Several JetBlue flights at JFK Airport in New York were delayed on the tarmac Wednesday (see photo of one of them), with passengers waiting for up to 10 hours in their seats — reviving talk in Congress of a "passenger bill of rights."
Talk about airline hell. Don’t passengers deserve some assurance that they won’t be trapped in a plane all day? Do you bloggers have any airline horror stories? What should be included in a passenger bill of rights?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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29 Comments
It is past time for a passenger bill of rights. There need to be increased consumer protection laws for common carriers of people.
Good subject! Let’s see a bunch of boring stories about how awful a flight was.Wouldn’t that belong in the GO! section where women complain about their mini-vans or child care horror stories. Or how about your worst restaurant experience? Facinating!
Why not save the power of your tiny brain for posting on something worth your while then, Fleet?
Your I-don’t-have-an-opinion-or-anything-worthwhile-to-share-but my-mouth(and keboard)-keep-flapping problem is wearing thin.
Ha.
But seriously fleetwood, it seems somewhat silly that someone at the airport in JFK can’t show leadership and get stairs to a plane on the runway, and deplane folks to a bus. My only question is if current regulations prevent humane steps that prevent emergency relief measures when weather squashes travel plans.
That’s powerful, rd. How ’bout a favorite recipe for meatloaf?
I’m with you, scott. Common sense is not so common. It’s a good thing box cutters aren’t allowed anymore.
Certainly, fleet. I start by putting you in the meat grinder and go from there.
Oh, and as Hank says…
But I still love ya.
Truth be told, here are just a couple of things I’d like to see in passengers Bill of Rights:
1) No security check unless you are Muslism. Pass GO and collect your boarding pass. Next please.Truth be told, this is somewhat absurd, however small children and senior citizen females should certainly be exempt. Truth be told, I am 100% for racial/ethnic/religious profiling in the airports.
2) The airlines must do a better job, truth be told, in knowing if they will be taking off in inclimate weather. The taxing out and sitting on the tarmac for 9 hours (or even 2) is utter bullstuff, truth be told.
I see the government is being called in to fix every little problem with our lives.
My family recently had a very bad experience with Delta. So we are in the process of divesting ourselves from that carrier. Once we use our frequent flyer miles it’s, “So long and I hope that bankruptcy thing works out for you!”
You can generally fly another airline. We don’t need a nanny.
What needs to be done is that passengers should be given the right to SUE airlines for unlawful restraint if they are put on a plane and it sits for 9 hours with no air circulation, no food and the toilet paper all used up in the bathrooms. As a juror on such a case, I would happily give each passenger $120,000 for such treatment and with a few big judgements, the airlines would get the message that kind of crap will not be tolerated.
What we need to do is build a high speed maglev rail service and then people can say “screw you” to the airlines.
What needs to be done is that passengers should be given the right to SUE airlines for unlawful restraint if they are put on a plane and it sits for 9 hours with no air circulation, no food and the toilet paper all used up in the bathrooms. As a juror on such a case, I would happily give each passenger $120,000 for such treatment and with a few big judgements, the airlines would get the message that kind of crap will not be tolerated.
Yeah Kev you’re right…airlines shouldn’t be able to keep passengers on board…instead they should let em leave at their own risk then BOOM, people fall and hurt themselves and SUE the airline anyway
No matter what, keeping them or letting them go, people think they should be able to sue
Pathetic
Ive heard lots of bad things about Delta, my kids tried to get home in January and it was a complete mess coming and going, then they lost their luggage and when we finally retrived it everything was ruined because Delta let it sit out in the rain until everything inside was soaked.I’ll never give them my business if I can help it.
I have personally sat in a plane for almost 3 hours no the runway and I can promise you that it SUCKS! They shut off the engines so the air blowers from above our seats weren’t working, god it sucked! I can’t imagine being stuck on the ground for 10 or 11 hours, heck it sucks being in a plane that long when you fly to europe but on the ground it would really piss me off!!!!
It is the airlines fault, the airports fault, the FAA’s fault.
I personally think the law should be 60 minutes is the maximum they should allow everyone to sit in an airplane while on the ground, either get the dam plane in the air OR take us back to the f-ing gate where we can at least feel like humans instead of cargo!!!!
People have a right to expect either a timely departure or compensation for their discomfort. Water and chips does not constitute caring for the passenger’s well being. Since airlines won’t care for their passengers themselves, it is obvious someone else will have to mandate what is tolerable and what is not.
Mary,
I’ve heard lots of Delta lost luggage stories. Every time my ex flew somewhere for TDY or training, the Air Guard put him on Delta and his luggage got lost.
I spent several hours one time in New Orleans or Dallas (can’t remember which) on a flight back from Tampa because of questionable brakes. My kids were small and with my parents here at the airport, waiting. It took somewhere between 3 and 4 hours until we were allowed to take off, and the only thing I can say that the airline did for the passengers was break out the booze. *grin*
Chuck,
If a connecting flight with another airline is missed, most of the time, you’re SOL. What if you were flying for an important business meeting? What if you were flying to attend a funeral of a family member? Those hours spent on the ground could make huge a difference.
I have waited on a tarmac for 3 hours in Denver before. It sucked pretty bad.
Most of the time you really dont have a choice in what airline you can use if you ehat to go to a certain city on a specific day your stuck going with the airline that flys that route
Trying to get to KC, I sat on the tarmac at Lambert (StL) for 3 hours in July once. That certainly sucked. The problem was that American had overbooked the flight but somehow failed to get a true passenger list to KCI. KC thus thought our flight was way overweight and wouldn’t approve our landing. The take-off was delayed until the mixup was resolved. Meanwhile, in 100+ degree heat I sat in a business suit with no a/c until I was soaked. And pissed. ;)
A few months back I sat at another American gate (Dulles) for a couple hours while the American flght using our gate cleared up yet another mixup. Thank god it was winter this time.
Flying commercial has truly become a descent into hell.
That said, because passengers are almost guaranteed that some part of their flight is going to really suck (no food, over-booked flights, lost luggage, etc.) biz jet makers like Hawker/Beech, Cessna, Bombardier, and Gulfstream are going like gangbusters.
Commercial-flight hell = full Wichita employment.
If the service sucks and the majority of the flights are overpriced, why do we put up with it?
Easy answer: There’s really no alternative.
A friend, who lives in southern IL, and I were looking for alternatives to get us to NYC a few years ago (2003). She hates to fly and doesn’t drive long distances. We thought it might be fun to do Amtrak. Fun, maybe, but a sleeper was going to cost a fortune (about 5 times the airfare) and neither of us wanted to spend 3 days and NIGHTS in an upright seat. As it turned out, she wasn’t able to go, so I flew. Round trip was $214, including taxes.
This year, we’re planning Dallas. I checked airfare from Wichita. $302. Triple what it was when I flew to Big D in 1996 and more than double what it was to NYC 4 years ago.
I’ve decided to try to hitch a ride with other friends from Wichita and help with gas.
Travel sucks.
It’s a pity Southwest doesn’t do Wichita.
I am just saying that, even if the airline did not wish to return to the gate or send a bus to get people off, the LEAST they could do is circulate air in the cabin and receive a shipment of food and water- and a few new rolls of toilet paper for the passengers comfort. This is another example of big business treating customers like crap (airlines, banks and insurance companies seem to be very good at this) and people are getting sick of it.
RD- you can grab Airtran to Atlanta and fly back to Dallas for less than that!
KEVFederal law gives the airlines the “right” to hold passengers hostage — so the matter is a bit more serious.What would they do, in such cases, in a medical emergency? As for me, I would open the escape hatch in a heart beat if I thought that might get an EMS vehicle to the scene faster, but that would be risking Federal charges, wouldnt it?
I am willing to bet that such a case will happen, soon, if airlines dont fix these problems.
Bad air, junk food or no food, bad sanitation, anxiety, missed funerals, missed weddings, missed business deals.Cardiac Arrest?Stroke?Not long until that happens, if they keep this up!
Bill of rights idea?How about this, for a guy with kids who gets irritated at bad parenting:If you have a child on board who acts up, the crew can, upon complaint, turn off your inflight radio so that you hear, and take care of, your bratty kids!Yes, I am advocating a restriction, but I sat behind a kid that liked to throw things and would not quit screaming and crying and causing trouble, and the kid was sitting next to an oblivious adult with headphones on. This for a 3 hour flight!—-I think it was Warren Buffet who said that airlines, as an industry, have always been the least profitable businesses in America. They have always had problems, it seems.I think he said that 20 years ago!
“RD- you can grab Airtran to Atlanta and fly back to Dallas for less than that!”
Not from what I’ve checked, Kev. Round-trip from Wichita to Atlanta is $197. From Atlanta to DFW is $258. That’s $455 total for a Tuesday depart and Sunday return via Orbitz, and I’ve always gotten my best deals through there.
I’ve never found AirTran to have the best rates.
Make that $223 + $284= $507 adding the additional fees.
Now here’s the cute one. OKC to DFW is $98 (plus fees).
I can book a flight to OKC from ICT for $373 (+). The funny thing is, to do that, I fly from Wichita to Dallas then back to OKC.
Is this NUTS????
Long overdue.
I checked several options when I did hurricane relief recently. Bus was cheapest with 28 hour trip; Amtrak was twice what a plane ticket would cost and took 30+ hours (by way of Chicago > DC or Philly > MS/LA.
According to the Eagle, I have a 1/4 chance of having my luggage misplaced, worse if I use Continental or go through Atlanta.