comment: >
  
  Regulatory Capture
  There’s even a section on the US Federal Aviation Administration. Examples even involve Southwest Airlines!
context: This should be an IT cautionary tale for all companies, invest in software modernization.
  My company has critical services built on 30+ year old infrastructure design, the people who built it are long gone and "knowledge transfer" was superficial at best. Mainframe engineers are disappearing. Yet they keep kicking the can down the road, hoping that the patchwork holds. >
  
  So you're saying if I spend the next year or so learning COBOL, there's a chance that in the next decade I could have a shot at a 6 figure salary fixing mainframes? >
  
  what? if you know COBOL and understand how to work on mainframes, people will pay you insane money right now. right this very minute. >
  
  At an old company I was working at they had a business management software called AS400 which I think had its own variation of Java or something, had two 60+ year old making big bucks and they were told to teach a new IT guy before they retire. They taught him and the moment both of them left the new IT guy was like "you gonna double my salary, or im gone" >
  
  
  They taught him and the moment both of them left the new IT guy was like "you gonna double my salary, or im gone"
  
  Fucking legend. >
  
  You absolutely know both of the old people were spurring him on too. "This is how you make sure it breaks the moment you leave if they don't pay up" >
  
  I would have been if I was them lol
  Then if the new guy did leave, come back as a contractor for $200/hour >
  
  $200/hr is WAAAY too cheap for what you're talking >
  
  I literally know a software person at a bank who did this.  They let her go, systems broke, called her up and said she now does consulting. >
  
  These situations where everyday people get to hold companies hostage just tickle me. If unions were more popular, I would get my satisfaction on the reg, but I guess I take what I can and work towards the day I can do the same. >
  
  I had a flight to Puerto Rico canceled by the airline (American) back in 2021. The cancellation came out of the blue and was several weeks before I was supposed to fly. 
  When I tried to get a refund - they said they could only issue a voucher that was only valid for like 5 months. I argued with the person on the phone saying that wasn't cool and quickly googled the DOT rules. 
  As soon as I referenced the DOT - I was put on hold - and then the person came back and said they could provide a full refund.
  Still irked to this day that they tried to force me into a voucher. I imagine many others felt like that was the only option and got stuck with a voucher. >
  
  Didn’t happen with me and Viva Aerobus.  They refused my refund when they cancelled my flight last year.  I did a chargeback with my credit card company and they disputed it, despite multiple responses from myself and supporting documents, I lost my appeal.  Made complaint to DOT and no response for over 90 days.  Just fucked out of $1,000. >
  
  drop your cc company >
  
  Once it’s paid off, I will.  I’m very disappointed in how they handled it.  Multiple appeals and then they would say I didn’t submit what they asked for - when I did but they simply didn’t read it because what they asked for was probably too long of a read. >
  
  Submit it to small claims? >
  
  Pretty much my only option now because the government has failed to enforce their own regulations on carriers. >
  
  I’ve read that a lot of companies will settle small claims too because the cost of bringing a corporate employee to your local court is not worth it for them.  Attorneys are not allowed in small claims court, so they can’t just send one to take care of it.
  It’ll get the attention of their legal department who will likely settle the case prior to the court date.  Or they’ll no show with a judgement in your favor. >
  
  That’s what I figure, but filing the claim, sending notice, and then taking time off work for it is a huge hassle for me too.  I’ve already wasted time dealing with this, so to even make it worthwhile I’d have to tack on another $500-800 in lost wages. >
  
  You can sue for that too >
  
  In airports they claimed weather delays weren't their fault and it seemed like an odd statement at the time. I was part of that mess as a traveler and it was indeed a total meltdown. >
  
  The extra several days it took for Southwest to fly again while everyone else was flying showed that all cancellations after the actual storm were indeed their fault. There were articles and updates here on Reddit discussing outdated scheduling software that couldn't handle the load of putting together new routes and times that matched the location of pilots, crews and planes in a timely manner. This was a colossal failure. >
  
  I'm out of the loop, basically the entire system shit the bed and wouldn't function at all after the weather issue? >
  
  My personal experience was that our flight home on the 25th was cancelled and we were rescheduled for 8 days later. 
  What I saw on the news and read about on r/southwestairlines and other sources was that other airlines were up and running as soon as the storm was over. Southwest on the other hand had a system where pilots and crew had to manually call in to notify the airline as to where they were so they could be scheduled. They were waiting hours on hold when everyone was calling in at once because of the nationwide storm. Also the system for scheduling flights shit the bed under the load. It took them several days of scheduling and moving planes and crews around the country before they started a new schedule from scratch and got people moving again. Basically the airline equivalent of turning it off and on again. There were several reports of decades worth of requests for technoligical upgrades being turned down by higher ups. >
  
  Southwest’s plan for me was to fly me to where my connection was then leave me there for five days and fly me home from there >
  
  It was a shit show. >
  
  Back in April 2020 I had airline tickets to Portugal. Obviously after the flight got canceled it was a huge pain in the ass to get my money back. 
  After 9 months of trying to deal with the credit card company and the airline, I ended up taking Air Portugal to small claims court and got my money back within a month. 
  Department of Transportation has clear rules about refunding money when a flight is canceled. >
  
  Hey do you have any tips for the small claims process? I’m in a similar situation; TAP Air Portugal agreed to either give us a flight voucher or a refund. We chose refund and my partner got hers but they won’t send mine. It’s been literally almost a year of emails and calls and they just ignore me now. Insanely frustrating and I’m just unsure what steps to take… never expected a company to say “sure we’ll refund you” and then ghost you. >
  
  Not OP but you don’t need to take them to small claims court. I went though this with Hawaiian Air; e-mails and calls to get a refund for a vacation cancelled due to COVID. They would only offer vouchers and the voucher was expiring. File a claim with the department of transportation. They have to respond and often times it’s resolved. 
  DOT claim >
  
  Thank you so much for this! We never got our money back after a ticket through Fiji airways. They kept stringing us along saying it was taking time, then finally a couple months ago they just stopped responding.
  Eta it was for 7 plane tickets, so they owe us a lot!! >
  
  It's incredible how much power airlines have in the US. They literally dictate policy and get bailed out at every turn. The government changed COVID policy because of airlines.