(Disclaimer- this is a long blog.
Turn back now if you don’t like lots of words.)
Nate covered it three days ago, when news broke that Southwest was canceling 70% of its flights.
And like millions of other Americans, I dealt with it firsthand yesterday.
Actually, all week.
I was back home in Massachusetts for Christmas with my family.
I had no problems getting there, I flew southwest from Midway to Logan last Thursday.
(Sidebar - Yes, I am formerly one of the big Southwest fans.
Which is fucking awesome.
But United also let me down big time this week.)
Shit started to go haywire on Sunday night.
I was watching the chaos unfold on the news and all the poor people stranded after the holidays.
This was great foresight on their parts, because this shit show was just getting started.
As of Wednesday morning I was bueno with my flight situation.
Around 2pm I decided to check and boom, cancelled.
No alert, no text, no email.
Looking for flights later in the day was a joke.
All the way through Sunday there either werent any flights, or there arent any seats.
And it was like this everywhere for lots of people.
Luckily I have friends and family that didnt mind me staying another night.
I booked another flight on American for the next morning and requested a refund from southwest.
For some reason the flight was booked by American but operated by Jet Blue.
I scrambled to get on the apps to find another flight.
I checked kayak (a flight aggregator search engine) and there was fucking zilch.
A few first class flights on united for $1,900 and that was about it.
I checked Jet Blues app and they actually had a seat available on a flight that night.
And they weren’t the only ones…
I camped out at Logan for another 5 hours waiting for the flight.
Everywhere I went, I couldnt help but notice all the people, 99% women, crying everywhere.
People were at their fucking breaking points.
Outside of security by all the ticket counters, and even past security near all the gates.
So why isnt anybody held responsible for this?
Thats what I wanted to find out.
They get you on, get you up, get you down, and get you off.
All nice and fast.
A pretty novel concept yah?
This law, named EC Regulation No.
261/2004, passed in 2004 almost immediately began protecting consumers, and put the European airline industry in check.
(Spoiler alert- because our Congress was/is/and always will be a fucking joke).
Usually, Im totally against the government interfering in pretty much anything.
After all, theyre capable of fucking up anything and everything they get their hands on.
But this situation is different.
So they did what all big businesses in America do.
And thats exactly what they did.
Like PPP money, it wasintendedto keep staff on payroll and keep everybody from losing their jobs.
The Airlines and their cronies in Congress sold this bullshit to us as “preserving vital national infrastructure.”
Now wait until you see this baby, from August 02, 2019.
Washington, D.C. U.S.
Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., joined Sens.
For too long, the FAA has knuckled under to the airline industry.
Seems pretty civil, common sense, and full of integrity doesn’t it?
Not if these fuckers have anything to say about it.
The United States has no legal protections for airline passengers.
It also doesn’t have a law requiring airlines to compensate passengers for lost luggage.
Instead, these protections are left up to individual states and cities across America.
“That’s why we have a system where you could check bags without paying extra fees.”
They stall you and basically wait you out hoping you’ll forget or give up.
There’s actually a case pending that could have major ramifications for us since Congress refuses to act.
Hes seeking class-action status for the case.
Now, do I think what Bernie Sanders has proposed is the answer?
Bit extreme there Bern dog.
The words “hub” and “spoke” create a pretty vivid image of how this system works.
Most major airlines have multiple hubs.
They claim that hubs allow them to offer more flights for passengers.
In a system with ten destinations, the point-to-point system requires 45 routes to connect all destinations.
