$2 fares (now gone) to/from LEB/AVL/ART - An open letter to US Airways
Apr 28, 2005, 12:57 pm
#46
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Originally Posted by johnep1
I hope that last part was not directed at me as I have not been badgering US. I have simply stated that I think it makes sense for US to lessen their damages.
As for being a waste of time, how difficult is it to take their one 20 year old website developer and have him scan the whole 4 flights a day to/from ART and LEB for the next year and email anyone with a base fare under $25 (to pick up the Y and F tickets)? That might take a few days to complete.
And please show me where anyone asked that US refund any tickets. As far as I can tell, the OP requested that US keep the fare and just give out the miles.
Anytime I have refunded a ticket using the 24-hour cancellation policy, the refund has appeared on my CC statement within a few days. Doesn't appear to be that difficult.
As for being a waste of time, how difficult is it to take their one 20 year old website developer and have him scan the whole 4 flights a day to/from ART and LEB for the next year and email anyone with a base fare under $25 (to pick up the Y and F tickets)? That might take a few days to complete.
And please show me where anyone asked that US refund any tickets. As far as I can tell, the OP requested that US keep the fare and just give out the miles.
Anytime I have refunded a ticket using the 24-hour cancellation policy, the refund has appeared on my CC statement within a few days. Doesn't appear to be that difficult.
Apr 28, 2005, 1:41 pm
#47
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Originally Posted by JS
Oops, missed that on the refunds. In any event, identifying the flights, crediting the miles, and returning the seats to inventory is not a "web site graphics" type of job. SABRE is not a relational database where you can run a few queries and an hour later say "OK, all done!". The cost of identifying, canceling reservations and crediting miles must be hundreds of times more than the cost of just letting it go and letting a few extra people fly around the system for two bucks each. Even good airline systems like Delta's are not designed for ad-hoc updates like this. When Delta has to fix something (such as the immediate expiration of a 10,000 mile bonus last year), they still had to do it one customer at a time.
Apr 28, 2005, 2:04 pm
#48
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Forget the refunds. The $40 or so of taxes they collected can be cash in their pockets if they don't transport people. I assume if they're not going to transport, they don't have to hand over the money to the taxing authorities. And if the customers let them keep it, it's a bit more than the $1.86 US would've earned.
Apr 28, 2005, 3:35 pm
#49
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Originally Posted by johnep1
My last post was an attempt to poke fun at the fact that it seems US's website is managed by one 20-year old.
Apr 28, 2005, 9:03 pm
#52
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Originally Posted by bursa
But if US gave miles without flying, it would set a "dangerous" precedent for future scenarios...what if many pax bought tickets and didn't fly?
Apr 28, 2005, 9:38 pm
#54
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Originally Posted by seawolf
This is not the justice system. There's no such thing as precedent. US "buying" back these tickets does not obligate them to do so in the future.
Apr 29, 2005, 3:09 am
#55
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If I worked for US I'd tell the OP to jump in a lake and then take sadistic pleasure in making him fly all those segments if he wants the miles. At $2 there's a pretty good chance he's not going to fly all the itin's in which case standby pax will benefit.
Apr 29, 2005, 6:11 am
#56
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Originally Posted by johnep1
One more thought on this. I'm sure a lot of folks with these tickets are on UA flights at some point. That is real $$$ US is losing when you fly the UA segs.
Instead of having to give up most of the taxes/fees and pay $$$ to UA, US would instead be getting $$$ and would get the seats back in inventory
Apr 29, 2005, 7:20 am
#57
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Originally Posted by seawolf
This is not the justice system. There's no such thing as precedent. US "buying" back these tickets does not obligate them to do so in the future.
So you're telling me that if someone comes here and posts "Hey, US gave me the miles without flying", there would not be a deluge of mail from FT's asking for the same thing. Then complaining about how unfair US is that they gave a benefit to some and not others, and then how they discriminate against xxxxx, and then "they treat customers so poorly, I'll never fly them again", then "let's all send them xxxxxx to protest this action", then letters to "Your Fault", then ....
Yes, it will.
And for all those who speak of the revenue they are losing, let me know how many of those flights end up oversold with compensation given to DB pax, then I'll believe a revenue loss. I'm pretty confident that the marginal cost of enplaning, flying, and deplaning 200 pounds of a person is must less than the cost of having an employee manually verify and override mileage credit for every single person.
Apr 29, 2005, 7:25 am
#58
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Originally Posted by whlinder
Explain how.
Originally Posted by whlinder
So that's how it works?
Apr 29, 2005, 7:29 am
#59
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Originally Posted by CPRich
And for all those who speak of the revenue they are losing, let me know how many of those flights end up oversold with compensation given to DB pax, then I'll believe a revenue loss. I'm pretty confident that the marginal cost of enplaning, flying, and deplaning 200 pounds of a person is must less than the cost of having an employee manually verify and override mileage credit for every single person.
Apr 29, 2005, 8:26 am
#60
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Go Morrissey
Originally Posted by Morrissey
The reason that US will not do this is simple: as far as they (and all other airlines) are concerned, the primary purpose of purchasing an airplane ticket is to get from point A to point B, not to earn FF miles. I'm sorry if that sounds like heresy to some of you, but it needs to be said. I would be against any airline that would award you miles for a flight that you never actually took and had no intention of taking. US held up their part of the bargain by honoring the fares, and now you have to hold up YOUR part of the bargain and sit through all those flights...