Canceled flight grounds Girl Scouts' 'dream trip'
Airline flights are being filled with a record-high level of passengers over the past few months. That means that fliers who miss a flight -– or have a flight canceled –- are having an increasingly difficult time in finding the "next available" option. Just ask a group of eight Maryland Girl Scouts, whose "dream trip" to Hawaii had to be scrapped after US Airways scrubbed the girls' first flight because of mechanical problems.
The Baltimore Sun; http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal...0,1009538.story writes "US Airways canceled the first leg of the teenagers' trip, a 7:30 a.m. flight to Phoenix, and then added another dose of bad news: No other flights -- even on other airlines -- would be available to fly them to their final destination until a day before the Scouts were scheduled to return to Maryland."
"It was crushing news," Troop 251 leader Patty Salazar tells the Sun. "It obviously shattered all of them." The Sun adds the troop earned money to pay for the trip "from hawking thousands of Thin Mints and Shortbread cookies since their elementary school days …" The paper adds "none of the passengers, including the Scouts, was offered vouchers for an additional free flight, a once-common balm for customers inconvenienced by flight changes." The article also notes the push by some groups -– such as the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights -– to get the government to force airlines to compensate fliers for such problems.
As for Troop 251, Salazar says the girls will book another trip to Hawaii after they graduate in June. She also finds a silver lining in the cancellation, telling the Sun that the incident could help prepare her Scouts to cope with airline woes. "They're going to be traveling a lot in their futures, and now they know how to handle the bumps in the road."
only stating opinions
Airline flights are being filled with a record-high level of passengers over the past few months. That means that fliers who miss a flight -– or have a flight canceled –- are having an increasingly difficult time in finding the "next available" option. Just ask a group of eight Maryland Girl Scouts, whose "dream trip" to Hawaii had to be scrapped after US Airways scrubbed the girls' first flight because of mechanical problems.
The Baltimore Sun; http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal...0,1009538.story writes "US Airways canceled the first leg of the teenagers' trip, a 7:30 a.m. flight to Phoenix, and then added another dose of bad news: No other flights -- even on other airlines -- would be available to fly them to their final destination until a day before the Scouts were scheduled to return to Maryland."
"It was crushing news," Troop 251 leader Patty Salazar tells the Sun. "It obviously shattered all of them." The Sun adds the troop earned money to pay for the trip "from hawking thousands of Thin Mints and Shortbread cookies since their elementary school days …" The paper adds "none of the passengers, including the Scouts, was offered vouchers for an additional free flight, a once-common balm for customers inconvenienced by flight changes." The article also notes the push by some groups -– such as the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights -– to get the government to force airlines to compensate fliers for such problems.
As for Troop 251, Salazar says the girls will book another trip to Hawaii after they graduate in June. She also finds a silver lining in the cancellation, telling the Sun that the incident could help prepare her Scouts to cope with airline woes. "They're going to be traveling a lot in their futures, and now they know how to handle the bumps in the road."
only stating opinions
