[HN Gopher] How Airline Lobbyists Just Got Humiliated
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       How Airline Lobbyists Just Got Humiliated
        
       Author : toomuchtodo
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2024-05-12 22:19 UTC (42 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thebignewsletter.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thebignewsletter.com)
        
       | toomuchtodo wrote:
       | Title left uneditorialized, could probably be changed by a mod.
       | Shared due to context around the legislative and political
       | mechanics that led to the outcome. Good read imho.
        
         | aspenmayer wrote:
         | I'm annoyed by premature celebratory back-patting when it comes
         | to what Congress hasn't yet done, of which this is a case in
         | point:
         | 
         | > Yesterday, the full FAA authorization bill passed the Senate,
         | and will likely pass the House next week, after which it will
         | be signed into law.
         | 
         | Here's hoping it actually passes and becomes law.
        
       | blackeyeblitzar wrote:
       | It needs to go much further. The practice of overbooking flights
       | must be ended, and compensation enacted retroactively. It's not
       | just about airlines - it's about fair practices across the entire
       | economy. There need to be visible consequences for fraud.
        
         | nickff wrote:
         | Overbooking allows for reduced emissions, as more flights are
         | closer to capacity. Do you think that eliminating the practice
         | will be beneficial on net?
        
           | mook wrote:
           | Overbooking would be fine if all of their sales literature
           | makes it clear that you're effectively buying a lottery
           | ticket to get on the plane. If it's being sold as a confirmed
           | ticket, it needs to be actually there. They already have a
           | mechanism to do that too; you can get on waitlists.
           | 
           | Turns out they can't sell things at the same price when it's
           | a waitlist, though.
        
           | michaelt wrote:
           | Why stop at that? It would reduce emissions even further if
           | airlines were allowed to take customers' money and not
           | provide any flights whatsoever.
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | >The practice of overbooking flights must be ended
         | 
         | Overbooking flights isn't bad per se. There's good reason to do
         | it, namely that people are inevitably flakey, so the airlines
         | being able to oversell some seats allows them to get more
         | revenue on a flight, and therefore allow them to charge
         | everyone slightly less. As long as this is clearly disclosed,
         | passengers are given an explicit choice and/or compensation if
         | they're bumped, I don't see why it should be banned.
         | 
         | >and compensation enacted retroactively
         | 
         | Probably not constitutional, see:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_attainder
        
       | mpalczewski wrote:
       | They should get out of that business altogether and let anyone
       | sue an airline
        
       | MarkSweep wrote:
       | > [deregulation] also prohibited consumers from suing airlines,
       | meaning that airlines are the only corporations that consumers
       | cannot take to court.
       | 
       | Really? I thought drug companies also had indemnity for vaccines
       | https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation
       | 
       | > President Bush approved the merger of U.S. Airways and America
       | West
       | 
       | Which president Bush? And was it literally a choice made by the
       | president? Or a ruling by some agency of the executive branch?
       | And one of the carriers being in bankruptcy at the time of merger
       | suggests the story might not be so simple as it is being
       | portrayed.
       | 
       | This sloppy writing and the click bait title make this article
       | hard to take seriously.
        
       | fbdab103 wrote:
       | The lead Senators, Maria Cantwell and Ted Cruz, probably didn't
       | realize what had happened, as they did seek to do something
       | useful for consumers, and the FAA reauthorization bill is
       | sprawling and it's easy to lose track of the details of every
       | provision.
       | 
       | Sure, a completely honest mistake. No way our caring politicians
       | would have let that language be inserted into the law.
       | 
       | I would love if these documents were version controlled so we
       | could see exactly whose office inserted the language. Which makes
       | so much sense, I doubt it will ever happen.
        
       | thriftwy wrote:
       | I wonder what was preventing you from doing a chargeback if your
       | flight was cancelled with no reasonable alternative? Then it's
       | between the airline and their bank.
       | 
       | I did exactly that in Russia with Aeroflot - I had tickets to
       | Thailand during Covid back in 2020, and obviously the flight was
       | cancelled and Aeroflot was talking about vouchers and how it
       | would keep holding passengers' money to survive through tough
       | times - I've just filed a charge dispute with Russian branch of
       | Raiffensen and got money back in a month.
       | 
       | And since the USA is the proverbial land of the credit card and
       | chargeback, what stops you?
        
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       (page generated 2024-05-12 23:01 UTC)