A Cleveland woman's story is part of this Wall Street Journal article about passengers whose trips were canceled months ago having a tough time getting refunds from some carriers or travel agencies.
The piece starts this way:
Refunds delayed and denied. Vouchers worth thousands of dollars that have already expired, or are so rule-bound they're useless. Interminable telephone holds, unanswered emails and complaints ignored.
Consumers continue to battle airlines over canceled tickets. At stake are literally billions of dollars — and likely lasting animosity toward airlines over punitive policies.
U.S. travel agencies have already handled more than $1 billion in airline cash refunds, according to Airlines Reporting Corp., which processes tickets. That doesn't count refunds issued directly by airlines, which likely more than doubles that total. Then there's the far more common outcome of a voucher issued instead of a refund, allowing the airline to hang on to a customer's cash.
It's that final category that has ensnared Cynthia Blouch, who had intended to take a summer trip using Frontier Airlines.
Frontier has a 90-day expiration on its vouchers, which the Journal calls "a significant gotcha, since so many are uncertain when they will start traveling again."
Blouch in July went to redeem her $4,593 Frontier credit left over from a canceled spring break family trip for five from Cleveland to Cancun. Frontier's website said, "The credit you are trying to use has no value."
The Journal notes that Blouch "had spent several weeks unsuccessfully trying to reach a customer service representative to book new flights before the expiration. Calls went unanswered or were disconnected. She couldn't find an email address for Frontier customer service."
In a bit of understatement, she says, "It has been very frustrating."
• The startup Lordstown Motors Corp. is part of this Reuters analysis of how electric carmakers are seeking out so-called "blank-check firms," also known as special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, as public market investors chase Tesla-like returns. As Reuters points out, a SPAC is a shell company that raises money through an IPO to buy an operating company, typically within two years. Lordstown Motors was among the companies that ran into challenges raising funds privately "before cutting SPAC deals to go public, industry officials said," Reuters reports. Lordstown Motors turned to a SPAC when efforts to raise $500 million privately froze as COVID-19 spread across America, said the company's CEO, Steve Burns. "We thought we'd do the private (financing) and then the more conventional IPO, but COVID kind of messed that up," Burns told Reuters. "It went from super-high interest to everybody pushed the pause button." Without the SPAC, Reuters notes, "Burns would have had to delay plans, which include launching the electric Endurance pickup truck next year" at Lordstown Motors' plant near Youngstown.
• Feeling pressure to declutter the house as the pandemic drags on? First, don't. But if you do, check out this piece from The Washington Post, which offers quick summaries of five popular home-organizing strategies, one of which is called the OHIO rule. It's not, alas, about our Buckeye State. The acronym stands for "Only Handle It Once," and the Post says it's best for "controlling things constantly coming into your abode: mail, free totes, cheap toys from kids' birthday parties." The paper adds, "You can also OHIO things you're trying to sort out by deciding whether you'll keep something and then selling, donating or tossing it. And no, you can't run back to the dumpster to 'rescue' things after you've made up your mind."
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Editor's Choice: Consumers vs. airlines | Funding electric vehicle makers | The OHIO rule of organizing - Crain's Cleveland Business
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