DansDeals

Author here. Didn't realize this blew up on HN... We don't know the cause of the difference in price, but we're comparing two basic economy tickets here so if there's any fare difference, United should at least clarify to the user why... United and other airlines are running ads [0] on how users can book w/ confidence and get free changes so IMO, it's just irresponsible to have things like this slip through the cracks-- intentional or not. Overall, United has been consistently being anti-user with their policies related to coronavirus. For example, making users wait 12 months to get a cash refund [1] if your flight is delayed by them. Not a great look. [0]: https://twitter.com/tejasmanohar/status/1239332916070473728 [1]: https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/airlines/united/united-wait-12…

Google has lost much of the trust developers placed in them, first of all by terminating products some of us loved [1] and also by terminating user accounts in an automated fashion with no way to appeal. Imagine your business depending on Google Play Store, then getting your account banned due to some association with another account that supposedly broke their ToS, with no way to contact support, to appeal the decision or to even find out what the hell happened [2]. I mean, imagine that your spouse buys a Nexus phone, sells it [3] and your account gets banned via association, along with your right to publish apps or content on Play or to access your email archive. And if you think this can't happen with a GSuite account, since that's supposedly the gold standard for their support, how about getting your entire company of 100-150 people banned [4]? So the answer for me at least is that I have a trust issue with Google. No thanks, AWS has been around for longer, I haven't heard so many horror stories from them and if I'm feeling adventurous one day, I might try Microsoft's Azure, since they have actual support and without the history of shutting down products over night. [1] https://killedbygoogle.com/ [2] https://android.jlelse.eu/google-just-terminated-our-start-up-google-p… [3] https://www.dansdeals.com/shopping-deals/google/dont-mess-with-the-goo… [4]…

If you look more closely that’s not the case. If they pay the refunds, they get to subtract a portion of that from the fine. Dan has more detail and isn’t paywalled: https://www.dansdeals.com/more/news/airline-news/dot-issues-deceptive-…

Personally, I think United is pricing flight changes in every way possible to minimize losses for flights sold when Coronavirus was not taken into account – maybe an incompetent management team. What additionally suggests this is customers who are offered credit for flight changes due to COVID-19 need to wait an ENTIRE year (12-months!) in order see a refund back to original payment source [1]. [1]: https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/airlines/united/united-wait-12…

"but the brochure warns us they can’t accomodate kosher or vegan diners. (Keeping meat and milk separate in the tiny galley is impossible, and no one could endure five weeks at sea with a vegan.)" Interestingly DansDeals just recently organized a Kosher tour to Antarctica https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/trip-notes/join-lifetime-koshe… and https://www.kosherantarctica.com/

One of the problems is when this is done by companies instead of states. A company might remove your access for some, not obvious reasons. Just see current trending HN link http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/98444 where google suspended an account and with that the person could not use the google login anymore. Even for non-google pages. That is scary. A protocol like the EDUROAM system would be nice. In that case, credentials include a domain (usually a Uni name), and with that domain the home uni(bank) can be used as an authentication authority.

http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/98444 :D