Catastrophe - Dick Morris [130]
ACTION AGENDA
You don’t have to let the lobbyists and the airlines have the last word. You can act to force adoption of an airline passengers’ bill of rights.
The Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights has written a model code that should be passed immediately by Congress and signed by the president. It is a real code—unlike the phony one proposed by the DOT’s task force—and it would give passengers real power to force adequate service.
It requires airlines to:
Establish procedures to respond to all passenger complaints within twenty-four hours and with appropriate resolution within two weeks.
Notify passengers within ten minutes of a delay of known diversions, delays, and cancellations via airport overhead announcement, on aircraft announcement, and posting on airport television monitors.
Establish procedures for returning passengers to terminal gate when delays occur so that no plane sits on the tarmac for longer than three hours without connecting to a gate.
Provide for the essential needs of passengers during air-or ground-based delays of longer than three hours, including food, water, sanitary facilities, and access to medical attention.
Provide for the needs of disabled, elderly and special needs passengers by establishing procedures for assisting with the moving and retrieving of baggage, and the moving of passengers from one area of airport to another at all times by airline personnel.
Publish and update monthly on the company’s public web site a list of chronically delayed flights, meaning those flights delayed thirty minutes or more, at least forty percent of the time, during a single month.
The formal implementation of a Passenger Review Committee, made up of non-airline executives and employees but rather passengers and consumers—that would have the formal ability to review and investigate complaints.
Make lowest fare information, schedules and itineraries, cancellation policies, and frequent flyer program requirements available in an easily accessed location and updated in real time.
Ensure that baggage is handled without delay or injury; if baggage is lost or misplaced, the airline shall notify customer of baggage status within twelve hours and provide compensation equal to current market value of baggage and its contents.
Require that these rights apply equally to all airlines code-share partners, including international partners.525
How odd that, in the United States of America, it should be controversial to require an airline to provide food, water, sanitary facilities, and access to medical attention for flights delayed more than three hours! But it is. Legislation to implement these recommendations was killed in the Congress last year.
The coalition, headed by Kate Hanni, is battling hard for your rights and deserves your support. Join or send a donation to them at www.flyersrights.org.
Here is a list of the members of the oversight committees in the House and the Senate. Don’t wait until you’re stranded to write them to demand passage of the passenger’s bill of rights! (If you do wait, bring stationery on your next flight so you can write them nasty letters while you’re sweltering on the ground. The airline won’t provide it!)
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MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE,
U.S. House of Representatives, 111th Congress Majority (2165 RHOB); 202-225-4472 Minority (2163 RHOB); 202-225-9446 James L. Oberstar, Minnesota, Chairman
Democrats
Nick J. Rahall II (WV)
Peter A. DeFazio (OR)
Jerry F. Costello (IL)
Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC)
Jerrold Nadler (NY)
Corrine Brown (FL)
Bob Filner (CA)
Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX)
Gene Taylor (MS)
Elijah E. Cummings (MD)
Ellen O. Tauscher (CA)
Leonard L. Boswell (IA)
Tim Holden (PA)
Brian Baird (WA)
Rick Larsen (WA)
Michael E. Capuano (MA)
Timothy H. Bishop (NY)
Michael H. Michaud (ME)
Russ Carnahan (MO)
Grace F. Napolitano (CA)
Daniel Lipinski