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Tags: Flight Delays / Southwest Airlines / American Airlines / JetBlue / Scott McCartney / → All Tags

Fresh Stats on the Summer of Flight Delays

Everyone is really starting to pile on this whole "Summer of Flight Delays" theme. Today, the Wall Street Journal's Scott McCartney tires to answer the question of why. Why have canceled flights more than doubled from June 2006 to June 2007 (20,301 to 8,710). The answer seems to be more storms, too many jets on the tarmac, and "an occasional problem with Canadian airspace crucial to Northeast traffic."

Canada is really sticking it to the U.S. this summer are they not? First they travel south with their powerful loonie and now they are contributing to stateside summer flight delay headaches?

However, the real issue here is who is holding it together through these trying travel times. The answer is simple, details are here.

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Tags: HOWTO / Airline Hell / Travel Hell / Scott McCartney / Airlines / → All Tags

HOWTO: Correctly Complain To The Airlines

WSJ scribe Scott McCartney reports that sending a copy of your airline complaint to the Department of Transportation (DOT) will give you a better shot of getting results.

Southwest Airlines Co., for one, says it does special reporting on complaints forwarded from the DOT, and a special report on DOT complaints goes out to company executives. "We pay huge attention to that," says Jim Ruppel, vice president of customer relations.

Here's what to do:

Email
airconsumer@dot.gov

Call
202-366-2220 for voice mail complaints

Snail Mail
Aviation Consumer Protection Division, C-75
U.S. Department of Transportation
400 7th Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20590

Make sure to include:

• name
  
• address
  
• daytime phone number (including area code)
  
• name of the airline or company about which you are complaining
  
• flight date
  
• flight number
  
• origin and destination cities of your trip.
  
• copy of your ticket
  
• copies of any correspondence you've had with the airline

Yeah, that is a laundry list of includes, and there are no guarantees you will get results, but following best practices might just get your complaint heard.

[Photo: Paul Davidson]

Related Stories:
· Taking Airline Complaints to the Government [Wall Street Journal]
· Kick Your Airline Complaint Up A Notch [Consumerist]