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Thursday, March 21, 2019
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ISU Speaker Series: Carl Hiaasen Tuesday, March 19, well known author and Miami Herald reporter/columnist Carl Hiaasen was the concluding speaker before the university closes during spring break for the ISU Speaker Series. Hiaasen had the audience laughing hysterically while he spoke about his experiences of life events and writing about some of them. Before his talk, Hiaasen met with a group of English Majors and Creative Writing Minor students to answer questions about his writing and publishing career. The next Speaker Series is David Ignatius, Washington Post Columnist, on April 2.
Work hard, play hard and stay smart The importance of health over spring break Nicole Nunez Reporter
On Monday, March 18, the Division of Student Affairs held their Spring Break Survival Guide event. The event featured over five tables spread throughout DEDE I in the Hulman Memorial Student Union from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. “The event had resources talking about different issues that students could face while on spring break. The tables covered drinking and drug education, sun safety and hydration, sexual assault and resources, among others,” said Danielle Smar, Student Health Promotion Graduate Assistant. “Learning the consequences of tobacco and alcohol are of utmost importance, especially during spring break- which for many students can be a week filled with beaches, parties and peer pressure.” The tables were from the UAP Health Center, Tobacco Free Blue,
Office of Opportunity and Student Conduct & Integrity. Many tables had games to help engage and educate students. Each table had representatives from the different departments with pamphlets and information for students. Many students “go wild” during spring break and this can often lead to choices with unsafe outcomes. The more students know about the risks of their activities, the more likely they are to make safer choices. “We are looking at harm reduction techniques. We cannot prevent every student from engaging in risky behaviors, but we can give them information to try to minimize the harm of those behaviors,” said Smar. The topics discussed are not only applicable to spring break, but to everyday life choices. “Students should attend beSamantha Layug | Indiana Statesman cause, although we are relating Student Affairs hosted a Spring Break Survival Guide event for student to learn about the importance the information to spring break, it is applicable for students all year of health over spring break this year in correlation with the Indiana State University Health Center and Union Health. long,” said Smar.
Missed flight, costly lesson Catherine Hamm
Los Angeles Times (TNS)
We have no control over some of the misfortunes of air travel. The flight is late or, worse, canceled, because of weather, mechanical or crew problems, sending a ripple through your travel plans. That is annoying, but there’s a category of travel problems that’s even worse because you didn’t know you’d agreed to certain rules. Welcome to the self-inflicted travel wound. An L.A. area colleague needed to get to a close-enough-to-drive destination, then fly back to attend to matters in L.A., then fly back to the destination, from which he would drive home. For your scorecard, he was sandwiching a return to L.A. between the bookends of his out-of-town trip. Plans changed, and instead of flying back to L.A. to attend to the matter at hand, he drove. But he forgot to cancel the flight he was supposed to take. He didn’t just lose the first part of his fare; he lost the whole thing. He was angry at the airline, but the finger-wagging should have been directed at himself. “If someone simply opts not to take a flight in the itinerary and it’s not due to an airline-related issue, then they are generally out of luck,” Brett Snyder, formerly an airline employee and now president of CrankyFlier.com, which deals with airline questions, and CrankyConcierge.com, which offers air travel assistance, said in an email. Insert sputtering here, along with an outraged, “How is that even possible?” It’s possible because that’s what he agreed to when he bought the ticket. And it’s not
just him; it’s all of us. The rules for occasions like this and many others are in the terms and conditions, sometimes called the contract of carriage or the conditions of carriage, that every major airline has. You agree to them when you buy your ticket. If you don’t abide by them, you pay the price, especially on nonrefundable tickets. Here’s what Southwest, the airline on which this happened, says in its terms and conditions: Its least-expensive fare, the Wanna Get Away, must be canceled at least 10 minutes before departure. “If the customer does not travel, all segments associated with the reservation are canceled and funds associated with...the fare are forfeited.” With the pricier business-select fare, all reservations are canceled, but you get a travel credit. If it’s a ticket that has a mix of fares, the corresponding rules will be applied. Part of the reason is financial: A no-show means the seat you would have occupied cannot be re-sold. The airline will act as though you’re there and keep your money. But why cancel the entire ticket and keep that money too? American Airlines’ contract holds the answer: “Reservations made to exploit or circumvent fare and ticket rules are strictly prohibited.” It goes on to say that you may not “purchase a ticket without intending to fly all the flights (in order to) gain lower fares (hidden cities).” Exploit? Circumvent? Hidden cities? Yes. Here’s how this scheme works. Let’s say you want to go to Cincinnati, but the fares are high. You find a roundtrip fare to a primary city (that is, a city that has plenty of air service and cheaper fares, even though it’s geographically far-
ther away) that includes a stop in Cincinnati. You leave the plane there and applaud your cleverness. Trust us when we say the airline is not applauding you. If it finds out, it may kick you out of its frequent-flier program and confiscate your miles. If it’s like Lufthansa, it may sue you. The airline recently went after a passenger who, it said, used a hidden-city scheme to get a better fare. The case was thrown out, but Lufthansa is appealing, CNN reported. Why is the hidden cities practice wrong in the airline’s eyes? Here’s what Lufthansa’s contract says: “A service charge may be payable by any passenger who...fails to arrive for departure at the airport or any other point of departure by the time we have specified and, as a consequence, does not use the seat for which a reservation has been made.” American Airlines is unequivocal about its thoughts on this practice. Its contract has a category called “Exploiting fare rules,” and if you engage in this behavior, it can cancel the part of your ticket you didn’t use, decline to let you fly, keep your money, and my favorite, “Charge you for what the ticket would have cost if you hadn’t booked it fraudulently.” My colleague wasn’t trying to be unscrupulous; he was just overwhelmed and didn’t know the rules. It’s an expensive lesson to learn. To avoid being a student of that lesson, here’s what you need to do: If you are going to miss your flight, you overslept, there was a wreck on the freeway and snarled traffic, you misread the time call and explain what has happened/is happening. Ask for help in rebooking if you still intend to go. Even if it’s not your fault (you miss a
connecting flight because your first flight was late), you also should call. “If the traveler misses a flight due to an airline-related issue, then it is always best to talk to someone at the airline to make sure that the return isn’t canceled,” Snyder said. “The systems are automated so that if that flight is missed, the rest of the itinerary cancels. Usually in a situation where the airline knows it’s a missed connection, there are other automated systems that will rebook the passenger on the next flight.” I didn’t need to be on the next flight when I missed a connection in Dallas. I needed to be where I was going but there was no airline that could get me there. I rented a car and drove the last 300 miles. As the wipers slap-slapped against the windshield and I wondered why I had been foolish enough to book the last flight of the day, I still remembered to call the airline and ask the agent to cancel whatever flight was rebooked but to preserve the return ticket, which she did. The return flight was intact when I flew home the next day. Three more important takeaways: Make sure you have the airline’s customer service number saved in your phone. Call. Don’t leave it to chance. Be nice. If you’ve made a mistake, throw yourself on the airline’s mercy. Be humble. The worst that can happen: People will accuse you of being polite. There are worse things you can be called including called into court. Just ask that Lufthansa passenger.