hillrider

You heard it here first. More passengers trapped and abused by an airline -- http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/02/15...ded/index.html

oklAAhoma

Un-flippin-believable!

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

While this is beyond inexcusable, particularly after the brew ha ha of the AA incidents, at least B6 management got in front of this immediately and offered an apology (as well they damn should), a full refund and a free round trip ticket. Unfortunately for those paxs B6 has no way of awarding a club membership, a free ticket in F, or a round trip ticket to a destination that typically would cost hundreds of dollars as B6 flies to very close international destinations. But AA could have and should have offered more than its paltry $500 voucher (and only after it became a news story).

inlanikai

There were, count 'em, ten (10) planes that were subject to these delays. Some idiot in B6 ops made the decision, and probably more than once, to send these planes out from the gates in the first place. This wasn't just a plane enroute that got nailed by bad weather at their destination and had to divert.

Keep your money and your vouchers, B6. Tell me you fired the bone head who made this decision. That would be management getting in front of this situation and apologizing.

MrMan

And how pissed would you be if you tried to use your AA voucher and they asked for your credit card for the phone reservation fee since you can't use the voucher online

JBerger

Our family of four (including a diabetic and a four year old)boarded AA 783 in MCO for the connection to SJO via MIA with a scheduled layover of 1 hr 10 minutes. We breakfasted at our hotel at 6:30AM so that we could check in 2 hours before the MCO flight. AA has this "policy" of no food if the flight is less than three hours. AA 937 scheduled duration was 2 hr 50 min. After boarding us late in MIA, we were held on the tarmac for more than two hours due to a mechanical delay while the aircraft brakes were repaired. The check in to clearing customs interval ended up being nearly 11 hours. 7:30AM EST to 5PM CST. No compensation nor amenities were offered and the agent on board Raoul rudely advised that I write to customer service. When we arrived in Costa Rica we had missed our local airline connection and thus lost a nonrefundable OW fare of $320.00 = (4 x $80). The delay resulted in another family member (who had travelled on CO) waiting three hours in SJO. We had to hire a car for $200.00 to get the five of us to our destination. Bottom line is besides being out $520.00, what recourse do I have with AA?

troyintn

I agree at least B6 admits they have problem. AA did everything way after the fact and then seemd like they were forced too.

hillrider

The latest incident? "Virginia, 74 a recovering Pancreatic Cancer victim with 1/2 of her intestines removed 6 years ago, and her 80 year old husband, a diabetic, were stranded for 8+ hours on the Midland Tarmac when diverted there by American Airlines without potable water, adequate food or the ability to deplane. At 6 hours of stranding they brought out stairs, and told the passengers they would be able to get off and walk around. Armed Air Marshalls said no. One woman ran for the terminal in an effort to get a candy bar from a vending machine and was escorted by the armed Air Marshalls back to the plane. There was a revolt of sorts on board."

Source: Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights, http://flyersrights.com/

tazi

Where is the link to this story?

AEpilot76

Since when do Air Marshalls have any say in a situation like this? Thats not in their job descripition and blowing their cover (to normal everyday passengers not all the FT'ers who claim to always know when one is on board) for a weather delay/diversion is a serious issue.

MJonTravel

While I am sympathetic to the plight of anyone stuck on an airplane for 8 hours; random postings on a blog, including my own, should not always be accepted as gospel fact suitable for Congressional testimony or Biblical inscription without some kind of check and balance to verify the validity of what is being said.

Having some experience in a past life dealing with the Federal Air Marshal Service on a regular and routine basis, I am not convinced that the story about the woman running for the snack machine only to be escorted back by armed federal law enforcement officers is 100 percent accurate.

hillrider

Given the preponderance of evidence of the callousness of airlines in inhumanly treating Americans, I am always puzzled by the reactions here...a forum of mostly passengers. Maybe there are more airline employees lurking that we think!

Air Marshalls may not like having uncontrolled people running around the tarmac - that is definitely a security breach.

jrhone

I agree with the passenger bill of rights, I just think the current version of it is lame and needs to be expanded to inclue, the FAA, TSA and Airport operators.

I also have some questions .

1 .
Do they mean involuntary denied boaridng ? Fair enough on that one, but I know many disagree with me on that. I made a post once that airlines should stop overselling, but some posters on here disagreed as it would put up ticket prices. This of course will do the same.

2.Agree with that too, as long as it lists the specific reason, such as FAA imposed ground stops, weather, mechanicals.

For delays or cancellations due to FAA ground stops or atc flow restrictions are the FAA going to compensate passengers or the airline ?

3. Will the airport operators also be required to provide terminal facilities to stranded passengers, such as ensuring that restaurants are obliged to stay open late to provide food ? They should also be required to provide more alternatives for passengers who are stranded with young families. For passengers stranded overnight the airports should provide better sleeping facilities .

4.Such as on a web site maybe ?

5. We have , daily, bags that are late arriving to our bagroom because the TSA either misdirected them, or placed them on the wrong belt , or just forgot to send them to us. If this happens where is the provision for the TSA to reimburse you the "compensation equal to current market value " or the airline ?

6. A very good idea. The FAA and the airport operator should also impose limits on the number of planes that should be on the ground at any one time . If the airport has 20 gates, then only 20 aircraft can be on the ground at that airport, the airlines will never be able to use the "not enough gates" excuse again. Of course they would have to make allowances for aircraft that have declared an emergency of some kind.

Airport operators dont let planes land for free, they collect a hefy fee for each aircraft . Perhaps the airport operator at AUS could use the money generated by landing fees from diverted aircraft to build 2 new gates that are kept just for diversions. Landing fees are based on the weight of the aircraft , AUS and other airport operators in that area actually made a handsome profit that day.



Ok, some of the above is over the top, but the fact is that the FAA and Airport Operators play a huge role in airline operations and passenger comfort. The FAA , bless their hearts, are so concerned about congestion that when AA and UA gave up 5% of the slots at ORD to help reduce the pressure on the system, the FAA then started allocating those slots to other carriers such as jetBlue.

While airport operators pay a lot of lip service to passengers, it is all about revenue to them. They very rarely have to deal with passengers. They run the airports, and take large fees to allow us to use their airports. As far as they are concerned their obligation ends there. They could quite easily put conditions for OSO situation in to leases to food vendors etc.

Again, I agree with a passenger bill of rights, but it needs to be expanded to cover the entire industry , and not just the airlines.

AEpilot76

Thats not their jurisdiction, a person needing food or the bathroom is not life threatening nor is it a threat to the passengers on the aircraft.

Air Marshalls are also subject to captains authority while on board that aircraft

hillrider

Are you hypothesizing that the captain (i.e. AA) told the Air Marshalls to grab the passenger starved by AA?