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Delta Passengers Are Angry, But Will Be Back. They Have Little Choice

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Delta Air Lines’ service outage last week stranded an estimated half million passengers, leaving many sleeping on airport floors, dissatisfied and upset at their inability to complete their travels, unable to locate their bags or receive answers from the airline.

However, regardless of how angry they are, the majority of them will return to the airline in the future. To paraphrase an old song, most travelers find it difficult to end their relationship with an airline.

The fact of the American air travel system is that tremendous forces retain passengers traveling with the same airlines, even after service disruptions like Delta’s. American, United, Southwest, and Delta are the four largest airlines in the United States, accounting for more than 70% of total air traffic. Passengers who live near one of Delta’s major hubs, such as Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis, or Salt Lake City, have even fewer flying options.

Delta Passengers Are Angry, But Will Be Back. They Have Little Choice

Many consumers also have frequent flyer accounts and branded credit cards that link them to specific airlines.

A disgruntled million-mile consumer.
That’s the case for Don Hooper, who has a million miles in his Delta frequent flyer account after years of traveling the airline once or twice a week while working as a banker near Atlanta.

Now semi-retired, he and his wife Dorothy fly Delta eight to ten times yearly. They were on vacation this month, visiting Glacier National Park and attending a wedding in Bozeman, Montana, and were on their way home when they became delayed in Salt Lake City. They eventually had to buy their own Spirit tickets to return home by early Wednesday morning.

“I would not say I am angry. “I’m disappointed,” Don Hooper told CNN during an interview. “We were never communicated with, or contacted. We were left on our own. They left people to fend for themselves without any help.”

The collapse occurred as Delta attempted to recover from computer problems that stopped its systems from tracking the location of its pilots and flight attendants, making it impossible to staff all of its flights. CrowdStrike, a cyber security group, triggered the disruptions, which resulted in severe computer issues around the world on July 19, including over 5,000 canceled flights by a variety of airlines on Friday.

However, the troubles were primarily isolated to Delta by Monday, as other firms resumed normal operations, adding to the passengers’ anger. Delta canceled more than 4,400 flights between July 19 and 21, according to flight tracking firm FlightAware. There were an extra 1,800 flights canceled on Monday and Tuesday.

“Other airlines, banks, and corporations appeared to have worked it out. Delta didn’t,” Dorothy Hooper explained.

The Hoopers claim their experience was not as horrible as other travellers’. The Hoopers had enough money to reserve a hotel in downtown Salt Lake City, so they had a place to sleep even though they still wanted to leave town that night. Others had a different experience.

“People are sleeping in line at the ticketing kiosks. People were running short of nappies and formula. “Some vendors were running out of food,” Dorothy Hooper explained.

“We came out of this fine,” remarked Don Hooper.

By Friday, their bags had been returned, and Delta had paid them for their out-of-pocket expenses while giving them an extra $100 each. Even before that, the Hoopers expressed excitement for their next Delta vacation to Greece and Italy in August, despite their unhappiness with Delta’s behavior during the meltdown. Past experience and Delta’s supremacy in Atlanta and Don Hooper’s frequent flyer miles would keep them loyal to the airline.

Who will and won’t return?
Other passengers were not as eager to fly Delta again.

According to CNN, Jeremy and Kaylee Jones married on July 20 and left Spokane, Washington, on Monday for their honeymoon. Five guests were unable to attend the wedding owing to flying complications.

They arrived in Atlanta early Tuesday morning to catch a connecting aircraft to the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. But they couldn’t obtain one.

They eventually had to travel to Orlando to catch another flight to St. Lucia so that they would keep the money they had spent on the accommodation. Despite pledging to compensate affected customers, Delta’s policy would not have reimbursed them for their St. Lucia hotel stay if they had canceled the trip.

“Maybe in the future, but once they’ve figured it out, I would say, not in the near future,” Kaylee Jones replied when asked if they would fly Delta again.

“As of right now, I would roll with that sentiment,” stated Jeremy Jones. “No Delta for me, for sure.”

However, several airlines have seen travel demand recover following comparable or worse meltdowns. Southwest experienced a 10-day glitch with its crew scheduling software, resulting in about 17,000 cancellations during the year-end holiday travel period in 2022. It experienced two months of low bookings. However, many of those affected travelers returned to the airline. It just recorded record revenue and traffic for the most recent quarter.

Lack of options
The hub structure protects so-called “network carriers” like Delta from competition on flights into and out of their hubs. Cirium figures show that it accounts for 83% of available seats flown in and out of Atlanta when adjusted for miles traveled.

“They have a stranglehold on Atlanta,” explained Zach Griff, senior aviation reporter for The Points Guy, a travel website. “Even if you choose to fly a rival, you can only reach so many destinations nonstop. It’s always worth remembering because people’s memories are short. The book based on schedule and price. This does not imply that some customers will not resent Delta for this. However, this could be a temporary hiccup.

On certain important routes, there are several options, though only sometimes with the same regularity as other airlines.

“At the end of the day, people are going to act in their own personal interest,” said Scott Keyes, founder of travel alert service Going.com. “Most passengers aren’t going to inconvenience themselves, to take a longer or a non-direct flight, simply to punish Delta.”

Many business travelers will fly with an airline that has a contract with their employer, leaving them no choice except to choose their own carrier. That was the situation with Dylan Steele, a government employee who was stuck in Atlanta for many days, unable to complete a trip to Washington for work. Except in emergencies, he must fly Delta for work. By Tuesday, he had abandoned his plans for this trip after three days of futile attempts to travel from Atlanta to Washington, DC.

Steele, on the other hand, was sympathetic to Delta’s troubles and felt sad for the staff who were at the airport assisting passengers in locating their luggage.

“It has undoubtedly been an experience. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “On a normal day, Delta is quite good. They are making every effort to assist us. “It is not their fault.”

Delta Passengers Are Angry, But Will Be Back. They Have Little Choice

Another factor that is likely to entice passengers to return to Delta is its reputation for providing exceptional service. Stats back up this claim: Delta said in its second quarter statistics that in the first half of this year, it topped the industry in the lowest percentage of cancelled flights and on-time performance, with 39 cancellation-free days. It also has a fairly low complaint rate.

Don Hooper said he’s always received excellent treatment from Delta staff in the million miles he’s travelled on the airline before to this, and that’s another reason he’s not about to switch, in addition to the fact that he lives close to the Atlanta hub and has all of the miles in his account.

“As a million-mile flier, you’ve had some negative experiences over the years. Don Hooper stated that Delta has previously responded well to this issue. “We have been flying Delta for 34 years. “And I still will.”

SOURCE | CNN

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Elon Musk has Often Stirred Up Political Unrest, Which Makes People Worry About the US Election.

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Elon Musk

(VOR News) – Following the weekend Trump assassination attempt, Elon Musk informed X that “no one is even trying to assassinate” the Democratic president and vice president.

Musk declared, “civil war is inevitable,” during UK anti-Muslim riots brought on by unfounded allegations. Musk called the allegation of fake voter registrations in three US states raised “very concerning” by an unidentified X user.

Authorities have labelled Musk’s three tweets dishonest and careless. One of the most powerful people in the world can spread hate, terror, and false information with millions of views and hundreds of likes during political unrest.

Elon Musk runs Twitter and might change how material is distributed.

Musk’s website’s lack of security and his false assertions to his 200 million fans raise public trust issues as Election Day draws near. Should Trump be reelected and increase his political activity, he volunteered to supervise a government efficiency committee.

Monday night at X, Trump referred to Musk as a “friend.” Musk turned down a comment email request. Experts and electoral officials claim Elon Musk’s vote might be called into doubt. They fear that bringing this up could encourage harassment of candidates and election volunteers.

Co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism Heidi Beirich notes “X and Musk are dangerously and irresponsibly raising the temperature of politics at a critical juncture.” Such shame.

Conservatives praise the 53-year-old entrepreneur who bought Twitter in 2022 and turned it into a free market for ideas. X is better than conventional media since people may write freely and find the “truth”.

Elon Musk let false information spread about the company’s changes over the past two years.

Following his takeover, the hate speech policy, content moderation, and Trust and Safety advisory council were wiped from the website. He established content partnerships, restored conspiracy theorist accounts, and produced fictitious Community Notes.

Both sides lie and buy thousands of X shares. Following a Pennsylvania gunman’s ear shot of Trump, the left spread false rumours. Following the discussion between Trump and Harris, far-right trolls asserted Harris wore an earpiece.

Elon Musk endangered the 2020 trustworthy information center, says Rick Hasen. People nowadays see Twitter (X) differently. Hasen thinks millions of viewers and sponsors left the network for a specific reason. His data is inaccurate. Hasen thinks the market of ideas should be efficient enough for consumers to find false claims.

Numerous Republicans disagree with Elon Musk. They assert that the prior proprietor of the website misled regarding Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, and COVID-19’s beginnings.

Elon Musk discusses kids, memes, Tesla, SpaceX, and On the website, he disseminates incorrect political assertions including Democrats “importing” immigrants to vote and Haitian immigrants in Ohio slaughtering and eating pets.

Jocelyn Benson, Democratic secretary of state for Michigan, said in an interview last month that Musk’s election tweets were a “maelstrom of disinformation” making voter education challenging.

“I know most election officials just keep their heads down and work,” he continues. “How do we inform the public about our work—many of whom follow Musk, X, or the platform?”

Election officials have told Elon Musk supporters. Using X post, the Republican recorder for Maricopa County, Arizona, covering Phoenix, offered Musk an all-access tour of an election centre.

Four secretaries, including Minnesota Democrat Steve Simon, wrote to Elon Musk following the publication of erroneous election rules this summer by Grok, an artificial intelligence tool. Musk’s most recent modification earned praise.

Like Twitter before Musk, Elon Musk may find electoral fallacies.

“It’s one thing to not like the Minnesota election system, or any election system for that matter,” he continued, “but incorrect vote totals have to be fixed.”

Head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Jen Easterly responded to Elon Musk’s claim last month that most U.S. elections do not use paper ballots. The 2020 election was the last chance “all states w/close presidential vote counts actually used paper records, allowing votes to be counted, recounted, & audited to ensure accuracy.”

Once the X owner realises his posts are incorrect, he deletes them. Supporting a Tucker Carlson Holocaust revisionist interview last month set off wrath. Deleted.

On Sunday, Musk wrote off Biden and Harris’ lack of assassination attempts. Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, labelled the remarks “irresponsible” and stated, “violent jokes should only be condemned.”

Most celebrities, according to University of Virginia media studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan, are careful while making jokes since they know not everyone will understand them or react suitably. Musk refuted owning such a filter.

Vaidhyanathan doubts Musk’s political dishonesty. His phoney election expenses cost him and others sponsors’ platform money. Musk, he said, “just one more voice in that cacophony.”

SOURCE: AP

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Market Speculation Over the Next Fed Rate Reduction Hides More Fundamental Issues.

Uber will Introduce Trip Recording Tools and a “Verified” Rider Badge in the United States.

 

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Market Speculation Over the Next Fed Rate Reduction Hides More Fundamental Issues.

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Fed

(VOR News) – This is the best of times for someone setting US rates from a chair.

The Federal Reserve is now open to criticism from all directions since the meeting on September monetary policy concluded on Wednesday.

Given its painstaking preparation for its first cut since the epidemic, there is little question at all that it will decrease prices. Trading floors, newsroom nerds, and investment offices are rife with arguments about whether it will be cut by a half percentage point or the typical quarter-point haircut.

Head of macro and strategic asset allocation at investing company Fidelity Salman Ahmed says “the obsession has been like it’s the end of the world.”

“It looks like the market is putting pressure on the Fed.”

Arguing for a quarter-point cut from the present 5.25 percent to the 5.5% target range is really simple. Given inflation has returned to the Fed’s target and the employment market is slowing but not collapsing, it is now time to slightly ease the brakes using the standard step.

As Team “Go Large” notes, Fed Chairman Jay Powell’s comments on the “pace” of easing at the Jackson Hole conference back in the summer inadvertently set the ground for a debate on the degree of rate cuts.

More recently, quite serious people have argued for a half-point cut, including former New York Fed president Bill Dudley.

Noticing this, rate speculators suddenly shifted their predictions from a certain little cut to a respectable possibility of a significant one.

Here the Fed runs in the danger of coming across as scared. Going big on paper suggests that rate setters believe they have to fast turn around their course because they believe they have made a mistake in maintaining interest rates at their highest level in decades for too long and that it is too late to avert a recession from commencing.

Still, markets have embraced the concept of such a sizable decrease this time around. If it doesn’t horrify the markets, why not start with a bang?

The general view seems to be that they are trying to squeeze the Federal Reserve. A double chop, especially as the first action in an easing cycle, usually implies that investors believe a recession is approaching since the markets for interest rates point to more notable declines in the next year.

Studies show, meanwhile, that investors do not truly believe that. More politely, they are bluffing on this point; else, they are hedging for worst-case conditions.

Based on Bank of America’s weekly fund manager poll this week, just 11% of investors believe the US economy is likely to land gently. Still, 79% of respondents expect a more subdued slowdown. Once more the rates markets are showing their extroversion.

The greatest immediate source of difficulty for the markets will thus be Powell’s communication skills, which will be tested during the back-and-forth of the press conference following the meeting.

Would it be a fearful half-point cut to prevent catastrophe or a joyful half-point cut announcing success against inflation? Would a quarter suggest that the central bank is still terrified of inflation and is still too rigid to take chances?

The Fed’s army of relentless internet enemies is showing off their strength.

Strong possibility of volatile market fluctuations exists here. A paper published this week by the Bank of International Settlements, the think tank for big central banks, highlights “hypersensitive” market conditions brought up by this summer’s run-to-the-hills.

All of this thrill, though, hides a more important and broader statement about a change in the global asset hierarchy. Usually, the Fed shapes the global monetary policy scene. Still, the US economy is slowing down to more closely match those of other countries rather than imploding.

“Fading US exceptionalism is an important theme,” says Sam Lynton-Brown, global head of macro strategy at French bank BNP Paribas. That suggests that US GDP is larger than that of its peers, US bond yields are more than those of its peers, and US assets outperform peers is most likely going to decrease.

Though a nice diversion from other, far more significant issues and from the debate of where rates should decrease, it is nevertheless a diversion. “Once you get past the Fed, it’s going to be election risk, recession risk, or, at least we forget, inflation could come back,” Ahmed of Fidelity says.

The stakes will then be so great that today’s frantic supposition about the narcissism of small distinctions will seem meagre.

SOURCE: FT

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Uber will Introduce Trip Recording Tools and a “Verified” Rider Badge in the United States.

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Uber will Introduce Trip Recording Tools and a “Verified” Rider Badge in the United States.

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Uber

(VOR News) – Uber is currently in the process of integrating new capabilities into its operations, as indicated in a statement that was officially posted by the ride-hailing company on Tuesday.

The company disclosed this information at the time of its announcement. Uber drivers will be able to confirm “verified” badges on client profiles and record journeys using their cellphones instead of a dashcam with the newly expanded capabilities.

This will be feasible due to the recently enhanced capabilities. Furthermore, drivers will have the ability to record trips on their mobile devices, specifically their computers.

This is part of Uber’s safety study for 2021 and 2022.

The research indicated that drivers were accountable for 31% of sexual assaults directed at passengers, while they were responsible for 68% of sexual assaults directed at Uber drivers.

This information is presented in the context of Uber’s reporting of this safety report. Although this information is presented in the context of Uber’s publication of this study, it is crucial to emphasise that Uber disclosed the study. It is anticipated that the implementation of this invention will result in a greater sense of safety being exhibited by vehicles, which will be beneficial to motorists.

Uber drivers in the United States will be able to ascertain whether or not a passenger has completed additional verification procedures starting on Wednesday.

They will have access to this capability. This capability will be accessible to them. To achieve this objective, it will be necessary to exhibit a “Verified” passenger badge throughout the entire travel request process. In order to achieve this objective, this approach will be implemented.

Uber effectively implemented a pilot program in a limited number of locations throughout the United States during the initial months of this year.

A diverse array of states in the United States are home to this collection of locations. The majority of passengers who originate from that specific location have been validated, and the app has received fewer complaints from drivers regarding these customers. This is consistent with the information that the organisation furnished.

The corporation asserts that approximately 15,000 passenger accounts with fictitious identities have been blocked. The corporation provided this information. The corporation provided us with this information, which is commendable.

Uber drivers can record audio and video with their phones’ front cameras.

They will have access to this trait in the future. Immediately, they will have access to this capability that is within their reach. Drivers will no longer be required to acquire dashcams as a result of the endeavours that have been undertaken. This outcome is a direct result of our endeavours.

Furthermore, it is anticipated that each recording will be encrypted and stored on the devices being used by chauffeurs. This is anticipated to occur as a result.

Uber and the drivers will be unable to access the recordings until either the drivers voluntarily submit them to the company for review or the drivers themselves transmit them to the company.

Furthermore, Uber is presently engaged in a test program that allows drivers to decline to transport a customer if the passenger has rated the journey with two or three stars.

Uber is presently conducting this test program. In addition, Uber is also closely monitoring the implementation of this experimental program. It is a continuation of Uber’s current policy, which stipulates that drivers are immediately mismatched with passengers immediately after rating a ride with one star. This alternative is an extension of that methodology.

This alternative is indicative of the policy’s perpetuation. By carrying over this policy into this possibility, this option is established, which symbolises Uber’s perpetuation of that policy. This option is currently available for consideration.

SOURCE: USN

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