Ringside

Angry passengers pitch airline changes

By TREBOR BANSTETTER
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

Passengers on an American Airlines flight that was stuck on the tarmac in Austin for nearly 10 hours last month are pushing for a national Passengers Bill of Rights to protect traveling consumers.

The proposal would require airlines to return passengers to terminal gates after three hours on the tarmac. It would also impose penalties on airlines for losing baggage and bumping passengers, and create a consumer committee to review and investigate complaints.

The measure doesn't yet have a backer in Congress. But it comes as lawmakers are increasing their scrutiny of the industry, with a hearing scheduled for today before the Senate Commerce Committee on the impact of airline mergers and consolidation.

Heavy passenger loads during the past year have accompanied increased delays and complaints, according to the U.S. Transportation Department.

"Enough is enough," said Kate Hanni, a Napa, Calif., resident who was stuck with her husband on American Flight 1348 in Austin for nearly 10 hours Dec. 29 during a trip from San Francisco to Mobile, Ala. Her flight was supposed to land at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport for a connection, but heavy thunderstorms diverted the plane to Austin.

"Never again should anyone be left in a plane without information, without food, with toxic air, overflowing toilets, no remuneration and no explanation," she said.

Officials with Fort Worth-based American have apologized to passengers for the long delays and issued vouchers worth up to $500. But they also point out that the events that day were because of an unusual storm in North Texas coupled with the fact that airplanes were flying with full loads on a holiday weekend.

"The thunderstorm event of Dec. 29, 2006, that spread almost the entire length of Texas was one of the most unusual weather circumstances we've seen in 20 years," said Tim Wagner, a spokesman. More than 80 flights were diverted from D/FW that day.

Hanni and her husband recruited 13 other passengers to sign onto the effort. They've written to Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, with a draft proposal for the law and have launched an Internet blog at www.strandedpassengers.blogspot.com.

Hanni hasn't ruled out filing a lawsuit against American but said it would be a last resort.

"If the only way to send a message to the airlines is to pursue it from that angle, then absolutely," she said during a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

Stories of the long delays have been featured in national news media, including The Wall Street Journal and NBC Nightly News, in recent weeks. Passengers say they ran out of food, toilets overflowed and some lacked access to medication while stranded on the tarmac.

Hanni called the conditions "subhuman."

"I was fighting off a panic attack the entire time," said Mark Vail of Madera, Calif. "I was counting raindrops in the window, doing anything to try to distract myself."

All the while, he said, "I kept seeing Southwest Airlines flights taking off and landing."

American officials say they were doing their best to cope with an extraordinary spate of bad weather at the carrier's largest hub.

Unlike most storms that quickly sweep over D/FW Airport from the west, the Dec. 29 tempest moved north from the southwest and hung over the airport for hours, Wagner said. Airline officials were hoping that the storm would lift so diverted planes could fly to D/FW and passengers could get to connecting flights.

If the airline had brought the plane into a gate in Austin early, it would have immediately been a canceled flight, he said. It then would have been nearly impossible to get the passengers onto later flights because most airplanes were already full.

"People would have been stranded in Austin for two or three days, maybe in a hotel room or maybe there at the airport, waiting for a flight," he said. "That's what we were trying to avoid."

Still, Wagner said that "the extremity of their experience was a mistake, and we've apologized for that." He said the airline has tweaked some policies and re-emphasized others in an attempt to avoid repeating the situation.

Some of the affected passengers said the airline responded only after the story was featured in the national press. And they say they haven't seen any indication that American is working to prevent future problems.

"There hasn't been any attempt to contact us; they haven't said anything," said Andy Welch of Lynn Creek, Mo., who was also on Flight 1348. "It infuriates me. How can anyone think they can run a business this way?"

An attempt was made in 2000 to pass a similar slate of protections for traveling consumers, and the idea was revived in 2002. Neither attempt resulted in a law being passed.

This time, however, Hanni is hopeful that the issue will have traction in Washington, D.C., particularly as lawmakers consider the impact that mergers could have on the industry.

"I believe we're reached the tipping point," she said. "The only thing that will change this is action from our elected officials."

PASSENGERS BILL OF RIGHTS

A group of travelers who were stranded on the tarmac for up to 10 hours last month have proposed a slate of protections for travelers. Their recommendations include:

Establishing procedures for airlines to return passengers to a terminal gate after three hours on the tarmac.

Requiring airlines to respond to complaints within 24 hours and resolve them within two weeks.

Forcing airlines to publish a list of chronically delayed flights online.

Compensation for bumped passengers or passengers whose flights are delayed by more than 12 hours at 150 percent of the ticket price.

Compensation for passengers whose baggage is lost or mishandled.

Creation of a Passenger Review Committee made up of nonairline consumers to review and investigate complaints.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/...printstory.jsp

nako

For more discussion on this incident (since the beginning), see this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=644886

Mike

jaylenofan86

Ha! As an airline employee myself, I find it HARD for the compensation bit to get anywhere in congress. We already have enough to worry about, now this? Don't get me wrong, I'm all in support for the 3 hour return, complaint, and delay flight rules, but the compensation bit is pushing it a little too far for me.

GUWonder

Abroad: a number of countries -- a growing number of countries at that -- have been requiring, by law, compensation for long flight delays and cancellations. (Collecting can be another thing, a case of YMMV. )

At home: a growing number of Senators and Representatives are less hostile to regulation of the aviation industry than was the case several years back. The airline industry killed the passenger rights bill last time; the next time it comes up, it'll be harder to stop it. These kind of incidents don't work in the airline industry's favor.

elitetraveler

Unfortunately AA shot itself in the foot on this. Has Mr. Arpey personally apologized right after the incident, AA instituted a new public PR oriented policy about how long they would hold pax on the tarmac and given out some decent compensation - i.e. - $1,000 travel vouchers, Platinum Membership for a year - or upgrade existing AA membership, drink chits, AC passes - an entire package of nice stuff which costs AA ZERO, followed up by personal calls from a team of AA management - i.e. get 100 MD or VP level execs to take 10 people each - it could have been a case study in how a company overcomes a potential PR problem, or as John Belushi would have said, "BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

ricktoronto

Haven't you guys pretty much done away with the Bill of Rights for things more important than this (e.g. warrantless wiretaps)? Is there even a chance this would succeed?

greenery

Alot of the people who were on those long delayed flights received $500 flight vouchers. I suspect most of them will never be used and the Airline will come out ahead. If I sat on a plane for up to 22 hours without food, water or a working bathroom, I doubt that I would be using a flight voucher any time soon. Hopefully they at least give it away to friends or relatives, or sell it on EBay.

I agree with an earlier poster, the AA approach to managing this situation is to put their heads in the sand and hope it blows over.

TrojanHorse

You see I'm (as a pax) just the opposite, I mean I can see how the airline employees see it but I am sick of the airlines using every excuse in the book (usually a 9/11 excuse) to screw pax over continually. Its not just AA, its all of the airlines who blame security, the FAA, 9/11, TSA you name... its all about passing the buck, in an instance like the OP, I think they got screwed and should get something.. plain and simple

Spiff

I hope language shielding passengers from unnecessary "security" harassment is included in this bill.

LarryJ

How did it increase from 8 to 10 hours?

Deltahater

This was just discussed on Fox News for about 5 mins. They interviewed Tim Hanni, the leader of the angry pax. He did not help matters by stumbling through his part and he was unable to paint an effective picture of the situation.

Hopefully they get a better spokesperson to push some changes through the system because with him on the helm this will go nowhere, sadly to say.

This is not to detract from what happened on the plane...

brp

Probably more like "It may have been only 8 hours, but it felt like 10"

Cheers.

Teacher49

Without the teeth that a high level of compensation provides, it would be, well, toothless to require the airlines to do anything that would cost them money.

To have people sit on the tarmac for so long is absolutely inexcusable. Offloading planes by rotating them to the gate would be expensive and a PITA for the airlines both for off-loading and re-boarding, for sure. But there must be a time limit on such things.

bernardd

One of the things that scares me about any legislation is that sometimes it pushes obligations on the wrong place. Here AA had the option of the PITA route but didn't take it. A point I made in another thread here is what would have happened if, say, an Lufthansa A340 ended up in AUS because of bad weather? Does the obligation fall on ABIA and the City of Austin to provide a gate for an un-familiar aircraft, operated by a carrier with no local base? How should the passengers be quarantined for immigration purposes? As an Austin taxpayer I feel some responsibility to help out the weary traveller because I hope they'll do the same for me some day, but how much compulsion do you write into a bill?

us2

Without a financial penalty the bill is toothless. Airline management brought this on themselves by holding their customers in contempt and showing no regard at all for even the most basic levels of human dignity.