Quote:
Originally Posted by AirlinesMustPay
Just what planet are you guys living on? Surely not planet earth. And Surely not in America. Because no one on this planet will consider that it was reasonable for a passenger to overnight in an airport with a baby. But baby aside, If a passenger has a ticket to travel in the evening and the airline says we will put you on another flight in the morning, that is a breach. Their contract of carriage was for a particular flight. You will find that American Courts will dismiss any argument that the contract is not for any particular time. based on that written contract of carriage, unless that writing was brought specifically by the airline or its agent to the attention of the passenger. If the 122 passengers were told that their flight was leaving at 6 in the morning instead of the evening before, can you imagine the uproar in the airport. And because it was just the 2 it becomes OK.? I have kept on saying, the airline makes its decision who to fly and who to leave behind. And if they chose to fly the 122 on time and leave the 2 behind, that's a prudent business decision. It is prudent because they leave only 2 aggrieved passengers and have 122 flying on time. The airline is definitely in breach of contract with these two. I cannot understand why anyone would think that it is acceptable to offer passengers a flight the next morning, and this is not a breach of contract.
What about if passengers turn up next morning for a flight that left the evening before, will the airline honour their ticket? If the passenger has an obligation to show up for a particular flight at a particular time, then the airline has a reciprocal obligation to permit them to travel on that flight, and to travel next morning after sleeping in the airport would have been outside the contemplation of both passenger and airline when the contract was made.
If the airline can send passengers on a flight the next day and not be in breach, where will it stop? What about if you turn up for a flight and the airline says, sleep two nights in the airport and we'll send you on another flight two days later?
If a prudent business decision requires an airline to leave two passengers, they just need to compensate those 2.
Its too simple not to be understood
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You're really grasping at straws now to "prove your point." You are citing a case from 1968. The internet did not exist. Mainframe airline reservation systems were still in their infancy. Most, if not all, people purchased their tickets through travel agencies. Travel by air was also so expensive at the time it precluded many people from traveling by air simply because it wasn't affordable.
Now all of the information regarding contracts of carriage, fare rules, etc. are accessible on the airlines' websites. If one chooses not to read them and then experiences a delay or cancellation due to weather, ATC, or any other force majeure reason covered in the contract and is then informed that they will not receive a free meal or hotel they should not cry foul. They used the internet to buy the tickets they should have taken the time to read the terms and conditions if they really wanted to know what to expect. Trouble is that air travel is so relatively inexpensive many don't consider it a major purchase. The same people that will read every clause in a contract when buying a home or car will lay out hundreds or even thousands of dollars for an airline ticket without bothering to read anything. Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware.
Without rehashing all of the legalese you have tried, unsuccessfully, to muddy the waters of this situation we can break it down very simply. The airline has no obligation to provide food and shelter (other than the airport terminal if the passenger chooses) if the delay is due to ATC (controlled by the US government) or weather (controlled by mother nature, God, or whoever/whatever you attribute it to). The airline offered re-accommodation on the next available flight which just so happened to be the next morning. The passenger (OP) when given that option without a free hotel decided to book her own flight that night on another airline. She has said she wanted special consideration (in other words wanted rules broken) since she was traveling with a small child. She admittedly was traveling with insufficient funds or supplies to adequately provide for the needs of the child. She also, admittedly, knows that connecting in Philadelphia can be problematic at times yet booked an itinerary with such a close connection that a relatively minor delay caused her to miss her connecting flight.
Was it the airlines fault that she had no money for a hotel nor sufficient food for her child? No. Was it the airline's fault that she knowingly booked a ticket with such a short connection time that a minor delay to her inbound flight would cause a mis-connect. No. The OP even stated that she was relying on the possibility that her connecting flight would be late as well. The gamble didn't work. I checked online and there are two flights out of State College that are offered which connect to that last flight of the day to Jacksonville. The first leaves State College around 2PM and there is a layover in Philadelphia of just over three hours. The second leaves just after 4 PM and has a layover of about one hour and ten minutes. Of course the flight is closed to boarding 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time so it really only gives one only 55 minutes plus you have to subtract the time it takes to deplane, walk to the connecting gate, etc. With a youngster in tow why would you book that second option? Even if the flight had been on time they would have been rushed to make the connecting flight.
The OP shouldn't expect nor is she going to get her money back for the Southwest tickets. As I have suggested before she should ask for the remaining value of the unused tickets to be issued as a voucher. US Airways is under no obligation to do so but from a customer service standpoint it might be the right thing to do to have a chance at repeat business. Additionally if she is on this website bashing US Airways you can bet she's been telling all her friends and family about it too. A little goodwill could go a long way for the airline in terms of it's image.