In New York, a woman, her husband and her brother heard that a teacher that matched the description of her son was killed in Florida.
She couldn’t get in touch with him, so she decided to fly there. All fights were booked. Desperate, she chartered a flight.
Sadly, her son was killed.
She got the bill from the airline. She knew it would be expensive, but it dropped her jaw. It was $6000 a person to go to New York, and then the same amount, $18,000 to send the plane back to New York, even though the family didn’t get on the return flight.
She refused to pay the $36,000 and took to social media to warn everyone never to fly with this private charter company.
Eventually, the company caved. They waved the fee for the flight to Florida and donated the flight back to New York to a charitable organization named after her son.
You can read about it HERE.
Moral of the story: Regardless of your level of grief, always have someone get a confirmed maximum price quote up front. Never leave it open-ended.
P.S. – According to the dictionary, a talon is a hooked claw, especially on a bird of prey.
The fact that they named the airline “Talon Air” seems somehow oddly appropriate in this situation.
Too many missing facts…
and heartbreak, grief…
Sounds like it got worked out, so I’m glad for that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmW5jaOIdKg
Trimming Rooster Spurs
Jul 29, 2014 – 3 min – Pine Meadows Hobby Farm
**I bet chicken dinners at their house are tasty well prepared meals. Breakfasts and Lunches too.
Clawing for a tangential hook…
Charitable contribution spurs and tax write-offs.
The 2 should be mutually exclusive, or trimmed back
How does the airline donate incurred expenses?
Silly……So you were going to the beach but your car wont start so you called Uber…$5k later you were surprised? There had to be some knowledge of what a private jet cost.
Sadly if there was a teacher involved then money had to be involved in some way.
Now we we know who NOT to do do business with, Linda Schulman. In the name of “compassion”, you’ll lose and go broke every time. Her name should be spread far and wide through the same social media that she used to browbeat the charter airline company.
“I knew it was going to be super expensive,” she wrote. “It didn’t matter what the cost — I had to get to my son!
But it did matter what it cost. I say she shamed this guy into the refund and donation. I am terribly sorry for her loss but she used the situation as leverage. I am sure they laid the costs out to her in advance, including the return an then she went to FB to harm his business. I might be wrong and the guy did try and gouge her but that is not an uncommon practice for those who rent private planes.
“I am very happy that Adam and Talon Air, Inc. have seen their way to ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY and resolving this matter.
Seriously? Their only responsibility was to get her from point A to point B in a safe and timely manner.
You would think David Hogg Inc would’ve stepped in on her behalf and covered the costs, seeing as how it’s all about the “dead children”. I guess his compassion doesn’t extend to dead teachers.
Just remember when Killary and her ilk use a private jet this is what we pay.
Sorry lady but it wasn’t the airlines fault, the charge what they charge.
A good friend had a jet “life flight” him 1 hour and it was 54k. Saved his life but he was not informed of the charge prior to the flight. He about shit himself when he got that bill.
I told him at least he was alive to pay it instead of his family having to deal with it.
What part of “charter a plane” led her to believe it would be inexpensive?
I’m sorry for her loss. It’s terrible.
But the charter company isn’t the one exploiting the death of her son here.
Social Media is being used to escape personal responsibility.
Know what you are getting into and have the integrity to own it.
Tired of the grifters
She knew she was going to flake out on payment when she got on the plane
The first $18K was warranted, as long as she wasn’t quoted a lower price up front. The second $18K would only be so if she was notified and agreed to it in advance. Other than that, it’s reasonable for her to assume that either the return of the plane was included in the original price, or that they were planning sell the return flight to someone else needing to go the other way.
IMHO.
@eternal cracker p: I was wondering that myself. Sounds like they sold the flight back,
as I mentioned above. Otherwise it would be a double hit for them, wouldn’t it?
They could have driven, which is what I would have done had flying not been an option. If they driven in shifts (three of them?) they could have covered the distance overnight and had transportation while they were there.
most people have no idea the cost of airline flight. she was probably told the full cost. she may not have mentally registered it.
she basically stole from the airline by refusing to pay.
She’s “entitled” because of her grief?
Can’t we all use that to get free funerals?
I knew it’d be expensive to bury Uncle Joe, but not THAT expensive!
(sniff, sniff, **, whine, whine, gurgle, snort)
When is a contract between consenting adults not a contract?
Same fukkin bullshit when dummies beg for loans to chase their dreams of a “black/mocha lesbian socialist Studies” degree, only to discover (belatedly) that it’s worthless – and demand that the taxpayers foot the bill.
Sorry for your loss, lady, but a little prudence goes a long way.
izlamo delenda est …
18 grand return trip charge not justified. Should have charged for actual cost plus reasonable profit. Cost per flight hour could easily be 2 grand.
“It didn’t matter what the cost — I had to get to my son! ”
Until it became time to pay someone for their services she used. FUCK HER.
I’m NOT sorry for her loss. Far away from her is a far better place.
“How does the airline donate incurred expenses?”
They took all the money they received in this fiasco and set up a fund in his name. Isn’t that awesome of them?
How a fund with zero dollars ever going into it is meaningful, I don’t know yet.
what a sorry bunch of users, both airline and customer.
what really drives it all home is the fact that there are hourly flights to florida from almost anywhere on commercial airlines.
This woman is a con artist. She is also an anti-NRA gun grabbing activist. Did the stupid twat think her son was going to be any less dead if she chartered a flight down to Florida?
No one else can function in the vicinity or such selfishness
Ya beat me to it. Whatever pain she is/has experienced with regard to the entire incident she deserves and gets no sympathy from me. Her actions with regard to skipping out on the bill are what lead me to that conclusion. Whether it is dine and dash or whipping up a sympathetic crowd to bully your way to getting the victim to knuckle under – mox nix
I used to be a charter pilot, and I’ve never heard of such a situation. The customer is presented a contract, spelling out the exact travel time, aircraft, cost per hour to wait (if requested), cost for extra crew (i.e. stewardess, if requested). A credit card is run before the plane leaves the ground. It’s not an UBER – you don’t whip out your credit card when you arrive! This woman knew EXACTLY what the charges were before she ever got on the airplane. The rest is just salty liberal tears, that apparently paid off for her, because the charter jet operator is a cowardly douche who won’t stand up for his shareholders and let her slide on payment. I heard so many sob stories of why a private jet was needed, but never once did we ever fly anyone for free! Nor do the airlines! I’m so sick and tired of dumbass fools making their problem everyone else’s!
We’d have to see the charter contract. When you call a cab to take you to the airport, you don’t pay for his return to the garage. Granted, planes don’t get chartered a frequently as cabs and it seems like a dick move, but I bet she signed off on it.
Well, I’m sorry, but this is just an upscale version of winning the Ghetto Lottery. It’s compensation she extorted from the airline that she really had no expectation or right to receive. You rent the plane, you pay the cost. She has my sympathy for the loss of her son, but that’s it.
Like Tex said…..
You get a contract with the bill, you sign the contract, you pay the bill, then you take the flight.
Very few charter flight operations charge “one way”…..most charge round trip.