Blog Archives

Do Airlines Need To Be Legally Held To Account For Letting Passengers Down?

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Bemused Backpacker — 20 Comments

Despite being a legal imperative as well as a professional and ethical one, many airlines are continuing to flout and ignore the law and are refusing to live up to their obligations toward passenger care and compensation when things go wrong. Is it about time they are held to account?

Tagged with: air passengers rights, airline compensation claims, airline customer service, airlines, bumped off flight, compensation cancelled flights, compensation delayed flight, KLM, overbooking, Ryanair, United Airlines
Posted in Travel Talk

Why Budget Airline Flights Aren’t Always The Bargain They Seem.

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Bemused Backpacker — 16 Comments

The budget airline model on the whole has been great for travel and has opened up the world to millions of backpackers and gap year travellers, but it isn’t always a good thing. There is a dark side to those low, low prices, and those flights for £10 across Europe are not always the bargain they may seem to be on the surface. So should travellers still fly budget airlines? Or is there a better option?

Tagged with: Air Asia, are budget airlines worth it, backpacking budget, backpacking on a budget, budget airlines, budget flight, budget travel, Delta, gap year, gap year budget, how to travel on a budget, Ryanair, ticket prices, United Airlines
Posted in Travel Talk

Is The United Airlines PR Debacle A Line In The Sand For Passenger Rights?

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Bemused Backpacker — 77 Comments

A video of a United Airlines passenger being dragged off flight 3411 against his will has gone viral and has left United Airlines with yet another PR disaster in an ever increasing line of them, but will this incident bring into question the practice of overbooking? And will it make passengers question just why they are getting such bad service across the board from all airlines in the first place?

Tagged with: #boycottunited, airline industry customer care, flight 3411, passenger rights, united, United Airlines, united airlines beat a passenger, united airlines beating passenger, united airlines bumping passengers, united airlines flight 3411, united airlines overbooking
Posted in Travel Talk

Why United Airlines Basic Economy Tickets Worry Me.

Posted on December 12, 2016 by Bemused Backpacker — 40 Comments

United Airlines has just introduced a new basic economy ticket, which strips away the already bare bone ‘luxuries’ of economy class travel completely, including the use of the overhead bin. This is just another landmark in a worrying race to the bottom for all airlines and it signals a lot of problems ahead for all travellers.