Great Lakes Airlines

Dear Mr. [redacted]: Thank you for your comments regarding your scheduled travelwith Great Lakes Airlines from Denver to Cortez, Cn February 12th, received to us from the Revdex.com. We regret the cancellation of your...

flight, which was due toa crew issue.  Whenever a flightdisruption prevents a passenger from reaching their destination, our primarycontracted obligation is to rebook the passenger on the next available flightto that destination, even if it would require an overnight stay at ourexpense.  Sometimes, however our optionsare limited and do not always satisfy each person’s needs and we understandwhen passengers choose to fly to an alternate city.  However, we can not justify reimbursing anyexpenses incurred as to that decision. As our reservation center agents only have access to GreatLakes reservation software, they do not have the ability to move frompassengers from one carrier to the other, but only to reaccommodate passengersto alternate cities served by us.  As our records indicate that your trip was a web booking,please be advised that web bookings are not allowed to be confirmed until thepassengers agrees to the terms and conditions of their ticket (Contract ofCarriage) of which it indicated that you did agree. Stated amongst those termsare: A. Consequential DamagesPurchase of a ticket does not guarantee transportation.Great Lakes Airlines shall in no event be liable forany indirect, special or consequential damages resulting from the performance,delay in performance, or failure to perform (except for baggage liability asprovided below) whether or not Great LakesAirlines had knowledge that such damages have been, might have been, or will beincurred.C. Schedule IrregularityThe following shall apply when a passenger is delayedbecause of a controllable/non-controllable irregularity or Great Lakes Airlines cancels the passenger’s reservation according to“Cancellation of Reservations” section of this Contract.[redacted] 1. Limitation ofLiability [redacted]Except to the extent otherwise allowed in this rule,Great Lakes Airlines shall not be liable for any damages suffered by thepassenger or any other party as the result of any failure by Great LakesAirlines to operate any flight according to schedule or for changing theschedule or type of equipment used on any Great Lakes Airlines flight,regardless of whether notice of such change in schedule or type of equipmenthas or has not been provided to the passenger.  In recognition of the inconvenience that you had experiencedon both your outbound and return flights, we will be mailing a $300.00 SpecialTravel Order for both you and [redacted] to your Denver, COaddress. These vouchers can be used towards your next ticket purchases on GreatLakes Airlines. The vouchers will be valid for one year from the date of issueand are fully transferable if either of you are unable to use them. Please accept our apologies for the disruption to your traveland hopefully the next time you fly it will be more pleasant.  Each of our passengers are valued customersand we look forward to having another opportunity to demonstrate the type ofservice we are capable of providing. Sincerely, [redacted]Manager - Customer Relations & Baggage Services

In order to further investigate this passenger's claims, he will need to provide us copies of:
1) the referenced 'confirmation email' that he received
2) copies of a receipt/record indicating the charges of $434.00 and $150.00 as reported.
These requests...

are substantiated as the records and information on our side do not agree with what is reported in this claim.Great Lakes Airlines
Customer Relations & Baggage Services
[redacted]
 
Tell us why here...

March 28, 2014
 
Dear Ms. [redacted]:
 
Thank you for contacting
both us directly and the Revdex.com regarding the difficulties you
had encountered with your travel on Great Lakes Airlines between Denver, CO and Pierre, SD
in...

January. We have appreciated your patience while we reviewed all of your
reservation records and the documentation that you had submitted regarding this
trip.
 
In review of our flight
dispatch records, your outbound flight from Denver
to Pierre had
to be cancelled due to a mechanical situation with the aircraft. Your return
flight was cancelled as the crew and the aircraft were stuck in Minneapolis due to poor
weather. Before the inclement weather would clear so that the flight could
travel to Pierre, the crew legally timed out per FAA regulations.
 
Your reservation
indicated that this was a web booking. Be advised that before web bookings are
allowed to be confirmed, the passenger has to agree to the terms and conditions
of the ticket (Contract of Carriage) which electronically you had agreed to
accept. In part, those terms stated the following:
A. Consequential Damages
Purchase of a ticket does not guarantee transportation.
Great Lakes Airlines shall
in no event be liable for any indirect, special or consequential damages resulting
from the performance, delay in performance, or failure to perform (except for
baggage liability as provided below) whether or not Great
Lakes Airlines had knowledge that such damages have been, might
have been, or will be incurred.
C. Schedule Irregularity
The following shall apply
when a passenger is delayed because of a controllable/non-controllable
irregularity or Great Lakes Airlines cancels
the passenger’s reservation according to “Cancellation of Reservations” section
of this Contract.
[redacted] 1. Limitation of Liability [redacted]
Except to the extent
otherwise allowed in this rule, Great Lakes Airlines shall not be liable for
any damages suffered by the passenger or any other party as the result of any
failure by Great Lakes Airlines to operate any flight according to schedule or
for changing the schedule or type of equipment used on any Great Lakes Airlines
flight, regardless of whether notice of such change in schedule or type of
equipment has or has not been provided to the passenger
 
However, simply as a gesture of goodwill recognizing the inconveniences
that were caused on this trip, we will be sending you a check for $77.62, which
represents reimbursement for your bus ticket from Rapid City to Pierre and an
additional day of parking that was incurred at your return destination. We do
not consider reimbursement of losses to passengers for any personal activities
that they had planned before or after air travel, such as employment
obligations.
 
In regards to your various air fare refund requests, the record shows
that you accepted air travel to an alternate city on your outbound (Rapid City) and you were not required to buy a whole new
ticket to fly from Denver to Rapid City. It also indicated that you
accepted air travel from Pierre to Denver (one day later) and you were not required to buy a
whole new ticket to fly back to Denver.
Protocol when passengers contact our phone representatives to request refunds
is to be advised that your reservation will be sent to our Refund Department
and placed on a que for review and consideration, which our representatives
comments placed in your record indicated that was done. Phone representatives
do not process refunds as an evaluation of ticket usage needs to be completed
by a Refund Coordinator. It appears that our Refund Department has already
notified you that air travel was provided against both original segments
therefore there is no refund in order. If those segments were refunded, you in
essence would be receiving ‘free’ air travel between the cities involved, which
is not a resolution that our airline will consider and we are not alone in the
industry regarding that position.
 
We cannot see in our reservation system your original air travel between California and Denver
round trip, as it appears you booked that separately with another airline. When
your original Great Lakes flight from Pierre to Denver was cancelled thus
causing a misconnect with another airline, it would be up to the other airline
to reaccommodate you on their next available flight or to move you at no charge
via airline cooperating ticketing agreements to another carrier. Unfortunately,
Southwest Airlines refuses to participate in these cooperating ticketing
agreements with any other airline, thus our assumption as to why you had to buy
a new ticket to travel on Southwest. However, in consideration that your
originating flight on Great Lakes was cancelled, the airline currently holding
your unused ticket from Denver to California would be the
party to consider a refund on that ticket. We do not refund another companies
money.
 
We will however be including with our check a Special Travel Order in the
amount of $200.00 for you. This voucher can be redeemed towards your next
ticket purchase with Great Lakes Airlines or with our code-share partner, Frontier
Airlines (as long as at least one flight segment is operated by us). The
voucher is valid for one full year from the date of issue, and it is fully
transferable if you were unable to use it yourself. If you could simply respond
back and confirm that you want your check and voucher mailed to the [redacted]  **  [redacted] address, then we would be more than happy to send those to you.
 
Again, please accept our
apologies for any inconvenience that may have been caused and hopefully the next
time you travel it will be a more pleasant experience.  We look forward to having another opportunity
to demonstrate the type of service that we are capable of providing.
Sincerely,
Rick Krause
Manager – Customer
Relations & Baggage Services

This airline does not care about their customers. They have cancelled over 50% of their flights in the last 2 months partly because of a lack of pilots. The FAA told them 2 years ago that pilot flight hours were going up and that after Nov. 1, 2013 they could not fly with pilots that had insufficient hours. Rather than prepare for this problem, they just cancelled flights leaving customers stranded in Denver. The car rental companies raised their prices on one way rentals shortly thereafter making it cost nearly $500 to rent a car to get home. Great lakes is highly subsidized by the government and they get nearly $1 million in free money per route. Plus they get inflated passenger charges. If you book a one way trip far in advance, it might be $80, but if you have an emergency and have to fly last minute, it might be $350, even though there are plenty of seats available. So they get the $350 PLUS the free government money. The consumer gets screwed twice. They also put your carry bags in the back of the plane with a "gate check" tag so that you get it planeside in Denver. Then they unload these handled carry bags, extend the handles and drag them 4 at the time to the plane steps. This springs and ruins the handles. I have had 5 carry bag handles broken this way. They don't care. In fact, when you bring it up, you get cursed at. The agents in the destination cities are good hometown folks, but the hub in Denver has rude and abusive agents. Sometimes they cancel flights hours or days ahead, but sometimes they cancel 5 minutes before departure even though you may have waited 6 hours for that flight. If you knew sooner, you could fine another way home, even paying the $500 for a rental car. At least you could get home. The operations dept. in Denver do not car about customers. They are more worried about trying to get the free money subsidy for the flights that they do operate. On Sat. Feb. 22, there were 7 flights scheduled from Denver to either Scottsbluff or Cheyenne. 2 days before they cancelled 6 of the 7. But they still had the 3:30 flight on the board as operating. We waited all day for this flight because we know when they cancelled 6 of 7 flights, they certainly would fly the 7th flight. So we waited ALL DAY for this flight. It cancelled 5 MINUTES before boarding. Even the pilots were stunned because they were ready to go. Weather was not an issue. Great lakes put us on some lame shuttle to Cheyenne that arrived late and packed us in like Sardines. Then my wife had to drive to Cheyenne to pick me up to then go back to our home in Scottsbluff. This is not the first time we have had to do this. To top if off the boards in the Denver airport still showed that the flights to Cheyenne and Scottsbluff still shoed the other flights that cancelled 2 days ago were still operating and "on time" These boards all over the Denver airport are run by the city and just report what Great lakes reports to them. Even Great Lakes OWN board behind the gate counter showed the 4:20 flight to Scottsbluff on 2/22 was scheduled and "on time". The Great lakes staff could not explain why their own board showed an active flight cancelled 2 days ago. They advised we call reservations to get an updated flight schedule because they do not know whats going on even though they are 100 yards from the planes.

Great Lakes Airlines ability to commitment does not seem to be a core value when scheduling a flight as they advertise on their schedule. The following events occurred with my flight on 16 May 2014:
Initial Flight Time:
DENVER, CO (DEN) 3:10 PM to SCOTTSBLUFF, NE (BFF) 4:03 PM
Amended Flight Time:
Denver, CO (DEN) 6:10 PM to Scottsbluff, NE (BFF) 7:03 p.m.
Actual Flight Plan
CANCELED 60 minutes before takeof!
After reading of the many reviews, this is reoccurring event that Great Lakes Airlines has not addressed and does not appear that are concerned with the feedback of having such problem.
When the flight was cancelled due to no pilots available, the flight counter attendant did not offer any accommodations, gave me a flyer with the headquarter contact information with very little confidence that I would get any results, and did not offer an alternative flight schedule. I had to ask what is the containment plan/alternative that you may suggest? Her response "We can reschedule you for a flight tomorrow."
In short, I scheduled the flight with the intent of being at my destination on the evening of my flight schedule. I understand that there are times a flight is canceled due an unforeseen issue; however, pilot availability should never be a reason to cancel.
Since they fail to address the pilot availibility, I am no longer going to fly Great Lakes Airlines and will advertise as such to those that will be flying into Scottsbluff, Nebraska.
I have contacted headquarters about my issue in hand and there has been no response or concern of my cancelled flight.

Complaint: [redacted]
You know what it's fine that you want to be difficult. you can't accept ? Or just choose to be a pain in the [redacted]. I was going to give you a chance to do right but I'm sure you are more than use to this complaint since you clearly do it to every traveler. If I was your CEO you would be fired as well with who ever is in charge of marketing. Word of mouth is everything for a business . Being a small company trying to get market share with the big boys is hard enough as it is. I'll go ahead and forward the email attachment. How nice of you to respond to only the Revdex.com messages and not your personal email. No one should do buiness with this company. Very difficult group who has false advertising to trick you on your luggage fees. But tell you what go ahead and keep your 150 after I send you the attachment I will allow karma to takes its course on you. It's an ugly world because of people just like you. You are definitely an over paid selfish employee. But I'm guessing this is Mr CEO him self. :) cheers rich man 
I am rejecting this response because:Worst Regards,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
In April, I called several times plus faxed all documentation to Great Lakes customer service.
As of June 6, 2104  I have NOT received any correspondence from Great Lakes!    No letters, emails, phone calls, or reimbursements.  They say they sent something but I never received it.
But even so it is not what I need from them.  I cannot accept travel orders or vouchers for future flights.
As I said many times before, travel vouchers are not acceptable since they no longer fly  from MSP to MCW.
This is the only itinerary I fly is from Minneapolis to Mason City.  Nowhere else.
I still am requesting a CHECK  ( NOT Flight vouchers) for $319.48 to cover expenses incurred due to Great Lakes
canceling their flights due to their mechanical problems.
Thank you!
Regards,
[redacted]