Steele On The Consumerist

For a blogger, there are few things as cool as surfing the net and finding a link to an article you wrote. That happened to me for the first time this morning when I was browsing The Consumerist, the highest ranked personal finance site on the Internet!

Check out their story about my original article I wrote for Money Crashers, Should I Buy a New Car? 6 Reasons to Buy a New Car over a Used Car.

You can browse all of the articles I have written for Money Crashers here.

A Frontier Airlines Debacle

I used to like good old Frontier.   They were the only sane alternative to United here in Denver.

Lately, however, Frontier has been having some real problems as far as my family and I are concerned.


My last two encounters with F9 staff at ATL have been two of the worst encounters with any airline ever. I wish it was merely a 45 minute wait before an uneventful check in.

Encounter 1 was traveling with my family and, after having requested and received seats together (after they re-instated free assigned seats), F9 said we were actually booked on different flights on different days. Turns out the original booking was flawed (my bad), but then why did they later confirm us seating together? Either way, terminal staff was utterly useless in resolving problem and my family was split up before they could be bothered to help. My wife basically had to cause a scene to get them to do anything to resolve it. I had already left by then, but it sounded like a mess.  We received some vouchers for the experience and decided to use them to book a trip for my niece to visit us her in Denver.

Fast forward to last week, when my sister attempts to check in my 13 year old niece flying out to visit us as an unaccompanied minor, and F9 at the terminal has no clue. Two agents spend 1/2 hour playing with their computers and speaking to the help desk before sending her and my sister to the gate with no boarding pass, just a gate pass to get through security!

No booking errors this time, we did everything right, but they had some unspecified computer problem that made it impossible for them to do anything, so they just dumped the problem on the gate staff.    Apparently their reservations systems are about as modern as the aircraft pictured above, and/or their staff has no idea how to use them!

Gate agents did everything they could not to help. They started boarding, ignored my sister, and even had her bag removed from the flight. My sister calls me from the gate beside herself that they won't help her and are about to deny her daughter boarding.

Although less of a scene was made my sister was rightfully pissed at this mess. They ultimately boarded her last, without a boarding pass, sitting a 13 year old girl on the back of the plane in a middle seat between two older men. By design, her bag didn't make it either.   We had to take time from her vacation to return to the airport.   We declined hanging around the house for them to deliver the bag in a 5 hour window.

Imagine a 13 year old girl, on her first flight as an unaccompanied minor, watching her mother fight with the airline staff for an hour just to get a seat.   Then, they board her at the last second without barely a chance to say goodbye.  What an outrage!

The pattern is clear, F9 staff in ATL are useless, incompetent, or worse. When a problem comes up, they just try to make you go away without solving it.   I have traveled a lot, and I write about travel every day, but I have never encountered such customer disservice anywhere else by any airline.

Worse, my sister calls in to customer service to complain, they offer her a $50 voucher and then drop her call.


What an insult!

Frontier Airlines has some major problems.  The worst part is we have no reason to believe the experience will be any better in two days when she returns to Atlanta.   I will keep you posted if and when they decide to actually address these problems.

Everything That Is Wrong With The Airline Industry

I am a big fan of Brett Snyder over at the Cranky Flier.   Two years ago, I was even privileged to contribute a guest post on The Future Of Airline Loyalty Programs.    Last week, Brett was on vacation and had an anonymous guest write a post for his blog for his Headwinds blog at BNet.

You should read the post in it's entirety here.

In it, an anonymous airline insider says that his company just doesn't have the basic technology necessary to disseminate accurate information in the event of a delay, yet even;

...if we had “perfect” information to give, should the airlines invest in better technology or more bodies to communicate in a more timely manner? For that matter, should the airlines invest in technology that would help cultivate that perfect knowledge? Quite honestly, I don’t think so.

I simply don’t see the return on investment. In fact, I don’t see how giving passengers better information actually saves (or generates) the airline any money at all. How would it? The tickets are paid for, and most of them are non-refundable. “Everybody knows” the airlines provide lousy information, so it’s not as if customers will flee to the competition for that sole reason.

There you go.  Customer service provides no return on it's investment according to this guy because you already paid for your ticket.  I have no reason to believe his views are unusual in the airline industry.

Now personally, I enjoy flying on Southwest airlines, as they seem to be the most operationally efficient airline out there.    This guy's airline flies for United, a carrier that I have been avoiding like the plague for some time.  

As I wrote in the comments of the post, I give Brett tremendous credit for allowing this guy to share is views, which I am sure he does not agree with.  As long as there are people in the airline industry who feel the way this guy does, passengers will suffer and airlines will continue to lose money.

My Consumer Advocacy Win

Update: Penny Parker at The Denver Post has written about this issue, crediting me with the shopping center's new disclosure of this fee.

I love to write.

I write about credit cards in my daily column for the blog at AskMrCreditCard.com.   I write about travel over at Blend.com, and I write about politics, travel, aviation, and consumer issues here at Steele Street.   The common thread here is that I am a consumer advocate.  The only think I hate more than getting ripped off, is seeing it happen to others.

So last week, I went out to for lunch to the Belmar Shopping Center in Lakewood Colorado.  I stopped in a restaurant that advertised a $8.99 sushi lunch.    When I received the bill, I was charged $9.21 plus tax.    On the bill was a 22 cent charge labeled "PIF".   I asked the waitress what "PIF" was, and she produced a leaflet indicating that the shopping center was requiring merchants to add 2.5% to every bill for it's Public Improvement Fund.   The leaflet also said that the fee was not a tax.  I double checked, and there was no disclosure of the fee anywhere in the restaurant or on the menu.

Now, 22 cents is not worth fighting over in a restaurant, and I did not.  They can call it anything they want, but the money that a merchant pays it's landlord is called rent.   22 cents isn't a lot, but the principal is important.   If the practice of adding an undisclosed surcharge to your restaurant bill becomes widespread, soon, every retailer will start advertising prices that don't include rent.   We have already seen businesses such as rental car companies and hotels adding surcharges for things like electricity, labor, and compliance with the law.   Do we really want every store to start adding an undisclosed surcharge to every purchase you make?  What's to stop them from adding a surcharge that better reflects their rent, such as 20% or 30%?

My response was to write the restaurant, the shopping center, the city of Lakewood, the Denver Post, and the Colorado Attorney General's office.     Before you wonder how much time I wasted on this, keep in mind that we are talking about two emails addressed to multiple recipients, and like I said, I love to write.

Today, I received a reply from the city, which approved a tax break for the shopping center as well as their PIF scheme.   In response to my efforts, they will now be requiring every merchant in the shopping center to prominently disclose this surcharge to all customers before their purchase.

You may consider this a small win for consumers, but if no one makes the effort, how long would it be until every retailer feels free to add whatever surcharge they feel like, and not tell you about it unless you question your receipt?

Gulf Coast Oil Production

This is a good time to link back to my post on Peak Oil.  I have been listening to all sorts of people saying how we have to keep drilling so that we don't have pay more for oil.   It is a great argument, other than the fact that it is not true.

Every time you hear the argument for drilling somehow linked to the price of oil, remember back a few months ago when I wrote the following: "We produce 7% of the world's oil, while consuming 24%. Simple economics say that we can have a lot more influence on price of oil by managing our demand rather than our production."

(Actually these stats show that we produce 5.8% of the world's oil, and consume 22.8%)

Oil prices are set on a global market, whether we drill in the gulf or not, it isn't going to affect the worldwide price of oil much.    What we consume will tremendously affect the price of oil, and the Saudi's know it.

A better argument is that oil prices are currently too low.   They don't price oil for externalities, such as national security, global climate change, and the risk of environmental disasters like the gulf oil spill.   Including these costs in the price of oil would be a free market approach to reducing oil consumption.

On Air Travel And Exclusiveness

On my last international flight, I sat in Delta's BusinessElite section on the 12 hour flight from Atlanta to Tel Aviv and back.   As I made myself comfortable in my seat, the passengers heading back to economy gawked enviously.   Some asked me how I was lucky enough to get to sit in Business class, and I could only respond, "Collect frequent flier miles".

I have often wondered if economy passengers are deliberately paraded past the first and business class sections.  It occurs to me that business class really isn't all that great, unless you compare it economy class.   Delta does have these wonderful lie flat sleeper seats on some aircraft, but they are very narrow and really aren't quite as comfortable as the bunk bed in your average summer camp.   The food was pretty good by airline standards, but if I had paid more than $10 for the very same dinner at a restaurant, I probably would not have returned.    Keep in mind that this is a meal on a flight that sells for $4,000.

Sometimes I read travel blogs in which the author gets to travel in International First Class (usually on miles), on some great airlines.   Take a look at this post from a First Class flight on Cathay Pacific, certainly valued at more than twice my Delta flight.   Here is the steak dinner.

The steak has nice grill marks and decent presentation, but now imagine what your opinion of this plate would be if it were being served on the ground.    You would probably be disappointed had you spent $20 for this meal.   Even at Outback Steakhouse, I would expect a larger cut of beef for $15.  

An airline defender might say that there is only so much one can expect from food at 40,000 feet served by flight attendants.   That would be a reasonable argument, but it can easily be tested by how the same airline treats it's customers on the ground.   Take a look at some of the writers picture's of the First Class lounge from the same trip:

This is average for an airport business lounge.    On the other hand, it is about what I would expect from the lobby of a $79 a night Courtyard Marriott in the suburb of any American City.   If they are trying to impress someone who paid $10,000 for the experience, I think they are probably coming up short again.

My point is not to knock Cathay Pacific.   It looks like their First Class Seat is truly remarkable:

My point is that most of the "elite" features of business and first class aren't really all that great, unless you compare them with economy class travel.   Certainly the meals and the business lounges are hardly worth spending thousands of extra dollars for.  Recently, I have been traveling with my wife an daughter in coach, and found that their petite size allowed me to enjoy far more room in coach than I ever did while traveling solo amongst strangers of all sizes.   So long as the airline has decent legroom, like Southwest, I find coach to be more than adequate for domestic flights.

The other crazy part about business and first class travel is the entire notion of being elite that airlines are marketing.   On my last flight on Delta, boarding was divided between the "Sky Priority" line, and the regular line.    The only difference was one line passed to the left of turnstile, and the other line was on the right before entering the same jetway.    There was also a short, rubberized "red carpet" to add to the feeling of exclusivity that the exalted ones must feel when passing to the left or the right of the turnstile (I forget which side was which).    Such class distinctions sometimes result in shorter lines, but in this instance, it was truly comical.

I have often wondered how airlines continue to sell first and business class seats for several times the price of their coach product.    The answer is that most of the premium cabin is not sold.   It is filled with award seats, upgrades, and plenty of employees and their families.  If you want a reasonable estimate for how an airline values their costs for premium seat compared with coach, consult their award redemption tables.   Here is the Star Alliance award redemption table from US Airways.   Most business class awards are a mere 50% more than coach, with international first class sometimes just barely exceeding twice the coach price.

Yes, I want a reclining sleeper seat for an overnight flight, but we are getting to the point where exclusivity is being marketed as an end in of itself while people are spending good money to be considered Elite by some company. 

That is not a game that I am willing to play with my money.

And I've Never Flown US Airways!!!

 

This is my balance in Frequent Flier Miles with US Airways as of today.  I "bought" these miles for about $2,000.  I described the whole scheme here.

Yes, it was perfectly legal.

No, it is too late for you to do it.

Looking at US Airways Star Alliance award chart, you can see that this is the equivalent of:

19 round trip domestic tickets.

or

4 tickets to Israel in Business class (with 3 domestic round trips remaining).

These miles are good on any Star Alliance airline such as Continental, Lufthansa, Swiss and others.

Remember, I have never flown US Airways, and I probably never will.

Budget Car Rental Scam Exposed!!!

Over at the blog at AskMrCreditCard, I have been digging into a scam involving Budget rental car.

Budget Rent A Car Gives Out Your Credit Card Number To Scammers

More On Negative Option Billing and Preaquired Account Marketing

Here is the short story.   You rent a car from Budget.   Over six months later you get a "check" that stipulates that when you cash it you get charged a monthly fee to "your credit card on file with Budget".

The problem is, you never authorized Budget to keep your card on file, and as I will write today, Budget can't even tell you which card you have on file, let alone how to get it off their files.

What you are getting is one, two punch of two notorious scams, negative option billing and preaquired account marketing.   Each by itself is unscrupulous, and together they are extra devious.  
 
Needless to say, these scammers have a checkered reputation, yet they are clearly still in operation via Budget and Your Credit Card Company!

Be sure to read the blog as I unravel this further....

Delta Does The Right Thing, Eventually...

Looking forward to my next "Falafel Run" to Israel this winter, I ran into a few problems with Delta's schedule changes.

Read all about it and how I was able to resolve the situation over at AskMrCreditCard.

Southwest Fail

The aviation experts were wrong, Southwest failed to purchase Frontier. I suppose that is good for the Frontier people, who will not be assimilated into the Southwest collective.

I still predict that Southwest will announce service to Atlanta later this year, potentially by bidding to acquire AirTran.

Why I Am Not An Airline Pilot

I often refer to myself as a "commercially licensed" pilot rather than a commercial pilot, as I hold a Commercial Pilot's License, yet am not currently employed as a commercial pilot, with the exception of occasional flight instruction.

I have flown commercially on a scheduled charter airline which flew both passengers and cargo between Colorado and Wyoming. In Wyoming, we had a "crash pad" in the basement of some house where we would attempt to sleep during the day.

Today, the Washington Post has an article about underpaid pilots for regional airlines and their crash pads. From the pictures and description of the crash pad they visited, it seems vastly superior to the one I used to stay in at Rock Springs, Wyoming.

The article points out that "..first-year pilots in the industry can make as little as $20,000". Actually, that is a little optimistic. I was once offered a first officer job by Mesa Air. According to their web site, their current starting salary for first officers is $19.26 an hour for turboprops. That sounds great, until you realize those are only flight hours. The time you spend at the gate and in the airport doesn't count. Your contract specifies a minimum of about 76 hours a month. Do the math, and you are looking at $17,565 dollars a year. No wonder they live in $200 a month crash pads. Word has it that many airlines include applications for public assistance in their new hire packet. Something to think about when you book a ticket on Delta/United/American that is "operated by" Skywest, Mesa, Colgan, Pinnacle, etc. More data on region airline pilot salaries is here.

This current scrutiny stems from the aftermath of the Colgan Air flight 3407 crash in Buffalo, in which pilot fatigue seems to have been a major factor. Let's just say that I can understand how that can happen, having worked flights departing at 4 AM. My only problem with the article is that it makes it seem like crash pads and pilot fatigue is a recent phenomenon caused by current events, when this has been the situation for decades. I will grant that it probably has gotten slightly worse over time, but it is not new.

Amazingly, you will periodically read about pilot shortages, not just from people selling flight training, but from serious publications like Aviation Week. There is no pilot shortage, just a shortage of people willing to fly airplanes for less than $20,000 a year, especially when they can be located anywhere in the country based on factors that are out of their control.

Most people would be surprised to know that being a pilot is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country. It is usually listed second or third behind fishermen in stories like this. Police on the other hand, despite their high and mighty claims that they must taser children, great-grandmothers, and pregnant women to protect their saftey, rank only 10th.

It is the final quote of the article that made me remember why I ultimately turned down the job offer from prestigious Mesa Airlines. The article quotes the wife of one of the pilots:

"...it has been difficult for their children. "My little girl, she says, 'When is Daddy coming to visit us again?' I said, 'Daddy doesn't come and visit us. This is his home.' "

The Secret Credit Card Menu

Over at the AskMrCreditCard blog, I have written a post on the Secret Menu available to you when you call your credit card company.

It is an interesting read if I do say so myself.

The Many Lessons Of "United Breaks Guitars"

The more I think and read about this, and the more the catchy tune plays in my head, the more I realize how many conclusions that can be drawn from the Dave Carroll video, and his story, aside from the astonishing fact that Country Music exists in Canada.

1. The song is not really about trying to get money out of United, the singer has moved on. In light of his new found fame, his guitar has been replaced by the manufacturer for free, and his career will likely take off.

2. United's failure was not in breaking the guitar, it is in how he was repeatedly mistreated by them.

3. United is as clueless in social media relations as it is with customer relations. Read this article for more.

4. This is not going to blow over as a temporary internet phenomenon. It will remain alive in the upcoming songs 2 and 3 that Dave promised. Dave might become an actual star and be known for years as the "United Breaks Guitars" guy.

5. United is fundamentally screwed up. Dave later explains that the person who ultimately denied his claim is a nice person who was just doing her job. This sounds good for United, but it is actually the most damning thing about them. If she was some nasty, rogue employee, United could fire her and be done with it's troubles. The truth is that United is a nasty, rogue company who's insane, the 'customer is always wrong', policies must be executed by otherwise nice, sane people who are just doing their job. As I wrote, it is a company that is structurally designed end engineered to fail it's customers, stockholders, and it's employees.


Thankfully, it's only redeeming quality is it's exemplary safety record. The seemingly appropriate picture above was from a crash in 1973.

United Airlines, Designed To Fail?

The story of singer Dave Carrol's guitar being mutilated by United Airlines has been making it's rounds all over the web. I am not much for country music, so I went to his website to read what happened.

The story is all too familiar. Few people, if anyone, at that company has any interest in helping you. They sometimes pretend to be helpful, but you later realize that they were just trying to make you go away. I am not talking about a handful of rogue employees, I am talking about the vast majority of their staff.

Read this quote from Dave's site immediately following the incident:

I immediately tried to communicate this to the flight attendant who cut me off saying: “Don’t talk to me. Talk to the lead agent outside”. I found the person she pointed to and that lady was an “acting” lead agent but refused to talk to me and disappeared into the crowd saying “I’m not the lead agent”. I spoke to a third employee at the gate and when I told her the baggage handlers were throwing expensive instruments outside she dismissed me saying “but hun, that’s why we make you sign the waiver”. I explained that I didn’t sign a waiver and that no waiver would excuse what was happening outside. She said to take it up with the ground crew in Omaha. When I got to Omaha it was around 12:30 am. The plane was late arriving and there were no employees visible.

And then again, when he tries to file a claim:

When I got home to Halifax I was told that United doesn’t really have a presence there and that Air Canada is their partner.....When I called the number United said I had to return to the Halifax airport with the guitar to show the damage to someone and open a claim. When I returned to the Halifax airport I met with an Air Canada employee, because United has no presence there, and that person acknowledged the damage, opened a claim number but “denied” the claim because Air Canada would not be responsible for damage caused by United employees in Chicago (which still makes sense to me).

I took the claim number and called United back. They never seemed to be able find the claim number on several subsequent phone calls but at the last minute it would always surface. I spoke several times to what I believe were agents in India who, ironically were the most pleasant, and seemed genuinely sorry for what had happened. Three or four months later I got directed to the Chicago baggage offices of United and after several attempts to speak with someone was told to simply bring in the guitar for inspection…to Chicago…from Halifax, Canada.

When I explained that Halifax is far from Chicago someone then said my claim needed to go through Central Baggage in New York and they gave me a toll free phone number. I phoned that number and spoke to someone. She couldn’t understand why someone in Chicago thought she would be able to help me but she seemed to feel for me and asked me to fax her all the information. I did and a few weeks passed with no reply. I called back and the lady said she’d never received the fax. Then I asked her to look for it and surprisingly, there it was. When she found it she asked me to give her a couple of days and to call back. I did, and by the time I phoned again two days later, the number had been discontinued.

I had to start all over again with the same 1-800 # to India,...

Compare this to my experience trying to get to sit next to my wife and infant child in their business class:

The agent was unable to give us seats together, but assured us the staff at the gate would be able to resolve this matter. The staff at the gate, asked us to speak with the staff on board. The staff at the entrance to the aircraft asked me to speak to the staff in the cabin. The staff in the cabin actually told us to ask around ourselves to see if anyone would switch seats with us! It was only the generosity of a fellow passenger that allowed me to sit with my wife and assist with the care of our infant child.

I can understand that humans are not perfect, and that their are unhelpful and indifferent people in any large organization.

The situation is different than that at United Airlines. Incompetence is the norm, and helpful people are a rarity.

Usually, when you encounter incompetence in front line staff, a supervisor is there to resolve the issue. Not at United.

When booking the previously mentioned flight, we had a similar experience to Dave. We ticketed the trip three months before our daughter was even born, and we were told at that time that we couldn't book the ticket until she was born and had a name, and that then we would just have to pay taxes for her. The agent said repeatedly that it would be "less than $100." When she was born and we called to have her ticketed, we were told that we would actually have to pay over $800 dollars to ticket her as a “lap child” with no seat!. United’s actual policy, contrary to what we were first told, is to charge parents of a lap child an additional %10 of the highest possible price for the seat in the class that the parents are ticket in. Needless to say, I was not happy at the fee, and for being completed misquoted.

The supervisor refused to honor their original quote, so I told him that my wife and I would make it our mission in life to ensure that the whole world knows that United screws young families traveling with infants on their lap. We promised to write every travel, parenting, and consumer affairs newspaper columnist, web site, magazine, and TV Show. The supervisor still refused to do anything.

Sound familiar? Again from Dave's web site:

In my final reply to Ms. Irlweg [supervisor] I told her that I would be writing three songs about United Airlines and my experience in the whole matter. I would then make videos for these songs and offer them for free download online, inviting viewers to vote on their favourite United song. My goal: to get one million hits in one year.

In fact, I didn't go to the press, what I did was write the same threat in an email to United's entire executive staff. Within 24 hours, we received a call from a senior customer service manager who wanted to resolve the matter by charging us what they originally quoted. From the Chicago Tribune:

Rob Bradford, managing director of customer solutions at United, called Carroll Wednesday to apologize for the foul-up and to ask if the carrier could use the video internally to help change its culture.

In both my case and Dave Carroll's, problems with them can only be fixed after:

1. Going through an endless runaround

2. Generating extremely generate bad publicity, or merely threatening their management with bad publicity.

I can't say if their organization was purposely designed that way, or if it just got their through terrible management. I can say that I have concluded that I no longer have neither the time nor the patience to subject myself to United Airlines ever again.

I imagine that Dave has probably reached the same conclusion by now.

Good Riddance to "Clear"

The "Clear" registered traveler program went broke and is no more, and that is a good thing. Not only is was it unprofitable, it set a terrible precedent for paying for security.

With paid screening programs like this, the incentive is for the alternative to get worse and worse. I am sure it bothered them to no end when the TSA added new lanes or opened up the existing ones at peak times.

Fortunately, their fatal flaw was that they really didn't do anything but allow you to cut in line. Passengers were subjected to the same security, just possibly with slightly less waiting beforehand.

Actually, the precedent was set a long time ago when they established separate lines for elite members of airline's frequent flier clubs. Of course, membership in these "elite" programs can be obtained through some credit cards without even stepping on a plane. In other instances, a promotion offers the opportunity to take one or two flights that will give you status. So much for the idea of a "frequent flier". And really, how the heck does a private company give you some card that determines your access to a federal security screening? Why can't I use my Blockbuster or Starbucks card?

Ultimately, less ability to bypass security will make the problems of the TSA more noticeable to some of the country's most frequent fliers, our members of Congress.

Trip Report: Southwest Airlines

For years I have heard of the legend of Southwest Airlines. Their prices are great, you sit wherever you want, and the company has been by far the most profitably airline in the United States for decades.

Unfortunately, I have spent most of the last 30 years of my life living in cities that did not have service with Southwest Airlines, specifically Atlanta and Denver. That is the thing with Southwest, historically, they have been very picky with which cities they fly to. While airlines like Delta are constantly seeking new service to fly to every paved airstrip within 8,000 miles of Atlanta, Southwest, the largest domestic airline (by passengers), doesn't even serve Atlanta, the busiest airport in the world. That is because they expand slowly and only wish to fly to cities that they could make a profit from. That policy is changing as they have recently announced service to New York LaGuardia and other cities that once lacked their service.

Two years ago, they decided to start a hub in Denver. Interestingly, almost every city they fly to is a hub of some sort. You can connect between almost every city they serve, unlike most airlines that only have a handful of major hubs.

On our trip last week, we went from Denver to Ft. Lauderdale and continued on to Tampa before returning to Denver. Each leg of the trip was priced and purchased separately. After I booked it, I realized that I had entered one of the dates wrong. With any other airline, this error on my part would have incurred a hefty change fee at best. With Southwest, there are no change fees at all. You always have the option of booking a new flight, at whatever price is currently available, using the money paid for your existing reservation as a credit. If the new flight is less than your reservations, you receive a refund as a credit towards a future flight.

Before you say that Southwest is giving away money with this policy, consider my experience: The price drops on my Florida trip, so I received a credit towards a future flight. I actually did this twice in the three months between my initial reservation and the trip, as airfares plummeted with the price of crude. The credits were part of our payment for our next trip on Southwest to San Diego. Just today, the price dropped on our San Diego trip to an incredible $59 each way, resulting in a further flight credit. I am now just starting to wonder how I can fly Southwest again using that credit! It appears to be a win-win policy for everyone, yet no other airline I know of works like this.

I have to say that our first impression with Southwest at the airport was a little strange. We are traveling with our 18 month old daughter, as we have many times before. At check in, Southwest insisted on documentation of her age, unlike Airtran, United, and Frontier have when we flew them domestically. They relented, but it was odd that they would not take the word of the child's parents, as every other business does. They even tried hard to blame FAA regulations that required a seat to be purchased for children over 2 years old, but it seemed like a revenue enhancement meausure to us. We were later able to get our pediatrician's office to fax us her immunization records, so the problem never came up again.

That experience behind us, we were treated to exceptional service by the flight attendants on all of our flights. To our shock, they actually seemed to care about their customers, even showing us extra consideration as we were traveling with an infant.

On each flight we were warned repeatedly that the flight was full, yet on each occasion we were able to have a whole row of three seats for my wife and I as well as our "lap child". My only complaint would be that Southwest mimics the practice of most other airlines in this country of leaving the seat belt sign on for most of the flight. They announce it is for safety as they are expecting turbulence, even when a half an hour goes by without so much as a jiggle. Throughout the whole time, flight attendants are walking about, apparently immune to the laws of physics.

That said, every flight departed and arrived on time. We actually chose a flight from Denver to Ft. Lauderdale that stopped in New Orleans. They offered a non-stop flight, but the price was $80 greater. The quick stop, with no change of plane, was easily worth the $160 saved.

Another great benefit of flying Southwest is their "no fees" policy. There are no telephone booking fees, no fuel surcharges, no curb checking fees, and each passenger gets two free checked bags. I used to travel alone for business, and I rarely checked a bag. Now, it is an absolute pleasure to be able to travel with a child without worrying about the cost of checking luggage. On each flight, our luggage was promptly delivered intact.

Every now and then, I hear someone attempt to justify their company's stupid policies by explaining that they do it their way because other companies in their industry do it that way too. I have also heard people explain weird practices by saying that if there was a better way, someone would have figured it out by now. After flying Southwest, I now see that 1) not every airline is run by idiots, and 2) Southwest has already figured out how to do it better.

So whenever your travel plans call for air travel, consider Southwest. They provide excellent service to every major city in the United States not named Atlanta.

2 Airlines, 2 Bizarre Policies, 2 Different Results

We have all run across airline policies that clearly make no sense. In fact, as I have documented, airlines in this country have serious credibility problems as they compete with automakers for the title of the worst managed industry.

Recently, I read two different articles about these type of ridiculous price gouging policies, both of which I have had personal experience with.

Problem Number One: United Airlines insists on charging 10% of their highest possible fare for infants traveling on your lap on international flights. When my wife and I flew to Israel last year, using United frequent flier miles for a business class ticket, they wanted to charge us over $800 to carry our infant on our lap. I was able to resolve the situation to my satisfaction, as the representative I initially spoke with quoted us a price of under $100. When asked later to pay $800, I launched an EECB that resulted in a reasonable payment of taxes and fees.

When another flier encounters the same absurd policy and complains, here is their account of United's response via Chris Elliot's blog:

This is a policy they’ve had in place that they will charge 10 percent of whatever cabin that the parents are in. She is not willing to budge as this is “not negotiable” and it is what it is.

She did say that she agrees that this is strange but that the policy has been in effect for a very long time.

They know this is stupid, but that is how they do it, so tough crap.

Problem Number Two: Airlines want to charge fliers enormous fees for carrying a bicycle, even if it folds or can be disassembled to fit in the same size of a normal suitcase. Using the word "bicycle" to describe your luggage's contents triggers both the fee, as well as a waiver of all damages. They can run over it with a truck, and they are not liable for a penny.

I have solved this problem in the past by putting the wheels in one box, and the frame in the other. I mark the large, flat boxes "photography" so that the baggage agents do not consider they contain a bicycle.

A contributor to the Consumerist complains about this absurd policy to JetBlue, and JetBlue replies:

"Thanks for helping to bring this to our attention. We pride ourselves on our customer service and when we’re faced with a situation where policy doesn’t make sense in practice, we’re always ready to correct or clarify......Our bicycle policy has now been updated to reflect that Customers traveling with a folding bikes in a bag that fits within the standard checked bag weights and dimensions (62 inches in overall dimensions and 50 pounds in weight — see our baggage requirements here) will not be charged the Bike fee and will be treated like any checked bag."

Conclusion: When faced with absurd policies, United says "Too bad, that's how we do it.", while JetBlue says, "The customer is right, we are changing our policy".

Which airline would you fly? Which airline do you think will be around in the future?

Airline Credibility Gap

The two worst managed industries in the United States are the auto industry, and the airline industry. While the auto industry threatens to go bankrupt, bankruptcy is a regular occurrence among airlines large and small.

I would argue that one of the biggest failures in the airline industry today is credibility. People rightfully just don't trust anything an airline says.

Examples include:

1. Lying About Bookings - When booking a flight on United Airlines, the "Economy Plus" section is always shown as "unavailable", with a picture of a person in the seat. Actually, it is available, just not to you, unless you have elite status. They could say that, but that would be too honest, I suppose. People are just led to believe that someone has already take those seats.

2. Lying About Delays - When has an airline ever given consistent or accurate information about the nature of a delay. Airlines frequently give out the "weather" excuse in order to absolve themselves of their contractual duty to provide compensation for mechanical or crew related delays. I would say this is ripe for a class action lawsuit.

3. Lying About Policies - When you call an airline, you are frequently speaking with overseas under trained call centers. These people will tell you anything to get you off the phone, truth be damned.

4. Lying About Costs - The "fuel surcharge" is one of the biggest frauds ever perpetrated on travelers. These surcharges bear little resemblance to airlines costs for fuel at the time of the flight, or the time of purchase. Airlines implemented no small number of surcharges and other fees over the summer that they blamed on record high fuel costs. Very few have disappeared now that oil is at record lows.

5. Little Value Correlation - People flying "full service" carriers like Delta and United, get charged for everything, while people on discount carrier Southwest rarely see any charges.

6. Price Gouging - Airlines love to price gouge. As the day of the flight gets closer, the price jumps by an order of magnitude. Simply put, there is little correlation between the cost of the service and the price charged. It is like a restaurant charging you more, depending on how hungry you are. Americans are surprised to learn that this is often not the case with airlines in other parts of the world, and it is rarely the case with other modes of transport such as buses, trains, and boats.

7. Lying About Customer Service - The image of airline customer service portrayed in their marketing is vastly different than the reality. It is common to see airline personnel treat customers in a manner that would get them fired from even the most shoddy restaurants or hotels. Again, this is rarely the case with foreign carriers.

8. Over Complication - Airlines make the experience of flying unbelievably complicated, often to their own detriment. Do you want to buy a ticket on Frontier? You now have to consult a chart to determine which of three types of fares is best for you, all of which have you sitting in the same seat. Want to standby for an earlier flight, the airlines routinely collect fees for standby , an insane practice that costs airlines the opportunity to fill an empty seat and sell a seat on a later flight. If the later flight is canceled, every empty seat on the earlier flight means one more upset displaced passenger. Finally, the baggage fees have created chaos as everyone is now carrying on the maximum allowed. People fight for overhead space, bags have to be gate checked, and planes are running late. I believe that people want to get from one place to another, not navigate a virtual world of rules and fees that is constantly changing. Worse, the policies obviously cost the airlines money, yet are marketed as revenue enhancing features.

9. Tarmac Strandings - Airline pilots must do everything in coordination with their operations manual, which seeming covers every contingency, except for not having a gate availible. In this situation, airlines throw up their hands and claim there is nothing that they can do. Airstairs, mobile lounges, and buses somehow cease to exist and passengers are trapped for hours on end, yet airlines argue against any rules requiring passenger evacuation in the event of a long term stranding.

10. Bait and Switch Frequent Flier Programs - You know the drill. You save up your miles and attempt to book a flight, only to be told there are no availible seats to multiple destinations over several months. This has been described as an unregulated lottery. No wonder passengers no longer have much loyalty towards their airline, the entire reason for the frequent flier program's existence.

Guest Blogging

I recently exchanged guest posts with Brett Snyder over at The Cranky Flier, a fantastic blog about airlines that I have been reading every day for some time now.

You can read my post on his blog here.

It is really cool to have a guest post on a blog that you admire.

In return, Brett, a self proclaimed "airline dork" has written a guest post for the blog I contribute to at AskMrCreditCard.com.

You can read his post here.

Thanks Brett!

One More Time, With Feeling: How to Rent DVDs For Free

I have had several conversations over the last few days with people, trying to explain to them how they can rent movies for free.

No one believes me.

So I am posting this article again:

One of the themes that has developed in this blog is how to survive without cable TV.

Turns out that renting DVDs is much more enjoyable and cost effective than cable.

So just in case you thought that reading this blog was useless, here is the best tip I know:

Redbox + Promo Codes = Unlimited Free Movies

Note that each code may only be used only once with each of your credit cards, but new codes appear every day.

It turns out that there are several Redbox locations within walking distance of my house.

Of course, I would never, ever use this to make a backup copy of the disc so I could watch it later.