There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

Why stand in line to board an airplane?

The seats are assigned. People have been standing in line for 15 minutes now. Why on earth would anyone want to stand there, when they could just sit and wait until the line clears?

I understand wanting to get off a plane ASAP, but boarding? You just end up sitting on the plane, waiting for everyone else to get on.

lemmyrolinga ,

Do you have anywhere to be instead?

uis ,

On bench I guess

lemmyrolinga ,

Well, you do it. Other people is not so afraid of a little “exercise”

vext01 ,
@vext01@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Same when the plane lands. You must be the first to unclip and stand. He who stands longest wins.

themadcodger ,
@themadcodger@kbin.earth avatar

That for me is a stretching thing. I don't care if I'm back of the plane, I'm standing up as soon as we're allowed.

Skua ,

You're allowed to get up during the flight though

themadcodger ,
@themadcodger@kbin.earth avatar

Oh, well in that case I'll just stand during the flight, and remain seated when we land so other people who care too much about what strangers are doing feel more comfortable.

Skua ,

Mate I'm not telling you off for wanting to stretch, just puzzled about why you don't do it earlier on when you start feeling cramped

feebl ,

Because him standing early so he thinks he can get off the plane earlier good, standig during flight bad because logic

Sneezydinosaur ,

I’m on a Boeing plane. I’ll stay buckled and seated, thanks.

HopFlop ,

Every time, a good 75% of people stand up before it’s allowed and it annoys me every time.

jaykay ,
@jaykay@lemmy.zip avatar

Naaah, leaving the plane should be in order of the seats. Not “I stood up first”. Now you have to play the game of:

  1. Push your way into the standing line
  2. Let one standing person through, but then the whole line just keeps going cos they’re in a rush to stand in another line at the airport
vext01 ,
@vext01@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I was being sarcastic, in case it wasn’t clear.

GBU_28 ,

Standing is superior to sitting unless you are disabled or unhealthy

omxxi ,

I saw in a flight that the airline mistakenly sold the same seat twice, two persons were fighting for the same seat, and when the stewardess came to review, she saw the error, the flight was oversold and the second man needed to leave the plane.

meekah ,
@meekah@lemmy.world avatar

They don’t do that mistakenly. They just realized most of the time a few passengers don’t show up so overselling makes sense to keep the plane full.

maynarkh ,

If that happens to you in the EU, you are entitled to compensation, regardless of what the airline says. Know your rights!

meekah ,
@meekah@lemmy.world avatar

I think it’s the same in america. But yeah, the airlines will of course try to wriggle out of this

ettyblatant ,
@ettyblatant@lemmy.world avatar

This happened to me once, on a flight from JFK to Columbus OH. I was pissed because I had traveled the last 22 hours to get out of southern France back to the states, and then got kicked from my final little flight home. They gave me $200 to their airline (Delta) that had an expiration date, and a room at DoubleTree to take me back to the airport next day.

I couldn’t afford another trip after that so they canceled my $200 coupon after a year. So, yeah, you get compensated, I guess

wewbull ,

You were scammed. You were owed cash.

Dempf ,

Yes, the rule for involuntary bumping is:

1-2hr delay: 2x ticket price up to $775 2+hr delay: 4x ticket price up to $1550

It must be paid out at the airport, or within 24hr at the latest.

They are required to give you a written statement of your rights, though in my experience they usually “forget” and you have to go and assert your rights.

Airlines are well aware of these rules, and unfortunately there is no compensation if they involuntarily bump you onto an earlier flight, so I’ve had to take some flights before at the asscrack of dawn due to bumping.

june ,

This is in the US? I had a few friends get fucked with last moment cancellations for my birthday trip to Vegas and the airlines didn’t do shit. One, Frontier, had to be strong armed to get them on another flight and still charged them the premium for the new flight.

Dempf ,

Yes, it is in the US. It’s in the federal aviation regulations: 14 CFR part 250. There is a link to the regulation at the bottom of this article from the DOT:

www.transportation.gov/…/bumping-oversales

Just going to make it very clear though, there’s big differences between being denied boarding (bumped due to overselling), a flight being delayed, and a flight being canceled. Each is its own situation.

There is no legal requirement for compensation if a flight is delayed. If the flight is canceled entirely then you are owed a refund of what you paid. There’s no law requiring the airline to rebook you or pay for accommodations or alternate transportation in any situation. What the airline will do in situations outside of “bumping” mostly follows the contract of carriage and their customer service policies / discretion (in my experience customer service agents can have a lot of discretion especially if they’re not busy and you ask nicely).

Since you said your friends’ flights were canceled, not that they were bumped (denied boarding), basically only the contract of carriage applies (and any relevant tort law). Also, just in general, Frontier is a low cost carrier, and when you fly with them you have to understand that they do not provide the same level of service as other carriers. In exchange, you get a lower price. For example, their contract of carriage says nothing about ground accommodation due to unforseen circumstances, while other airlines have clauses about paying for hotels and other forms of transportation.

That being said, Frontier does agree to rebook you on a Frontier flight in the following circumstances:

(i) a passenger’s flight is canceled, (ii) a passenger is denied boarding because an aircraft with lesser capacity is substituted, (iii) a passenger misses a connecting Frontier flight due to a delay or cancellation of a Frontier flight (but not flights of other carriers), (iv) a passenger is delivered to a different destination because of the omission of a scheduled stop to which the passenger held a ticket, Frontier will provide transportation on its own flights at no additional charge to the passenger’s original destination or equivalent destination as provided herein. Frontier will have no obligation to provide transportation on another carrier. If Frontier cannot provide the foregoing transportation, Frontier shall, if requested, provide a refund for the unused portion of the passenger’s ticket in lieu of the transportation under the foregoing.

IANAL, but it sounds like your friends could probably still request a refund of the premium that they paid, since Frontier was contractually bound to transport them at no additional charge. If Frontier refuses, then it sounds like it could be a good fit for small claims court.

It’s always worth knowing your rights and the legal background when you’re dealing with companies, especially when they are as profit-driven and operate at as low a margin as the airline industry does. Note that even in Frontier’s contract, the burden is on you to request a refund. Airlines will basically do anything possible to not pay money if they can help it, even if it means sometimes “forgetting” about federal law when it comes to bumping.

On the other hand, you can also benefit by being able to recognize when an airline is not required to do something, but does it anyways out of goodwill. For example, when I got bumped onto the earlier flight, they called me up offering me something like 25k points for the inconvenience. I tried to negotiate higher, but they refused, so I accepted the 25k points understanding that I had no leverage because they weren’t actually obligated to offer me anything.

june ,

Ah that all makes sense.

Cancellations in particular suck, and are one reason I don’t fly budget airlines when possible. It nearly ruined the trip for my friends when they couldn’t get a flight out that night and put a damper on my birthday weekend for sure. I might mention to them the policy you pasted and see if they want to do anything about the extra few hundred they spent.

Thanks for the informative and high effort reply too! Really appreciate it.

Dempf ,

Here is a link to Frontier’s current contract of carriage, though note that it’s effective 2/19/24 and I don’t know what it looked like before that.

f9prodcdn.azureedge.net/media/9690/cs_coc.pdf

june ,

Well, our trip was in March so that’s perfect!

wewbull ,

How do they bump you to an earlier flight? You turn up for the flight you have a ticket for and they tell you your plane left 2 hours ago?

Dempf ,

Good question, actually it all happened a few days before I even got to the airport, so I was aware which flight I was supposed to take. I don’t think that really technically counts as “denied boarding” but it seems like they probably did it because my original flight was very oversold.

VeganCheesecake ,
@VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I remember a scandal in Germany some years back, where it was reported that people on the airline call centres were instructed to wrongly tell customers that they weren’t entitled to compensation, and to only pay out when they where under threat of being sued. Dunno whether that improved.

maynarkh ,

I heard people complaining a lot about Wizz Air.

I usually fly with KLM, and they have been always fast and good with this.

Pinklink ,

Agreed. Can we talk about getting off though? Everyone seems to have their own idea about how to do it and here is my proposal that I am very certain is the most efficient: plane lands at gate, but doors haven’t opened yet. The AISLE seats get up, get their bags, wait patiently in aisle till doors open. The WHOLE LINE of aisle standers files off (they are all ready to just leave), then the next inner seats get up, get their stuff, and file off, etc. Every time someone is “polite” and lets people get up infront of them, they hold up the entire line of aisle standers, and anyone else who could be getting up from their seat and grabbing their things. The entire plane has to wait each time someone says “yes I could just walk forward and leave the plane right now, but please go ahead and take your time getting out of your seat and grabbing your things before I go”

Thcdenton ,

I dont I just chill. Those goobers will fuck something up and I’ll stand there for like 30 min like a moron.

BaroqBard ,

Big issue for musicians. Many of us have instruments that are just small enough to be carry-ons but just large enough to be a bit unwieldy compared to other carry-ons, so nabbing primo carry-on storage is a must.

jaykay ,
@jaykay@lemmy.zip avatar

I don’t want to look for my seat with 20 people in front and 20 people behind me, touching my ass cos there is no space . If I have a window seat, then I have to also deal with the people sitting next to me, they get up, walk out, I sit down, they get in blah blah blah

Blackout ,
@Blackout@kbin.run avatar

I do it to give the people still sitting something to tut over.

RememberTheApollo_ ,

Mostly already mentioned I guess.

Bag fees is the answer. And people who’d rather screw over the next person by putting everything into the overhead bin (jacket, backpack, whatever) that should be under the seat.

People don’t want to pay to check more bags, so they cram as much as they can into anything checked and then the rest into a carry on (assuming they check anything at all). These over-stuffed carry-ons have to then be shoved into an overhead bin, and once the bins are full, the airline will gate check it to the destination. Now you have to wait at baggage claim for your bag along with the fear that for whatever reason it won’t make it. People don’t want that, so they line up to make sure they can put all their stuff in the overhead bin.

So there’s everyone filling up the overhead bin with purses, backpacks, and whatever other items that should have been placed under the seat in front of them. Yeah, I get it, space is tight. No, airline travel will never be like “the old days” when you can spend $250 or less round-trip today to cross the US and back. You wanted cheap, you got it, along with commensurate service. It’s no secret that space is limited. However, IMO those people are dickheads for forcing fellow passengers to check a bag because they take half the bin for all the stuff their cheap asses didn’t want to check while they simultaneously complain about the service they wanted to pay bottom dollar for.

ininewcrow ,
@ininewcrow@lemmy.ca avatar

People’s mentality after waiting at the airport for six hours for a six hour flight …

THIS IS THE LAST HELICOPTER OUT OF VIETNAM!!!

youtu.be/4qA1qziN484

laurelraven ,

Depends on what airline you’re taking, Southwest doesn’t assign seats

son_named_bort ,

Not all airlines assign seats. I know Southwest doesn’t, you just find an empty seat once you board. In that case it makes sense to stand in line.

OhmsLawn OP ,

Absolutely.

RvTV95XBeo ,

But your position in line is assigned. When they ask the A group to line up and the Bs start hovering they’re not accomplishing anything.

Zak ,
@Zak@lemmy.world avatar

Southwest assigns you a position in line. You can pay for a better one. Their passengers don’t spend a lot of time waiting in ad-hoc lines before their group is called like other airlines.

Dirk ,
@Dirk@lemmy.ml avatar

People are dumb. Mostly.

teawrecks ,

From the airline’s point of view, having the next person right there ready to get in their seat is preferable to having everyone come up one at a time. This is why they have boarding groups. You usually see between 3 and 5 boarding groups because it’s a reasonable number between 1 and N (N being the total number of passengers). I’m curious how ~10 boarding groups would fare, but presumably there’s a reason airlines don’t do that.

Elorie ,

Unless you need/like to stand before takeoff, I don’t see the point. I don’t mind if people do, as long as they are polite.

Bag space woes? It’s real, but seriously see what you can do without. I fly for work at least once a month and I’m a pro one bagger for trips of 4 days or less; more if I’m doing summer weight clothes. It means I rewear things if they are clean and sometimes wash clothes in my hotel, but damn does it make travel easy.

Checked bag fees suck. Be the first to volunteer to gate check. I can only recall one flight in the last few months where an announcement wasn’t made. The bag is waiting at the destination gate so you don’t even have to handle bag claim. I do it every time I travel.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •