Dec 20, 2007
An organization formed to promote airline passengers' rights has now acquired enough membership and notoriety to be effective
Whatever happened to the Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights? Various versions of it have been introduced into Congress and are awaiting committee approvals. In the meantime, various states have either passed or are considering legislation of their own to compel the airlines to be aware of passenger health when planes are left stranded on the tarmac for several hours. Pushing back against such efforts, the airlines have filed lawsuits to prevent state legislation from going into effect, claiming that only the federal government has the right to regulate airline behavior.
In short, things are a mess. And eight years after the first widely-publicized, eight-hour stranding of passengers in 1999 by Northwest Airlines, no law exists compelling the airlines either to return to the gate after a four or five-hour delay in take off, or to insure that passengers receive food, water, ventilation, and clean toilet facilities during such delays.
When these delays re-occurred in February of this year, an airline passenger named Kate Hanni, of California, found that she was no longer willing to accept the airlines' assurances that they would individually take care of the matter. She formed the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights and began soliciting members and funds. Today, more than 22,000 Americans have signed up with her, and her efforts are beginning to attract national attention. Among other things, she has now set up and staffed a telephone hotline -- tel. 877/FLYERS6 -- to receive reports of passenger hardships, so that her group may then use such reports to publicize the problem and pressure the Congress into action.
Though the airlines continue to proclaim "Trust us," it's increasingly apparent that none of them has yet agreed to return planes to the gate after a delay on the tarmac of, say, four hours. Not one has issued instructions to its staff requiring them to return the plane and permit passengers to get off because of an overly-extended delay. And though various state legislators are currently making noises about requirements that the airlines provide stranded planes with food, water and clean toilets, it is increasingly obvious that the only adequate remedy will be a single, clear, unambiguous requirement that they observe a fixed maximum of hours for leaving passengers involuntarily confined.
Other remedies are also badly needed, and those include requirements of "Truth in Scheduling," as the Coalition puts it. Flights are "deceptively scheduled," they say, if they "are late more than 70% of the time or ... are cancelled more than 8% of the time." Although there are websites (like www.flightstats.com) enabling the passenger to determine whether a particular flight is scheduled at such a pressured hour as to be late an inordinate number of times, such flights should be removed from schedules by the Federal Aviation Authority.
Go to strandedpassengers.blogspot.com for further information or to join the Coalition. You can also listen to a a Frommers.com podcast with Kate Hanna.
Write and read comments about this post.
In short, things are a mess. And eight years after the first widely-publicized, eight-hour stranding of passengers in 1999 by Northwest Airlines, no law exists compelling the airlines either to return to the gate after a four or five-hour delay in take off, or to insure that passengers receive food, water, ventilation, and clean toilet facilities during such delays.
When these delays re-occurred in February of this year, an airline passenger named Kate Hanni, of California, found that she was no longer willing to accept the airlines' assurances that they would individually take care of the matter. She formed the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights and began soliciting members and funds. Today, more than 22,000 Americans have signed up with her, and her efforts are beginning to attract national attention. Among other things, she has now set up and staffed a telephone hotline -- tel. 877/FLYERS6 -- to receive reports of passenger hardships, so that her group may then use such reports to publicize the problem and pressure the Congress into action.
Though the airlines continue to proclaim "Trust us," it's increasingly apparent that none of them has yet agreed to return planes to the gate after a delay on the tarmac of, say, four hours. Not one has issued instructions to its staff requiring them to return the plane and permit passengers to get off because of an overly-extended delay. And though various state legislators are currently making noises about requirements that the airlines provide stranded planes with food, water and clean toilets, it is increasingly obvious that the only adequate remedy will be a single, clear, unambiguous requirement that they observe a fixed maximum of hours for leaving passengers involuntarily confined.
Other remedies are also badly needed, and those include requirements of "Truth in Scheduling," as the Coalition puts it. Flights are "deceptively scheduled," they say, if they "are late more than 70% of the time or ... are cancelled more than 8% of the time." Although there are websites (like www.flightstats.com) enabling the passenger to determine whether a particular flight is scheduled at such a pressured hour as to be late an inordinate number of times, such flights should be removed from schedules by the Federal Aviation Authority.
Go to strandedpassengers.blogspot.com for further information or to join the Coalition. You can also listen to a a Frommers.com podcast with Kate Hanna.
Write and read comments about this post.
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
