Catastrophe - Dick Morris [127]
Food, water, and toilets after three hours. What a radical concept!
Of course, the airlines fought this bill tooth and nail. When the legislature dismissed their objections and passed it, they went to court to block it. After a defeat in the U.S. Federal District Court, they appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where a conservative panel of judges overruled the law.
Bravo! The airlines shafted their passengers once again!
As air travel increases and airport facilities fail to expand to meet the demand, the problem of lengthy tarmac delays is becoming more and more serious. In the first ten months of 2007, 1,523 flights had to wait on the runway for more than three hours to take off from U.S. airports, nearly a one-third increase over the 1,152 flights kept waiting over the same period during the previous year.509 And there was a 40 percent increase in lost baggage.510
The New York State Legislature had to act because Congress has failed to do so. Comprehensive legislation to protect air passengers was passed by the House, but it died in the Senate in 2008 because of Republican opposition.
Canadians are more fortunate. A passengers’ bill of rights, passed by the Canadian Parliament in June 2008, requires airlines to allow passengers to leave the plane after any delay of ninety minutes or more and to reboard the aircraft once it’s ready to take off. The Canadian law obliges airlines to provide stranded travelers with meal and hotel vouchers, except when the delays are caused by bad weather.
The Canadian legislation also provides that:
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HOW CANADA PROTECTS FLYERS
Passengers have a right to punctuality.
If a flight is delayed and the delay…exceeds 4 hours, the airline will provide the passenger with a meal voucher.
If a flight is delayed by more than 8 hours and…involves an overnight stay, the airline will pay for [the] hotel and airport transfers for passengers…
If the passenger is already on the aircraft when a delay occurs, the airline will offer drinks and snacks if it is safe, practical and timely to do so. If the delay exceeds 90 minutes and circumstances permit, the airline will offer passengers the option of disembarking from the aircraft until it is time to depart.511
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In the United States, on the other hand, passengers have virtually no protection.
In February 2007, JetBlue Airways became the only airline in the United States to issue, voluntarily, its own Customer Bill of Rights. These self-imposed regulations include:
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COMING CLEAN: JETBLUE’S PASSENGER BILL OF RIGHTS
Guaranteed customer notification of cancellations, delays, and diversions.
A $1,000 payment for customers who are “involuntarily denied boarding.”
Free television, food and drink, access to “clean” restrooms, and, medical treatment as needed for customers whose flight is delayed three hours or more after scheduled departure.
For delays of more than five hours, the airline pledges to “take necessary action so that customers may deplane.”
A $50 voucher for future JetBlue travel for arrival delays of one to two hours.
A voucher for future travel—equal in amount to the full round-trip fare the passenger paid—for ground delays that lead to a delay in arrival of two hours or more past the scheduled time.512
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If JetBlue can do it, why can’t American or Delta or United or Continental?
JetBlue was prompted to act, of course, because of its dismal record on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2007, when more than a thousand passengers were stranded on nine different JetBlue flights at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport due to a snowstorm. As the New York Times reported, “the air and toilets on the plane went foul, and the passengers, who well understood the impact of snow, were given little or no information