice as a regular passenger and twice on the Glide pass.

One suggestion that I have is to allow Glide travelers who use the 20% discount to also use other discounts. For instance, I did receive a Happy Bag 20$ off discount from a previous flight. I would like to combine it with the 20% off discount for a future July flight. I realize that this is against the rules, but its just a suggestion. :cool:

I agree with the previous posters who are upset that tickets were issued outside the 21 day departure window. I easily could have purchased my summer tickets in May. Because I was under the impression that I could not purchase tickets outside of the 21 day departure window, I did not attempt to do so. My market is not extremely tough, as per some of the earlier posters. I live in Columbia, SC and have found some tickets to EWR/JFK. However, my parents purchased the glide pass for me to travel to/from Ft. Myers, Fl to visit my sick grandmother. The RSW -> IAD route does have limited availability, unfortunatly. I'd like to use the X fares, but I am 25 years old, and do not qualify.

I continue to have that same problem. Since today is Tuesday, I checked to see the availability of flights 21 days from now between BOS and ATL. Once again, there are ZERO free flights to ATL.

Out of curiousity, I did check destinations besides Atlanta, and I must admit that there are quite a few places that have lots of $0 flights to other cities when departing out of Boston. The only problem is that I purchased my Glide pass to travel to ATL only...=( If only Independence Air would've stated in the conditions that certain airports (like ATL) have severely limited availability--or none at all for that matter--into and out of certain airports, I would've been much happier and probably would not have spent $249 on a pass that I can barely use.

I think some of you who are having such difficulties finding availability should contact the press - esp. the Wall Street Journal. While I have posted before on this thread that I wouldn't have bought any pass like this based on the fact that availability may be difficult - it seems clear that availability is so impossible that it's coming across as deceptive marketing. To market something as space-available still comes with the expectation that space will sometimes be available. The inability to go standby without a reservation just exacerbates the problem.

I was interviewed about another travel related story by a reporter at the Journal previously. I can probably find contact info back in my e-mail so if anyone would like it, private msg. me.

I think you should contact the company before you go jump to the press. It sounds like they're being receptive to comments and if you've been unable to use it at all, they may be able to do something for you. If you've been able to use it some, but just not as much as you like, then that may ultimately be part of the gamble in using a pass like this.

I don't think anyone saw the load factors that we've experienced this summer coming. Until later this spring, it didn't seem like there would be so many people this summer on the airlines. I've got tickets booked for later this month that have been nearly sold out for weeks, and it's not travel on normally busy days. There are just a lot of people flying, and that's causing difficulty with something like this.

Maybe you can contact them and suggest that they open it up to allow standby on any flight any time if there are seats available, as long as you have the patience to get to the airport and potentially have to wait on an open seat. With a modification like that, you'd likely be able to get seats on the flights you'd like, but it may take some extra patience. Since they're willing to listen, might as well make some suggestions...

That's an interesting suggestion about contacting the press. I would certainly appreciate any contact information you might have for the WSJ. While the marketing manager has been great in responding to my emails, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot FLYI is willing to do to remedy the situation. I think its great their loads are up, but I do feel a bit stranded with this pass. There's been a bit more availability showing up closer to departure dates, but nothing I'd describe as a great improvement or viable options for a trip. (One flight outbound with no return availability). My suggestion to open up standby seats to GLiDE pax is also not being considered as FLYI has some sort of strict no standby policy. I still don't understand why on the morning of a flight, if it isn't full some of those seats can't be made $0.

That's an interesting suggestion about contacting the press. I would certainly appreciate any contact information you might have for the WSJ. While the marketing manager has been great in responding to my emails, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot FLYI is willing to do to remedy the situation. I think its great their loads are up, but I do feel a bit stranded with this pass. There's been a bit more availability showing up closer to departure dates, but nothing I'd describe as a great improvement or viable options for a trip. (One flight outbound with no return availability). My suggestion to open up standby seats to GLiDE pax is also not being considered as FLYI has some sort of strict no standby policy. I still don't understand why on the morning of a flight, if it isn't full some of those seats can't be made $0.

I don't think writing the WSJ journal will really do much. The fact is, a lot of Glide users don't have a problem with the pass (i have one, and have met a lot of people on flights who are using them with no problem). So it's not like FLYI was using deceptive marketing. If just a few people are having problems, thats not reeally a newsworthy story. To me, it was clear that I had to be flexible with this. To say that there is an outboud open with NO return is most likely false. It's just not the times YOU want it. Either people bougght them out before you, or the whole flight is sold out (which is a possibility) You said yourself that more availability is showing up for you, so obviously your contacting them did something if they are making more flights available.

I don't think writing the WSJ journal will really do much. The fact is, a lot of Glide users don't have a problem with the pass (i have one, and have met a lot of people on flights who are using them with no problem). So it's not like FLYI was using deceptive marketing. If just a few people are having problems, thats not reeally a newsworthy story. To me, it was clear that I had to be flexible with this. To say that there is an outboud open with NO return is most likely false. It's just not the times YOU want it. Either people bougght them out before you, or the whole flight is sold out (which is a possibility) You said yourself that more availability is showing up for you, so obviously your contacting them did something if they are making more flights available.


i understand that there are people who are able to use this pass with no problem; able to book just about any flight from their home airport. That's why its so frustrating to have paid the same $249 and be unable to use the pass at all. I have been more proactive in getting my money's worth than I feel I should have to be, but I know others who haven't used their pass at all. My sister for example is home in Chicago for the summer and has been unable to book a single flight. She has all the flexibility in the world. I am not exagerating when I say there are flights out with no return. There will literally be one $0 for ORD-IAD, with no $0 fares returning IAD-ORD for at least the next 21 days. While it might be possible to take a flight out and wait for a return flight to appear, that's not a valid option for my 18 year old sister. I'd like to emphasize my point again. FLYI was not deceptive in their marketing nor are the rules of the GLiDE pass vague in anyway. However, it would have been very useful to know that I would be flying from one of their busiest markets and have little to no options for booking roundtrips. I find it unlikely that GLiDE fares are appearing and I am missing them, as I check these fares at midnight as well as first thing in the morning and they are simply never there for flights to/from IND and ORD. It sounds like similar problems have been occuring out of ATL as well. After speaking with FLYI, I do believe their intentions were good and my luck was bad, but I hope they understand how frustrated this program has left me.

I am not that familiar with the law, but can't a (small claims) court reform the terms of the pass (leading to the result that FlyI would have to either make flights available and/or pay damages for not having done so) if these students can show that FlyI's behavior failed to show "good faith and fair dealing"?

If I had bought the pass and then found no availability for weeks at a time, I'd be printing out the results pages to back up such an assertion.

Yonatan

I am not that familiar with the law, but can't a (small claims) court reform the terms of the pass (leading to the result that FlyI would have to either make flights available and/or pay damages for not having done so) if these students can show that FlyI's behavior failed to show "good faith and fair dealing"?

If I had bought the pass and then found no availability for weeks at a time, I'd be printing out the results pages to back up such an assertion.

Yonatan

Doesn't the pass terms specify there are limitations? Because if does mention that there are limitations, then they have covered their behinds.

Sad to say, practically every frequent guest, be it air, hotel or whatever, has capacity controls and limitations. When you get to the bigger airlines and hotels, you will be reading how difficult at times the redemption is for awards.

My concern is the lack of checks the customer has on this process. We truely have no idea how many $0 fares are available for each flight we simply know if they are available or not.

This really bothers me because it seems this would give the glide pass users (who are obviously quite frustrated by this) some idea of how many flights are going and how fast. I just can't imagine that EVERY flight to ATL is sold out within a single day of it becoming available. We never have any idea of how many flights are out there. It seems the airline wouldn't care if they didn't have anything to hide. Maybe some sort of countdown.

Honestly, there are NO $0 fares to ATL for the next 21 days. None at all and I'm just fed up with flyI. Their customer serivice cares none when I call and will not explain why flights are STILL sold early.

I'm done with this airline.

My concern is the lack of checks the customer has on this process. We truely have no idea how many $0 fares are available for each flight we simply know if they are available or not.

This really bothers me because it seems this give the glide pass users (who are obviously quite frustrated by this) some idea of how many flights are going and how fast. I just can't imagine that EVERY flight to ATL is sold out within a single day of it becoming available. We never have any idea of how many flights are out there. It seems the airline wouldn't care if they didn't have anything to hide. Maybe some sort of countdown.

Honestly, there are NO $0 fares to ATL for the next 21 days. None at all and I'm just fed up with flyI. Their customer serivice cares none when I call and will not explain why flights are STILL sold early.

I'm done with this airline.

Companies don't tend to share their yield management with the public, so it's unrealistic to expect to them to share with you about how many seats are available for this or that. Hotels operate the very same way. They don't share with the public how many rooms go for this rate or that rate.


If you read the #2 and #3 fine print of the pass, they spell things out very clearly:

2. While $0 fare seats will be available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, they are limited and may not be available on all flights and heavy demand may cause some Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays to sell out early.

3. GLiDE travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays cannot be booked any earlier than 21 days before your departure date; however, travel on other days and travel to the West on all days can be booked at the 20% discount without this restriction.


Judging from how busy this summer is going to be for those traveling, those seats are probably sold out within a single day, or even within a few seconds, of them being placed on sale.

It's very much like frequent flyers for major airlines all competing for the very limited # of award seats on popular flights for summer. More often than not, very few successes, and these travelers have spent $$,$$$s or even way more money accumulating their miles, not just the measly $$$s (peanuts) you have spent on this pass.


And, there's no such thing as booking too early when traveling. If the traveling crowd moves faster than you, you wouldn't have the pick of the litter on scheduling, possibly leaving you shut out, which I suspect has happened here.

Companies don't tend to share their yield management with the public, so it's unrealistic to expect to them to share with you about how many seats are available for this or that. Hotels operate the very same way. They don't share with the public how many rooms go for this rate or that rate.


If you read the #2 and #3 fine print of the pass, they spell things out very clearly:

2. While $0 fare seats will be available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, they are limited and may not be available on all flights and heavy demand may cause some Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays to sell out early.

3. GLiDE travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays cannot be booked any earlier than 21 days before your departure date; however, travel on other days and travel to the West on all days can be booked at the 20% discount without this restriction.


Judging from how busy this summer is going to be for those traveling, those seats are probably sold out within a single day, or even within a few seconds, of them being placed on sale.

It's very much like frequent flyers for major airlines all competing for the very limited # of award seats on popular flights for summer. More often than not, very few successes, and these travelers have spent $$,$$$s or even way more money accumulating their miles, not just the measly $$$s (peanuts) you have spent on this pass.


And, there's no such thing as booking too early when traveling. If the traveling crowd moves faster than you, you wouldn't have the pick of the litter on scheduling, possibly leaving you shut out, which I suspect has happened here.

If $0 fares are really selling out in a matter of seconds, I'd really like to know who is snatching them up. I think anyone who is proactive enough to come on these boards and voice their opinion is also trying their hardest to book these flights quickly. I know I check flights at midnight and again at 8am the day they should be going onsale. If that's not good enough to secure me a seat, then I don't know what else I can do. As for booking travel early, I think he was refering to $0 fares appearing for other GLiDE participants prior to 21 days from departure. And while I may have only paid peanuts in comparison to other people's travel expenses, that $249 is not something I can simply write off at this point in my life.

Has anyone been able to get out of this or get a compromise ?

I'm having similar problems trying to get from BOS-DTW and BOS-JFK. There's no availability even if I check 21 days exactly in advance. I was on the phone with them today, and the final solution was for me to send a letter (PM me if you want address) and/or contact customer concerns. I don't really have the time or patience to wait for this...if anyone's tried it let me know what happened. If no luck, has anyone tried to contact a higher authority ?

Has anyone been able to get out of this or get a compromise ?

I'm having similar problems trying to get from BOS-DTW and BOS-JFK. There's no availability even if I check 21 days exactly in advance. I was on the phone with them today, and the final solution was for me to send a letter (PM me if you want address) and/or contact customer concerns. I don't really have the time or patience to wait for this...if anyone's tried it let me know what happened. If no luck, has anyone tried to contact a higher authority ?

I've lost all patience with this too, the friends that I referred to this have simply given up. I think I'm going to at least contact the better business bureau. I've tried camping out and snatching up some tickets to ATL at midnight and still nothing. No flights are available for $0.

Also, I have read the fine print, no need to quote it. I understand that they will not be available and I need to be flexible but there have been NO $0 fares to Atlanta in the last month that I've seen. None at all. The terms certainly do not imply that at all.

I am a student and have a GLiDE pass too, I traveled from ORD to SYR on May ##, my bags were delayed for about 30 hours. When i called customer service they told me that the airline was working on an 'alternative' refund option for GLiDE pass members, ie. $75 voucher or 500 iPoints. So, I filled out all the the Happy Bags forms and mailed them in, I send them in about 35 days ago and have yet to received a reply. Further more I had family portraits the next day and my clothing was in the bag. So I went out and had to buy a new shirt, pants, and shoes. When I called the airline they told me that if i brought the receipts to the airport they would cut a check on the spot. When i got to SYR for an AM flight the manager told me that I would have to talk with someone at Dulles about a refund because they don't handle things like that at SYR. After talking with about 50 different people over 35 different calls I am still in the same place i was before. While I can understand not getting a happy bags refund, I should get a refund for the clothing and toiletries. When ever I call in I always get a hold of a manager at the research desk who promises to call me back and doesn't.

As for the availability in fairs, I think it is really clear that I-Air set up the GLiDE program to fill empty seats on their flights. However, their seat allocation doesn't make any sense. On a flight from Tampa to Syracuse, the Tampa flight was booked solid and the Syracuse one was overbooked by about 10 passengers. Then when i tried to book a GliDE seat for SYR to ORD I can't find anything on a Saturday. Then I run a search for 9 seats and see that the flight has plenty of seats. If I-Air has a GliDE pass for 2006 they really need to include a standby option.

Anyway, does anyone from I-Air have know who I should talk to about the refund?
Thanks for the help.

I am a student and have a GLiDE pass too, I traveled from ORD to SYR on May 31, my bags were delayed for about 30 hours. When i called customer service they told me that the airline was working on an 'alternative' refund option for GLiDE pass members, ie. $75 voucher or 500 iPoints. So, I filled out all the the Happy Bags forms and mailed them in, I send them in about 35 days ago and have yet to received a reply. Further more I had family portraits the next day and my clothing was in the bag. So I went out and had to buy a new shirt, pants, and shoes. When I called the airline they told me that if i brought the receipts to the airport they would cut a check on the spot. When i got to SYR for an AM flight the manager told me that I would have to talk with someone at Dulles about a refund because they don't handle things like that at SYR. After talking with about 50 different people over 35 different calls I am still in the same place i was before. While I can understand not getting a happy bags refund, I should get a refund for the clothing and toiletries. When ever I call in I always get a hold of a manager at the research desk who promises to call me back and doesn't.

As for the availability in fairs, I think it is really clear that I-Air set up the GLiDE program to fill empty seats on their flights. However, their seat allocation doesn't make any sense. On a flight from Tampa to Syracuse, the Tampa flight was booked solid and the Syracuse one was overbooked by about 10 passengers. Then when i tried to book a GliDE seat for SYR to ORD I can't find anything on a Saturday. Then I run a search for 9 seats and see that the flight has plenty of seats. If I-Air has a GliDE pass for 2006 they really need to include a standby option.

Anyway, does anyone from I-Air have know who I should talk to about the refund?
Thanks for the help.

Also, I really think we should contact the airline, the bbb, and the WSJ as a group. If any of the above parties gets a letter signed by 15 or 20 GliDE pass members they are more likley to read it. If you are interested in joining this list please send me your info.

thanks,
Ian

My daughter has been using the glide pass all summer w/o any problem.

My daughter has been using the glide pass all summer w/o any problem.


I think it's pretty clear that the Glide pass' accessibility is completely dependant upon which airport you need to travel from. Some airports have consistent availability, where others have slim to none. The pass is a great idea. Its first execution has been questionable.

I think it's pretty clear that the Glide pass' accessibility is completely dependant upon which airport you need to travel from. Some airports have consistent availability, where others have slim to none. The pass is a great idea. Its first execution has been questionable.


I was looking at the different GLiDE fairs and i found that if you want to go to places like Vermont it is great and almost every flight is open. However even places like Syracuse (my home town) have only a couple of flight options now. When I first got the pass in April it seemed like every flight was open to GLiDE I could book the night before or even same day with out a problem.

What I see as the biggest problem with GLiDE is that you can't go standby. Also, Indy's load factors are horrible some flights are consistently at 50% while others sell out every time. I would like to see them redo their schedule to fit popular demand.

~Ian

Guess its kinda logical that the more popular destinations are harder if not impossible to get a seat on, which will lead for some disappointed GLiDE passengers, just makes me lucky that I didn't decide to get one of these passes.

I was a college student until just a couple years ago, and I understand that $250 might as well be $25,000 in your situations. However, this may end up being a lesson learned the hard way (I have had many myself, and I’m sure many more in the future). Handing over money to a company that's part of an overall ineptly-managed airline industry isn't wise, especially if you're not guaranteed anything concrete from the start. FlyI's intention with the GLiDE program was not likely to take advantage of college students, but this idea was probably born when their load factors were so low that they were desperate to get seats filled. Targeting a group of consumers who have little airline brand loyalty would only stand to help FlyI, but it may end up hurting more than helping. With the summer travel season in swing and FlyI's $59 O/W sale fares, bigger cities (i.e. IND, ORD, BOS, ATL, DTW) are going to have slews of leisure travelers (paying per ticket) connecting in IAD to head to destinations in Florida and the like. FlyI is trying to make as much money as possible during this time to compensate for the slower travel months ahead. Unfortunately, many GLiDE customers are left holding the short straw in the process.

Something I always keep in mind when I’m annoyed by a person’s or company’s actions (or lack thereof): If it won’t matter to me a year from now, it’s not worth your time or trouble now. If the loss of $250 right now will still make you mad next year and beyond, follow SDF_Traveler’s advice and take a course of action. At the very least, don’t spend another dime with Independence Air.

[QUOTE=spampurse]The GLiDE program has been EXTREMELY popular and a LOT of college students have signed up. I am assuming that the GLiDE fares are loaded like any other fare class on a "first come first serve" basis. What makes more sense, that FLYI is purposefully not loading GLiDE fares knowing that doing so will piss off college students and turn them agains FLYI forever... OR there is heavy demand for the GLiDE fares due to its popularity and the OP has just had the bad luck of being a bit behind the pack in purchasing these tickets.

Without knowing the complete story, I can't say for sure... but I've talked to several people using the GLiDE program and I haven't heard any similar complaints, so I am going to have to go with the second explaination.
QUOTE]

spampurse,
These statements don’t really help the situation, even though it appears you are employed by Independence Air. Making claims about popularity and usage are VERY risky – not to mention unfounded – if you’re not able to provide facts and figures to back them up. I admire your company spirit, but posting assumptions on behalf of your employer to a public message board is not wise.

I was a college student until just a couple years ago, and I understand that $250 might as well be $25,000 in your situations. However, this may end up being a lesson learned the hard way (I have had many myself, and I’m sure many more in the future). Handing over money to a company that's part of an overall ineptly-managed airline industry isn't wise, especially if you're not guaranteed anything concrete from the start. FlyI's intention with the GLiDE program was not likely to take advantage of college students, but this idea was probably born when their load factors were so low that they were desperate to get seats filled. Targeting a group of consumers who have little airline brand loyalty would only stand to help FlyI, but it may end up hurting more than helping. With the summer travel season in swing and FlyI's $59 O/W sale fares, bigger cities (i.e. IND, ORD, BOS, ATL, DTW) are going to have slews of leisure travelers (paying per ticket) connecting in IAD to head to destinations in Florida and the like. FlyI is trying to make as much money as possible during this time to compensate for the slower travel months ahead. Unfortunately, many GLiDE customers are left holding the short straw in the process.

Something I always keep in mind when I’m annoyed by a person’s or company’s actions (or lack thereof): If it won’t matter to me a year from now, it’s not worth your time or trouble now. If the loss of $250 right now will still make you mad next year and beyond, follow SDF_Traveler’s advice and take a course of action. At the very least, don’t spend another dime with Independence Air.

[QUOTE=spampurse]The GLiDE program has been EXTREMELY popular and a LOT of college students have signed up. I am assuming that the GLiDE fares are loaded like any other fare class on a "first come first serve" basis. What makes more sense, that FLYI is purposefully not loading GLiDE fares knowing that doing so will piss off college students and turn them agains FLYI forever... OR there is heavy demand for the GLiDE fares due to its popularity and the OP has just had the bad luck of being a bit behind the pack in purchasing these tickets.

Without knowing the complete story, I can't say for sure... but I've talked to several people using the GLiDE program and I haven't heard any similar complaints, so I am going to have to go with the second explaination.
QUOTE]

spampurse,
These statements don’t really help the situation, even though it appears you are employed by Independence Air. Making claims about popularity and usage are VERY risky – not to mention unfounded – if you’re not able to provide facts and figures to back them up. I admire your company spirit, but posting assumptions on behalf of your employer to a public message board is not wise.


I agree with what your saying but what needs to be said is that it is a poorly managed airline, in so many ways. I tried to cancel a seat from a GliDE pass online and the site wouldn't let me, infact i got a message instructing me to call the airline. When i did that the rep refused to help me or connect me with a manager, in fact she hung up when I asked for her name. I saw the COO on a flight to ORD he was going to meet with his staff there and he was wearing a short sleeved shirt, not a jacket and tie. The biggest problem they have isn't their expensive CRJ its their lack of organization, if I had time I could list atleast 10 or 20 problems.

I saw the COO on a flight to ORD he was going to meet with his staff there and he was wearing a short sleeved shirt, not a jacket and tie.

Dear Lord, not a short sleeved shirt!!!!!!!! :eek: That does it, I'm booking on UAL from now on! :rolleyes: :td:

Handing over money to a company that's part of an overall ineptly-managed airline industry isn't wise, especially if you're not guaranteed anything concrete from the start.


I agree with you assessment of the creation of the GLiDE program. However, I think your italicized comment is flat wrong. Yes, the $0 fare is definitely a marketing tool, but they did guarantee something concrete from the start... 20% of a paid ticket to *any* city. I don't think there were any restrictions on this. So, they did provide something concrete in the event $0 fares become unavailable.

As far as pissing off college kids and having them never flyI again... If $250 is a big deal to them (I wouldn't throw that much away either) then $75 or maybe even $50 will be a big enough deal the next time they buy a ticket. We have a saying in the airline industry, and I strongly believe it: No matter how much we piss you off, you will be back if the fare is cheap enough.

I also think your comments to spampurse were a little over the top. She offered an OPINION, and not facts and figures. It is clear from her post that you quoted that she offered nothing more than an opinion and never claimed anything as fact. I think it has long been understood that absent an official "claimer" or some other "authorized" company presence, that all employees are posting on behalf of THEMSELVES and NOT their employer. To hold her to a "higher" standard is a little unfair, no? Would you have accepted her comments if they began with "anecdotal evidence suggests that... "?

Dear Lord, not a short sleeved shirt!!!!!!!! :eek: That does it, I'm booking on UAL from now on! :rolleyes: :td:


hahaha, he is an airline executive I expect a jacket and tie or at least a long sleeve shirt. This is a small part in why no one respectes Indy.

hahaha, he is an airline executive I expect a jacket and tie or at least a long sleeve shirt. This is a small part in why no one respectes Indy.

This is all I am saying... (and this is just my opinion), throughout this summer DH's COO has been touring every station to let employees ask questions, thank them for doing a good job, etc... If you want employees to be more at ease and you want to appear more approachable, what would you wear, stuffy chief executive clothes or a more relaxed business casual attire... not to mention the fact that if you are going to go out onto the ramp in the middle of July and talk to every employee it just makes more since to wear short sleeves.

Look, I may not agree with all the criticisms thrown out on these boards (against DH or against any other airline for that matter), but I can at least respect most of them as people's opinion. I just have a real hard time accepting that DH should be given less respect because of what their executives wear. In my opinion, DH has earned a great deal of respect from the industry and their customers and it is shown by being named the 3rd best domestic carrier, and hopefully they will soon start earning more respect on the financial side.

I have flown 20 legs on the glide pass this summer and it hasn't been too much of a problem. I have used ROC, IAD, PVD, JAX, and CHS. My main route is ROC-IAD-PVD. This pass has more than paid for itself... 20 legs for 250! thats 5 rt flights for the price of one...

hahaha, he is an airline executive I expect a jacket and tie or at least a long sleeve shirt. This is a small part in why no one respectes Indy.

You are going to be in trouble if you ever see a WN FA. :D

My friend and I, living in NYC, got glide passes for the summer. We are both NYC public school teachers who also are attending graduate courses and so qualify for the passes. We have had some great travels over the course of the summer with the glide pass. The following is my itinerary (his is slightly different as we have not/will not stick together for the entire summer).

Sometime in May JFK-IAD, IAD-JFK (all in one day, on a Saturday)
28 June
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL
29 June
EWR-IAD-BOS
02 July
BOS-IAD-SAV
05 July
SAV-IAD-EWR
06 July
JFK-IAD-CLE
09 July
CLE-IAD
Then, a bus from Washington to NYC
26 July
JFK-IAD-BNA
30 July
BNA-IAD-BTV
02 August
BTV-IAD-CHS
06 August
CHS-IAD-TPA
09 August
TPA-ORD (on AA)
No flights were available for free from TPA to IAD (IAD to ORD was available).
The cost of flying the TPA to IAD leg with the 20% off was more than a direct ticket on AA from TPA to IAD (only 59.20 with all taxes and fees), so I did that.
13 August
ORD-IAD-EWR
15 August
JFK-SAN (cheaper on AA than on DH with 20% off, so bought through AA)
26 August
SFO-JFK (once again, cheaper on AA than on DH with 20% off, so bought through AA)
27 August
EWR-IAD-HSV
31 August
HSV-IAD (had to pay 72.60 including taxes and fees...this I'm kinda pissed about...all day on the 9th there were free flights for the 30th, then when it rolls past midnight not only are there no free flights for the 31st but all the free flights from the 30th disappear as well!!!)
bus from IAD to NYC

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good deal!

Total cost for all trips except california:
249 - glide pass
30 - 2 bus rides from Washington to NYC
59 - flight from TPA-ORD
73 - flight from HSV-IAD
230 - approx taxes
-----------------------------------
641 TOTAL for 10 trips
That's $64.10 per trip or, if you don't count the day trip to DC about $69/trip