News

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

Published

4 months ago

2024-07-29

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

News

Pam Bondi Is Appointed US Attorney General Following Gaetz’s Resignation.

Published

2 hours ago

2024-11-22

Salman Ahmad

Photo via Reuters

(VOR News) – President-elect Donald Trump selected Pam Bondi, a former Florida Attorney General and ally, to succeed Matt Gaetz on Thursday after the latter withdrew from consideration.

Gaetz’s drug use and sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old girl were the subject of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee. He denies any wrongdoing.

During Trump’s first administration, Pam Bondi, 59, served on the Opioids and Drug Abuse Commission. He served as police chief of the third-most populous state from 2011 to 2019.

She was also a member of Trump’s defense team at his first impeachment hearing, where he was charged with use military assistance to get Ukraine to look into the wrongdoing of his opponent, now President Joe Biden. The Senate cleared Trump on all charges.

The right-wing America First Policy Institute, which has collaborated with Trump’s campaign to create government concepts, most recently had Pam Bondi as its leader of the legal branch.

Unlike Pam Bondi, Gaetz lacks the experience necessary to serve as attorney general and is likely to encounter resistance from Senate Democrats and some Republicans.

According to Jones Walker defense attorney David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Florida, “She is unequivocally qualified for the position on paper.” Throughout her life, she battled in court. She stood out from the previous nominee because to her resume.

In a tweet announcing his intention to nominate Bondi, Trump praised her skills as a prosecutor and her firm stance against crime as Florida’s first female attorney general. Trump said that even though Bondi was elected on November 5th, while numerous state and federal criminal investigations were underway, he pledged to keep federal prosecutions from being politicized.

According to Trump, “The biased Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans for an excessive duration.” Not true anymore.

Discussion about Pam Bondi and Trump’s history before 2016.

In 2013, the Trump Foundation may have broken federal law by giving $25,000 to a political action committee that supported Pam Bondi. Bondi thought about looking into the for-profit Trump University.

Pam Bondi disputed that her decision to end her legal actions against Trump University following the 2016 disclosure of Trump’s $25,000 gift had anything to do with her decision to withdraw from those actions. According to her, all pertinent material was made public by her office.

The erroneous money disclosure was attributed by the Trump team to a “series of unfortunate coincidences and errors.” New York state fraud investigations resulted in the dissolution of both Trump University and the Trump Foundation.

After misleading Trump University students, he settled for $25 million and was fined $2 million for misusing charitable funds.

Following Special Counsel Jack Smith’s acquisition of two indictments against him for his interference in the 2020 election and his possession of secret materials after leaving office, Trump has voiced his displeasure with the present leadership of the Justice Department and pledged retaliation.

AFPI’s Pam Bondi remains loyal to Trump.

She and a number of other lawyers claimed that Smith’s appointment was illegal in an amicus brief they prepared in support of Trump in the secret information litigation. The Justice Department filed an appeal after U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump nominee, rejected the case.

According to a long-standing rule against charging a sitting president, Smith and other top Justice Department officials are examining how both of the Trump criminal cases were resolved.

During his first administration, Trump was incensed with the Justice Department’s obstructionism. Bill Barr specifically refuted Trump’s baseless claims that he lost the 2020 election due to fraud, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions permitted an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Trump’s overarching objectives for the Justice Department have been delineated through his public remarks, interviews with former department lawyers, and Mark Paoletta, a conservative lawyer who develops the department’s policy.

Federal prosecutors may give illegal immigration cases priority.

To obtain a portion of the department’s $291 million justice assistance award, cities might have to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

It is probable that the Civil Rights Division will refocus its attention from legal challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the public and commercial sectors to police accountability to religious freedom.

SOURCE: EAT

News

PayPal’s Technical Challenges Are Affecting Thousands Of Customers Globally.

Published

16 hours ago

2024-11-21

Salman Ahmad

(VOR News) – PayPal is a software program that enables the sending and receiving of monetary orders and transactions.

According to the corporation, which has taken responsibility for the incident that was mentioned before, PayPal is apparently experiencing problems in every region of the world in which it conducts business. This information was provided by the company.

In addition, PayPal noted on its service status website that it was experiencing “a system issue” which may affect a variety of PayPal Products, such as the ability to withdraw money from an account and the ability to complete an express checkout. This issue may even hurt the ability to complete an express checkout.

This problem may also affect other PayPal products.

In light of the fact that this vulnerability is present, there are further PayPal products that have the potential to be affected by it.

One of the remarks that was made was that “Our technical teams are actively working towards resolving the issue,” which was stated in the email that was distributed. This was one of the comments that individuals made. A number of assertions were made, and this was one of them all.

Several customers from various regions of the world have stated that they are unable to access their accounts or that they are having difficulty when it comes to making payments. These customers have also mentioned that they are encountering difficulties making payments.

These clients have informed us that they are experiencing difficulties obtaining their orders by communicating their concerns. As an additional point of interest, a number of customers have reported that they are currently having trouble processing payments. This is something that should be taken into consideration.

Up to the moment that the clock struck twelve twelve Central European Time (GMT), the platform outage monitor known as Downdetector had already received more than seven thousand alerts from users. When the clock reached twelve o’clock, this was the situation that existed.

As indicated by a dashboard that provides an overview of the current state of the services that are being offered by the organization, the crisis started at roughly 10:53 UTC.

PayPal gathered this information via the dashboard.

Among the services that were impacted by the outage, the business asserts that its bitcoin services and the peer-to-peer payment platform Venmo were among those that were affected. Venmo is a form of cryptocurrency that enables users to send and receive payments from one another.

This information suggests that these services were among those that were impacted by the circumstances. This information has been provided.

There are consumers who have voiced their frustration on social media over the fact that they are unable to access their accounts, and some of these customers have expressed their frustration over this issue. A number of users have stated their frustration about this issue.

The discontentment that users are experiencing has been communicated through posts that have been published on various social media platforms as of late.

Users of X, which was once known as Twitter, have submitted screenshots of a notification that flashed when they attempted to log into the platform.

The notification appeared after logging in.

The message was flashed on the screen whenever they attempted to log in by entering their credentials. For those individuals who were fortunate enough to receive the notification, it was strongly recommended that they “please check your entries and try again.”

Since its beginning in 1998, PayPal has developed into a global financial institution that is associated with a significance level that is significant enough to be considered noteworthy. The occurrence of this evolution took place virtually immediately following the establishment of PayPal.

Investors were informed that the total number of active accounts across all of the company’s companies had increased to $432 million for the month that ended on September 30th.

This information was provided to investors. Following the conclusion of the month, this information was made available to the public.

During the course of the month of October, investors were provided with this information for the purpose of their consideration. For those individuals who were interested in investing, the material in question was made available to them.

SOURCE: BBC

News

Thousands of Asylum Seekers in Canada Get Free Housing

Published

1 day ago

2024-11-21

Geoff Brown

With a large increase in the number of asylum seekers in Canada, several communities have begun to create free accommodations for new immigrants, while many Canadians remain homeless.

The city of Ottawa is attempting to build a sprung building, which will function as both a temporary shelter and a center for settlement services such as language training and job placement.

These facilities are intended to host refugees in the city for the first few weeks before transitioning to more suitable housing in Ottawa’s settlement infrastructure.

The city has identified two possible sites for these centers, both in the city’s west end. Planning records refer to them as “modular tension fabric buildings.”

The proposed placements for these structures have caused concern in the local areas. The city’s first proposed location was canceled due to strong community opposition. Subsequently, it proposed two alternative options and rallies for and against constructing the structures, which took place last weekend in both locations.

Many people protested that they had not been fully consulted on the location, while others grumbled that nothing was being done to assist Canadian citizens.

Canadian authorities opened a temporary housing center for migrants with 1,050 beds in the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

According to city data, one planned location is a federally owned tract of property near the Nepean Sportsplex, which serves around 1.5 million people annually. The other is near a public transport park-and-ride lot in Kanata’s western suburb.

City Councillor Sean Devine, whose constituency includes the Sportsplex site, stated that citizens have much to say about the problem.

“A lot of it is coming from the fact that it would have been preferable if the city of Ottawa had communicated the information sooner, perhaps in advance of the recommendations,” he told Global News during a telephone interview.

According to Devine, the number of migrants arriving in Ottawa has increased significantly in the last two years. This is consistent with national trends in refugee and asylum seeker rates.

Under Trudeua’s leadership, Canada had approximately 250,000 asylum petitions pending as of September 30, 2024, with more than 33,000 approved between January and the end of September.

International students in Canada filed nearly 14,000 asylum petitions in the first nine months of 2024, a roughly 14% increase over the same period last year. Compared to the present figures, approximately 12,000 asylum applications were lodged by international students in 2023—a tremendous surge from a mere 1,810 claims in 2018.

Devine stated that the city has been using two community center gymnasiums outfitted with bunk beds to temporarily lodge certain claimants before transitioning to other sorts of accommodation.

Asylum seekers get free housing in Quebec and Ontario.

According to a September release, the Ottawa Mission noticed a considerable increase in refugees filling its shelter beds in the summer of 2023. By October, asylum seekers were using 61% of the beds, a record high under Trudeau’s leadership.

The new structures will be funded under the federal interim housing aid program, which allows municipalities and provinces to reimburse the federal Government for expenditures incurred while temporarily hosting asylum seekers.

Since 2017, well over $1 billion has been distributed, largely in Ontario and Quebec, with the city of Ottawa getting $105 million to date.

Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children, and Social Development, who represents the Ottawa riding of Kanata-Nepean, expressed disappointment with how the plans were presented to people.

Louisa Taylor, executive director of Settlement Service Organization 613 Asylum Seekers, has collaborated with the city to coordinate resources for settlement assistance at future centers.

Taylor explained that many asylum seekers in an Ottawa homeless shelter prompted her and 613 refugees to organize a recent rally supporting the structure.

“For several years, hundreds of refugee claimants have been living and sleeping on bunk beds and cots in community centers and arenas throughout the city.”

Nobody has gone out protesting about it. “What they’re protesting is the concept of having a facility in their community that they don’t know much about,” she explained.

Homeless Canadians

Homelessness is not a problem that most people connect with within Canada, but it is becoming a growing one. The projected number of homeless persons in Canada fluctuates from 150,000 to 300,000, which is increasing.

According to the 2016 State of Homelessness study, Canada had at least 235,000 homeless people. According to the Homeless Hub, the number of homeless people in Canada varies each year, ranging from 150,000 to 300,000.

However, many more people may be without a permanent home in Canada. The actual number is impossible to determine because many homeless people live in concealed places.

They are so named because they temporarily reside in squats or with friends and relatives. An estimated 1.3 million Canadians have experienced insecure housing or homelessness.

Homelessness Statistics for Canadians

Between 25,000 and 35,000 people are homeless on any given night in Canada.
Toronto has the most homeless people in Canada.
62% of homeless people in Canada are males.
30% of Canadian homeless come from Indigenous communities.
90% of homeless shelters in Canada are in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, and Alberta, and 44% of them are in Ontario alone.
22% of shelters are aimed at young homeless in Canada, while 20% of people experiencing homelessness are 13-24 years old.
The annual cost of homelessness is over $7 billion.
The Canadian Government has invested $2.2 billion over ten years to expand funding for the homeless.