What hasn’t already been said about the airline’s collapse this week, which many said reminded them of Southwest’s collapse last December? And in a way, we suspect we haven’t seen the recent airline crashes this year. This is given the myriad of circumstances that have had Hawaiian travelers’ nerves on edge, including our own.
$300 (30,000 bonus points) for those caught in the fight.
We’ve heard from many of you who weren’t able to make it to Hawaii this week or who weren’t able to get home. We saw several flights to and from Hawaii on United Airlines canceled this week. The route we’re about to travel between Denver and Lihue has been canceled for days, which definitely caught our attention in person.
And of course, it made global news and social media too. But today, United raised the credit ceiling in turmoil with their latest bid. If you were affected this week, you may have already received an email from United with an apology and an additional 30,000 miles per passenger. This means that a family of four will get 120,000 miles. The problem is that if you spend two or more days trying to get to your destination, the additional costs will be many times over.
Here is where our thoughts turn again to the dreaded flight insurance.
We hate buying trip insurance, and you probably do, too. But we love when we need it and we have it. Trip insurance costs have skyrocketed, and we’re now averaging 15% of the amount covered or more. On the other hand, with exposure like this week’s with United or previously with South West, it’s no surprise why it has become more expensive.
Southwest previously gave 25,000 miles to those affected by their crash.
So this offering from United may raise the bar even higher for what we can expect from airlines when we’re feeling a bit too inconvenienced. But is that enough? We will say that it is definitely not.
A great model of how it works on flights to and from the UK and Europe.
We were on a flight from Gatwick to JFK a few years ago. For unknown reasons, the flight was delayed about four hours. What happened next was a great surprise. We received a credit card refund from the airline for $600 per passenger – thanks to the UK rule of up to $600 for delays of more than three hours, depending on distance.
The European Union has adopted a similar provision on flights from the US to Europe and in other directions providing up to €600 for long-haul flights delayed by three hours or more.