cbn42

I don't know if it's a good idea for a parent grieving the loss of a child to attempt to drive NYC-PHL. But the article says "every airline she contacted told her there were no seats available for the urgent flight" which isn't outside the realm of possibility for a last minute flight during peak season. A good travel agent or experienced frequent flier might have been able to find something, but the average person probably could not.

That's how it works in any business. You have to occasionally incur costs like this in order to keep your reputation. Waiving the charges also works to their advantage because it gets their name in the news in a positive way.

Unless you have actually lost a child in similar circumstances, I don't think you should be asking that question. I don't think this is something you can understand until you experience it.

In that case, everyone who ever posts anything negative about a company on Facebook, Yelp, or any other social media is also committing extortion.

rbwpi

Posting something negative about a business, entity, etc. on social media, wouldn't be extortion unless it was an attempt to gain a benefit or something of value. Ms. Schulman's posting definitely was extortion that unfortunately succeeded.

t325

Fair enough

It's one thing to post something negative about a company on Facebook or Yelp when they screwed up, and you're getting nowhere with customer service. It's often a good way to get them to make things right. But this is one of the (seemingly rare) instances where the company was 100% in the right. So yes, extortion.

KDS777

The airline gets to expense the transaction on their balance sheet and the other becomes a charitable donation. Their net cost is much less than what they wrote off. So they also won on the tax side of things I'd imagine. Cheap advertising IMHO. Especially if they had to re-position the aircraft and crew in that general area anyways.

I'm not an accountant however.......so maybe someone can clarify.

cbn42

Many people post about negative experiences with businesses in an attempt to get it corrected. They then take down the review when the company provides a refund or otherwise rectifies the situation. Is that extortion?

Extortion is a crime. As long as her review was truthful and complete, I don't see how it can be considered extortion. Her review told the truth about what happened.

Judging from the comments on her Facebook post, it doesn't even seen like she got a lot of support. Many people are berating her for what she did. And as others have said, her post is unlikely to reach a charter operator's target customers anyway. The social media outrage would have blown over quite quickly and Talon Air would probably not have been impacted very much. But they saw an opportunity to get some positive coverage, so they sent her a nice heartwarming letter agreeing to refund her money, which they probably figured would be posted on social media as well.

I think they can only write off their actual cost of providing the flight as a business expense, not the amount of the bill that they waived. But I'm not an accountant either.

Annalisa12

If she stood at the airport crying saying she had to get there and the reason someone would of given her their seat.

I think she didn't think she'd be charged. Was she close to her son?

Annalisa12

Can someone post the link to her Facebook please

rbwpi

Ms. Schulman wasn't looking to get anything corrected. She was looking for a "freebie", a way to get out of a legitimate contract. There was nothing to be rectified.

rufflesinc

That is laughable wrt to a charter jet , which caters to executives, the 0.1%, and professional athletes, not the unwashed masses on social media.

Badenoch

It would be a serious mistake to underestimate the impact of media, social and otherwise, on corporate reputation particularly when it involves high profile tragedies like the Parkland shooting. Aircraft chartering is a competitive business and executives, athletes et al could easily decide to select a different company than one that is accused of being unfair to the mother of a murdered son. I've chartered aircraft and the costs are explained in advance. This woman knew what the costs would be and used her son's murder to weasel out of paying her bill.

rufflesinc

Breaking: they don't care about something like this

ROCAT

Celebrities do not care about social media causes?

Annalisa12

they just want to appear like that do even if they dont care

kyanar

And she posted that letter with a post that basically talked about the company's response like they'd compensated her for a mouldy sandwich. This woman is despicable - they had no obligation to her at all, and yet they refunded the money and donated to her son's memorial fund, and she talked about them like they were the scum in this transaction.

wrp96

It couldn't be considered a charitable donation as the mother is not a 501(c) 3 organization (and it wasn't done for the benefit of a 501(c)3 organization either). It would be characterized as a gift.