Seven Simple Ways to Fix Air Travel for Everyone
No one can wave a magic wand and fix the airline industry overnight. But even small steps are nevertheless worth taking and, when put together, might just bring about significant change. Don't think so? Read on to see how seven simple steps could improve air travel for everyone.
1. Issue Refunds for Lost or Delayed Bags
If you pay for something, you should get it. Bag fees are no different. When a customer spends the $20 to $30 to check a bag, that fee is paid with the expectation that said bags will arrive on time, intact, at the appropriate destination. When bags are late or lost, the fee should be refunded by the airline. It's a simple act of fairness that would go a long way toward restoring consumer confidence.
Not surprisingly, few airlines have initiated any such policy. Alaska Airlines is a notable exception , but even its compensation rules could be improved. Here's Alaska's policy :
If your baggage is not at baggage claim within 20 minutes of your plane parking at the gate, you're entitled to a $20 Discount Code for use on a future Alaska Airlines or Horizon Air flight or 2,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan bonus miles.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) included in its recent consumer protections proposals a call for "compensation" when bags aren't delivered within 24 hours. This is a good start, but if a bag isn't even on the same plane as the consumer, the airline has failed. A simple rule could fix this: If a bag is not on the carousel within 30 minutes of deplaning, customers receive a refund in the form of cash or airline credit, no questions asked.
Ideally, airlines would see the inherent moral imperative here, and offer a refund policy on their own. Since that's not likely, it's time for the DOT to take a harder line on bag fee refunds, and force airlines to deliver bags on time.
2. Clear the Airport Gridlock
The FAA should enforce airport capacity levels and make sure prime departure periods are scheduled appropriately. Many airports are overburdened by excessive traffic well beyond the facility's limits. This habit of poor scheduling leads to all kinds of problems, from gate delays to tarmac delays, and causes inconvenience for passengers and airlines alike.
In an interview last year , pilot and columnist Patrick Smith gave a cockpit's-eye view of the problem. "At JFK, I look at the runway and see a 747 behind half a dozen regional jets, and I think to myself, there's more people on the 747 than on all those regional jets combined. It's so inefficient that it makes hardly any sense," Smith said.
How to Find the Best Credit Card for You
By Beth Kobliner.
Many of us have become addicted to credit cards, and banks have been more than willing to feed this habit by dangling cards in front of everyone old enough to sign his or her name. Today, the card companies are tightening their standards and limiting credit lines as well as hiking interest rates and fees.
Whether you’re a sensible card user or a bit dysfunctional when it comes to credit cards, there are steps you can take to get the right card and reduce your costs. It’s especially important that you know what to do these days; making credit mistakes can cost you a lot of money.
How to Find the Best Card for You Despite what the ads say, whether your card has a Visa seal or a MasterCard logo is not that important. These are just membership organizations. It’s the banks or company that issues the card — such as Citibank or Bank of America — that matters. Issuers control the rates, fees, and other factors that are critical to you.
Look for a credit card that best suits your own personal spending habits. If you usually carry a balance from month to month, get the lowest interest rate — technically the annual percentage rate or APR — you can. But if you always pay off your balance in full, the rate doesn’t matter. In that case, your priority is to find a card that doesn’t’ charge an annual fee and offers a grace period, the stretch of time lenders give you to pay in full before they start charging interest.
If you pay off your entire balance each month, you may also want to consider special “reward” cards that offer frequent-flyer mileage or credits toward a car for every dollar you charge. If you have a troubled credit history, consider a secured card that requires you have enough money on deposit to cover your charges, and if you have a tough time controlling your credit card spending, you may be better off just sticking with a debit card instead. (More on all these options follows.)
In any case, most of us don’t need more than two credit cards total. Extra cards just make it easy to overspend.
How to Search for a Low-Rate Card If you find you don’t have enough cash to pay off your credit card balance immediately, you’ll want to get the lowest-rate card possible and transfer your debit to it. The way it generally works is that the new low-rate issuer pays off your other creditor(s) or gives you checks to settle your old accounts. The details vary from card to card, though, so you need to read the fine print (online, generally buried in the “terms and fees” page or in the paperwork the company sends you) before signing up. Some low-rate issuers, for example, offer you a twenty-day grace period before interest acuminates on the money you borrow; others tack on transfers fees (for transferring the debt, naturally) and start charging you interest the moment the checks are cashed by your old cardholders.
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