uDelta Moves Past United To Snag No. 2 U.S. Airline Spot By Trafficr

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  When you’re a major U.S. airline, there’s only one direction you want to go, and that’s up. Which is why Delta Air Lines is likely in a celebratory mood and United Airlines is perhaps a bit down in the dumps today, upon hearing the news that the former has passed the latter to become the No. 2 carrier based on traffic for 2015, behind American Airlines.

  Delta passed United in 2015 based on traffic figures for paying passengers that the airlines released for the year, reports The Wall Street Journal: American came in first with reported traffic of 223 billion revenue-passenger miles, a 2.4% increase over the previous year; Delta ended 2015 year with 209.6 billion miles flown by passengers, a 3.3% increase from 2014; and United’s final numbers amounted to 208.6 billion miles, a 1.5% bump from the year prior. Those figures take into account regional-carrier partners the airlines work with.

  It seems United is having a bit of trouble playing catch-up while it’s in the process of tying up all the loose ends of its merger with Continental back in 2010. While Delta stayed mum on its success, United said it’s “continuing to focus on running a reliable operation and investing in the tools and services that allow us to deliver the flier-friendly experience our customers deserve and expect.”

  These numbers aren’t the be-all, end-all measurement for airline success, however, though it’s one of a few useful tool for comparing airlines. You can rank the airlines by the number of passengers carried (American, 201.2 million; Delta 19.4 million; Southwest 144.6 million; and United 140.4 million in 2015), or you can stack them up based on annual revenue, where Delta remains in second behind American before 2015.

  Delta Surpasses United for No. 2 Airline Spot by Traffic [The Wall Street Journal]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uAmazon Prime Now Includes 20% Discount On Video Game Pre-Orders & New Releasesr

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• For years, Amazon was able to win over some video game fans by guaranteeing release-day delivery of new titles. But now that gamers can pre-order digital downloads of their games (for the same price) so that they’re available right away when they go live, Amazon is going after customers who want to save money on these pricey new releases.

  Amazon announced today that Prime subscribers will now be able to save 20% off sticker price, not just on pre-orders, but also on new titles during their first two weeks of release.

  That second part is important, given the number of high-profile games that have been rushed to market with broken content, this two-week window means that Amazon customers can wait to see if the game has crippling problems (or horrendous reviews) before they buy.

  Amazon is putting a number of conditions on the deal.

  For example, the games must be bought through Amazon itself, and not through any of the many sellers (even the Prime-eligible sellers) that use Amazon to reach consumers. It’s also limited to disc-based games. Digital download codes will not be sold at the lower price. And you can only buy one copy of a game with the discount.

  If you’ve already pre-ordered a qualifying title, Amazon says it will apply the discount automatically.

  Polygon notes that Best Buy and GameStop offer similar discount programs that cost significantly less than the $100 annual price for Prime, meaning people who only want the discounted games might want to check those programs out before they fork over the money for Prime. But if you’re already a Prime member, this is a nice add-on to the existing benefits of free shipping, and video and music content.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uCalifornia Rejects VW Proposal To Fix Emissions-Cheating Vehiclesr

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  The California Air Resources Board has rejected Volkswagen’s recall plan for thousands of 2-liter vehicles sold in the state. The regulators also presented VW with a formal notice of air quality violations for its use of “defeat devices” to cheat on emissions tests in these cars.

  CARB determined that VW’s proposed recall plans for 2-liter sedans sold in California between 2009 and 2015 are “incomplete, substantially deficient, and fall far short of meeting the legal requirements to return these vehicles to the claimed certification configuration.”

  VW submitted the proposal on Dec. 15, requesting “substantial” additional time to submit complete recall plans, according to CARB. However, California recall regulations require “expeditious action, and VW’s proposed expiation is not acceptable,” the rejection letter [PDF] states.

  Specifically, the 2-liter vehicle remedy proposal failed to adequately identify and describe the affected vehicles; provide a sufficient method for obtaining owners’ names, address, and related information; describe the remedial procedure for affected vehicles; contain the impact of proposed fixes on fuel economy, drivability, performance, and safety, among other things.

  “Volkswagen made a decision to cheat on emissions tests and then tried to cover it up,” CARB Chair Mary D. Nichols said in a statement. “They continued and compounded the lie and when they were caught they tried to deny it. The result is thousands of tons of nitrogen oxide that have harmed the health of Californians. They need to make it right. Today’s action is a step in the direction of assuring that will happen.”

  The EPA issued a statement on Tuesday saying they backed CARB’s decision to not approve VW’s recall plan.

  In addition to rejecting VW’s proposal to fix certain vehicles in California, CARB also formalized the company’s notice of violation [PDF] related to air quality standards.

  The notice outlines VW’s violation of state laws in causing “substantial excess, illegal, and on-going emissions and harm that have impacted, and continue to impact, public health and the environment in California.”

  The violations are essentially a repeat of the agent and the Environmental Protection Agency’s findings announced in September.

  CARB says it will continue to seek “to ensure that VW brings the vehicles into full compliance with State emissions standards and mitigates past, current, and future harm to the environment.”

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

u3 Shoppers Hurt After Party City Shelves Fall Like Dominoesr

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  It’s something you see in movies all the time — something bumps the shelves in a store and down they go in series, like huge dominoes. Luckily, it doesn’t happen in real life because the outcome could be deadly.

  That’s the lesson to be learned from an incident inside a Boca Raton, FL, Party City store, where at least three people were injured after seven aisles of store shelves collapsed this morning.

  WPTV reports that the three people suffered only minor injuries. Firefighters and sheriff’s office personnel did a search with rescue dogs to see if anyone was trapped in the calamity, but thankfully no one else was caught among the downed shelves and the resulting avalanche of party products.

  As of now, there is no explanation for what caused the shelves to collapse.

  “We’re looking into the situation to pinpoint the exact cause, and the store remains closed at this time,” says Party City in a statement.

  
  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uWarner Bros., BMG, Rightscorp Agree To Pay $450K For Using Robocalls To Hassle Alleged Music Piratesr

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  Even when you’ve been accused of violating the copyright of a major music publishers, you still have the right to not be harassed by unsolicited pre-recorded calls demanding payment for those supposed violations. That’s why Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and other defendants have agreed to pay out $450,000 to thousands of alleged music pirates.

  According to a class-action lawsuit filed in Nov. 2014, Warner — along with other defendants, including music industry biggie BMG Rights Management, and copyright enforcement company Rightscorp — violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) by robocalling accused content pirates without getting their prior express consent, as required by law.

  The plaintiffs claimed that Warner and BMG (and possibly others) hired Rightscorp to make these prerecorded calls demanding payment for alleged copyright infringement.

  In general, Rightscorp works by offering lower-cost settlements to accused pirates, hoping they will agree to pay up rather than face higher penalties from the legal system. It’s an established practice, but using pre-recorded calls without the recipient’s permission could run afoul of the law.

  The plaintiffs alleged that Warner and BMG were vicariously liable for Rightscorp’s actions because the companies allowed these robocalls to happen.

  After the defendants filed various motions to dismiss, the case went into legal limbo in June when the judge stayed all proceedings pending the outcome of mediation efforts between the two parties.

  Now comes news [via TorrentFreak] that the parties have reached a settlement.

  According to documents [PDF] filed with the court this week, the proposed settlement will see the 2,025 sharing in a payout totaling $450,000. After legal fees, that will only come out to around $100 per member of the plaintiff class.

  The original complaint had sought statutory penalties for TCPA violations: $500 per negligent violation; $1,500 per intentional robocall. That means that Warner, et al, are getting off with only paying a small fraction of what they could have faced if they’d lost in court. Even better for the companies involved, the settlement does not require that they admit any wrongdoing.

  We can only hope that the $450,000 is sufficient to teach Rightscorp that it should pick up the phone if it’s going to accuse people of piracy.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uPier 1 Imports Recalling 276K Swinging Chairs Because Falling Is Not Very Relaxingr

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• The idea of swinging furniture is a soothing one: you climb in, set yourself to rocking, and away you go, blissfully swaying on a wave of relaxation. Unless, that is, the chair dumps you unceremoniously on the ground in the middle of your veg-out session. That’s why Pier 1 Imports is calling back 276,000 swinging chairs and stands, which can become unstable and lead to folks falling on their backsides.

  The recall involves about 260,000 Swingasan chairs and stands, sold by Pier 1 Imports (and about 16,000 more in Canada), according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The chairs and stands were sold separately at Pier 1 Imports stores and online between January 2010 through August 2015, in various colors and designs.

  So far, Pier 1 has received 101 reports of incidents with the chairs and stands, including 93 reports of the chair with the stand becoming unstable during use and tipping over. Those falls have led to 23 injuries so far. Eight reports of the suspension hardware failing has included four reports of injuries.

  If you’ve purchased one of the chairs and/or stands, stop using it immediately and contact Pier 1 Imports for a free repair kit — or return the items to the store for a full refund. Owners of the Podasan Mocha and Orange Swingasan chairs will have to be happy with a refund, as there’s no repair kit for those models.

  Check out the chart below to see if your chair model is included in the recall:

  

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uVW Expands “Goodwill Package” To Include 3-Liter Vehicles That Evade Emissions Standardsr

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  Back in November, Volkswagen announced a “goodwill package” of cash and credit intended to placate some owners of supposed “clean diesel” cars that were rigged to cheat emissions tests. Now the company is expanding this offer to include owners of 3-liter diesel cars from VW, Audi, and Porsche.

  Consumerist reader Rob brought the recent expansion of the goodwill package to our attention after his wife received the offer from VW in an email.

  “In December, my wife went to [VW’s] website and signed up to be notified of any developments,” Rob, who owns a 2011 VW Touareg, writes in an email. “Yesterday, we got an offer in the email that sounds about the same as the one they made to owners of the [3-liter] diesels: $1000 split between dealer credit and a prepaid Visa loyalty card.”

  Originally, the program – which offers the payments in two ways: a $500 Visa prepaid card to be used however the customer desires, and $500 in credits toward a VW purchase and three years of free roadside assistance – applied only to certain Jetta, Jetta Sportwagen, Beetle, Beetle Convertible, Audi A3, Golf, Golf Sportwagen, and Passat vehicles.

  According to VW’s website, the company recently added goodwill package eligibility to the owners of the 2015-2016 VW Touareg, the 2014-2016 Porsche Cayenne, and the 2015-2016 Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L, and Q5.

  The carmaker admitted in November that those vehicles also included a “sophisticated software algorithm” programmed to detect when the car is undergoing official emissions testing, and to only turn on full emissions control systems – the temperature conditioning mode – during that testing.

  While Rob tells Consumerist he’s glad the additional vehicles were added to the goodwill package, he would have liked to have been offered a package that takes into account that the Touareg and others are larger vehicles than those first eligible under the goodwill package.

  We reached out to VW about whether or not the company considered creating a goodwill package that reflects the cost of the additional vehicles. We’ll update this post when we hear back.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist