TRAVELERS’ CHECK : Couple finds vacation trip rerouted
Posted on Monday, May 12, 2008
Imagine booking a flight from the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport to Jamaica, paying for it and then having the airline call a month later to say it can’t be done.
Moreover, the airline says it can sorta be done if you’re willing to drive to Little Rock or Kansas City, Mo., to depart.
No kidding.
U. S. Airways really said that to Guy and Mary Pearson of Fayetteville.
The Pearsons got in touch with The Guru last week after reading a column about Fred and Elizabeth Herrmann of Bella Vista.
To summarize what’s happening to the Herrmanns, they bought round-trip tickets on Frontier Airlines from Tulsa to Denver to Spokane, Wash., and then came to find out that Frontier wouldn’t be serving Tulsa after June 1.
The Herrmanns will be fine with their May 30 departure from Tulsa, but their plan to come home from Spokane on June 9 is in flux.
Frontier promised to work something out, possibly asking another airline to take the Herrmanns home.
The Guru shall wait and see.
The Pearsons’ pickle is different but just as troubling.
They paid U. S. Airways about three months ago to fly from XNA to Charlotte, N. C., on to Montego Bay, Jamaica, on June 1, then home the following weekend.
Weeks later, U. S. Airways let them know they’d need to depart from somewhere else because the airline wouldn’t be able to get them on a June 1 flight from XNA. The Pearsons didn’t like it, but they agreed to drive to Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field.
They weren’t happy, though, and The Guru likes happy readers.
“We now have to drive three hours, plus an overnight stay, because the flight is at 6: 30 a. m.,” Guy Pearson wrote in an e-mail. “With the cost of gas and hotel lodging, that should at least make them want to be a little more helpful.
“ Any ideas or people you could direct me toward in helping to fly out locally ?” He’s got a point. The chore and cost of driving 200 miles to Little Rock and back is worth rewarding, and so The Guru contacted the airline’s PR folks to explain what’s up. The PR folks got the Pearsons on the horn with a reservation agent.
U. S. Airways improved the deal and would have done so without The Guru’s prodding.
The new plan has the Pearsons traveling from XNA to Charlotte, then Montego Bay. Coming back, they’ll spend a Saturday night in Charlotte. (They’re OK with that even if the airline won’t pay for the hotel. ) They’ll get home June 8.
The Pearsons think it’s better, but it’s still not perfect.
The issues of the Herrmanns’ and the Pearsons’ travel plans leave The Guru to wonder what stunts airlines will pull next. Their planes are perpetually late, they lose bags, and now these particular airlines are asking passengers to make major changes to their travel plans because they can’t deliver what they were paid to deliver.
That said, it’s still hard to feel too bad for the Pearsons about their trip to Jamaica. Check out where they get to go: www. negrilgardens. com.
Jealousy always has been an issue for The Guru. Robert J. Smith’s column about people on the move in Northwest Arkansas appears each Monday. He can be reached at rsmith@arkansasonline. com.
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