FlyersRights.org to the Rescue!

Passengers aboard US Airways Flight #1576 received hotel, taxi and food vouchers thanks to passengers David Anderson and Peter Pimino, who had the presence of mind to use cell phones to call FlyersRights.org at 1-877-FLYERS-6 (1-877- 359-3776).

Flight #1576 was beset by mechanical troubles immediately upon boarding. Passengers were initially held on the tarmac for 90 minutes due to what they were told was a wiring problem. After returning to the gate for repairs to the wiring (during which passengers were allowed to return to the terminal for 15 minutes), passengers were re-boarded, only to be held on the tarmac for an additional 4 hours for yet another mechanical problem.

While passengers became increasingly restless (some screamed at the crew and actually threatened to open the emergency exits), Anderson and Pimino had the presence of mind to call FlyersRights.org. By now, it was 6:00 PM.

We advised them that, in the event of a mechanical delay, they were entitled to be re-booked immediately to an alternate flight or, in the event no flights are available, to hotel, taxi and food vouchers. We also asked them to use their cell phones to photograph the event; their photo appears above. Thanks to their quick thinking, the flight was immediately taken back to the gate, passengers were allowed re-booking (without a fee), and those who had to stay overnight were given cab fare, a meal and hotel accommodations.

Remember: whenever you’re stuck on the tarmac, call FlyersRights.org at 1-877-FLYERS-6 (1-877- 359-3776). If your delay is caused by mechanical problems, you have certain rights under the law.

Incidentally, this is one more reason why you should always carry a cell phone aboard an aircraft. You may need to make a vital call, a video or take photos to document your horror story.

Kate Hanni
FlyersRights.org

Data on Airlines’ On-Time Performance Raises Questions

June 16, 2009

Itineraries

By SUSAN STELLIN

The latest government statistics show that the airlines had a 79
percent on-time record in April, an improvement over the more typical
75 percent rate.

What those figures do not reveal, though, is that just two-thirds of
the flights that take off or land in the United States are counted,
making the recent gain more of an estimate than an accurate measure of
the industry’s overall performance.

The Transportation Department requires only airlines earning more than
1 percent of domestic passenger revenue to report data about flight
delays, cancellations, mishandled bags or other service problems. But
that leaves out roughly 25 percent of all domestic flights, many
operated by regional carriers, as well as about 1.3 million
international flights.

Passenger advocates have been pushing for a more comprehensive and
accurate reporting system, arguing that the reporting requirement was
written when regional carriers operated fewer flights. Even airline
analysts acknowledge that the system is flawed.

“The data is anecdotal at best,” said Michael Boyd, president of the
Boyd Group aviation consulting firm. “The entire reporting system
reflects an airline industry that no longer exists. It’s not a reliable
system. That 1 percent number leaves out a lot of carriers that are an
integral part of the major carriers’ operations.”

Some of the carriers not included in the data are Spirit Airlines,
Virgin America, Midwest Airlines, Colgan Air, Mesaba Aviation (a
subsidiary of Northwest Airlines) and many regional partners of the
larger carriers.

According to the Regional Airline Association, its members operate 52
percent of all domestic flights in the United States, up from 43
percent in 2000. Many fly under names that passengers know as
Continental Connection, Delta Connection, Northwest Airlink, United
Express and US Airways Express.

As the regional carriers’ operations have grown, some have moved into
the group required to report statistics to the Transportation
Department, among them Atlantic Southeast, ExpressJet, Comair, Mesa and
SkyWest. Pinnacle Airlines reports data voluntarily and American Eagle
has been reporting statistics for years.

Nineteen carriers now submit data to the department, versus 10 airlines
in 2002.

“We are considering expanding the reporting,” said David Smallen, a
spokesman for the department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, but
he declined to specify a timetable.

When the department issued its rule in 2002 requiring the carriers to
begin reporting information about the causes of delays, the agency
exempted smaller carriers and code-share partners from the rule, citing
the cost burden. But the text of the rule stated, “The department
intends to revisit, at a later date, the issue of whether to expand the
air carrier universe for on-time reporting.”

At the time the department was considering the rule, the Air Transport
Association, which represents the nation’s largest carriers, submitted
comments urging the department to include smaller airlines in the
mandate.

The association said that the carriers exempt from the reporting
“contribute a disproportionate, higher number of airplanes to the
congestion mix since these airplanes generally have fewer seats.”

David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, said
via e-mail that the group had “no current formal position” on the
matter.

Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association, said he
believed that adding more carriers to the statistics would not
“materially change the overall numbers.”

“Isn’t the 75 percent, which is now being captured, a big enough
sample?” he asked.

But the airlines point to even small gains in the on-time statistics,
and Congress and government agencies rely on the data to determine how
to address problems like delays.

In fact, adding more regional carriers to the reporting requirement may
significantly affect the statistics, since there is some evidence that
smaller planes may be subject to more or longer delays.

In comments filed with the department as it considered the 2002 rule,
the Regional Airline Association noted that regional carriers were
subject to “a high level of ground delays not experienced by major
carriers,” and aviation experts acknowledge that larger planes tend to
be given higher priority when airport backups occur.

The group FlyersRights has also been pressing the Transportation
Department to more closely monitor the reporting of long tarmac delays,
expand the requirement to include smaller carriers and collect better
data on the causes of delays.

According to the statistics, only 5 percent of all flight delays are
attributed to factors within the airlines’ control, which means that,
for a vast majority of delays, the carriers are not responsible for
accommodating passengers with refunds, hotel vouchers or flights on
other airlines. Most delays are attributed to national aviation system
issues, bad weather or a combination of the two.

But passengers continue to question the official data.

Teresa Chaisson and her daughter were on a Delta flight (operated by
Comair) from Washington Reagan to Kennedy Airport in New York on April
21, and spent more than five hours on the tarmac waiting to take off
before the flight was canceled around 11 p.m.

The official statistics say that the flight was canceled due to weather
— yet every other flight left Reagan airport that day — and that the
plane sat on the tarmac only for a little over three hours, not five.

“I would bet on my two kids’ lives it was definitely not that short a
duration,” Ms. Chaisson said. “There shouldn’t be any chance for
inaccurate reporting.”

Copyright 2009 - New York Times Company

FLYERS DEMAND CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ON REGIONAL CARRIERS’ SAFETY

“Closed-Door
Meetings of Washington Special Interests and ‘Voluntary’ Inside Fixes
Won’t Cut It This Time,” Says Hanni

WASHINGTON (June 10) – The nation’s largest consumer group
representing airline passengers today demanded “immediate,
comprehensive and enforceable legislation” to protect the 160 million
passengers of the nation’s regional airlines.

The demand came in the wake of shocking revelations at a three-day
National Transportation Safety Board inquiry about shoddy safety
practices by regional carrier Colgan Air, a subsidiary of Pinnacle
Airlines, which operated Continental flight 3407 from Newark to Buffalo
on which 50 people died on February 12.  The NTSB hearing revealed
that inexperienced, overworked, poorly-paid and poorly-trained pilots
may have reacted inappropriately when the aircraft stalled after an ice
buildup on the wings.

“Closed-door meetings of Washington special interests and ‘voluntary’
inside fixes won’t cut it this time,” said FlyersRights.org Executive
Director Kate Hanni.  “We’ve had years of FAA inaction and
closed-door cozy regulation, and it led to calamity in just a few
seconds.  What’s needed now is for Congress to assure the flying
public that the crews of regional carriers are experienced,
well-trained, well-rested – and better paid than if they’d taken a job
managing a Bob Evans restaurant.”

Yesterday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator
Randy Babbitt suggested a “voluntary” approach to safety improvements
by the regional carriers, following “closed-door” meetings next week
involving airline industry executives and union officials.

“Airline executives and union bosses aren’t the ones who risk their
lives on these flights every day.  These regional carriers
represent half of all U.S. flights and carry 22% of all passengers
who’ll board a commercial aircraft today.  We have every right to
open, transparent action by our Congress, not handshakes between
industry executives and bureaucrats behind closed doors.”

FlyersRights.org is the largest airline passengers’ rights association
in the U.S. with 25,000 members.  Besides the FlyersRights.org
website, the organization maintains a toll-free hotline
(1-877-FLYERS-6) which passengers and airline employees can use to
anonymously report breaches of health and safety standards.

FOR BACKGROUND, SEE Washington Post Article

A Flight from Paradise to Hell - Photo Update!

Napa, CA – June 4, 2009: Delta flight 510 from Turks and Caicos bound
for Atlanta on April 10th, 2009 started out like any other flight for
vacationing tourists who had spent a week in the sunny Caribbean
paradise. The passengers, spring breakers, families, and retirees were
tired and a little depressed that their vacations were over, but they
had no idea how their vacation would end.

The flight was scheduled to land at Hartsfield International Airport in
Atlanta at 5:04 pm, but the plane circled for a while due to
thunderstorms below, and was ultimately diverted to Columbia, S.C.
Metropolitan Airport where it landed at 5:44 pm. And there they sat,
and sat, and sat. Five and a half hours later they were finally
permitted to get off the plane - not into the terminal, but into a
cold, stark room with about 20 folding chairs.









Over 120 passengers, US citizens guarded by armed security personnel
and police, and nowhere for men, women and children to sit but a cold,
concrete floor. “One elderly woman had to be removed from our “cell” by
paramedics,” said one passenger. Listen here: Hotline Call

U.S. citizens, stuck for six hours on the tarmac, then thrown into a
concrete cell for hours and treated like criminals in their own country.

Some eleven hours after they boarded the plane in Turks and Caicos, the
criminals were moved to the terminal area that was wrapped in police
tape, and finally given the chance to purchase food. One family's
bill came to $63.85 for seven scrumptious airport hamburgers!



And a couple of hours later Delta bought them pizzas!





Congress is currently considering a new FAA Reauthorization bill that
several consumer groups have urged that passengers’ rights legislation
be included that define specific limits for tarmac delays, and that
would require airlines and airports to develop contingency plans for
such emergencies.

This stranding event is outrageous. Here again we have senior citizens
and children trapped without food and water. And neither the airport
nor the airline had a plan, despite Delta's voluntary "commitments" to
deal effectively with these tarmac strandings.

FlyersRights.org has 25,000 members and is the largest non-profit
airline passengers rights coalition in the U.S. The organization
operates a toll-free hotline 1-877-359-3776 to assist stranded airline
passengers. Please contact Kate Hanni at 707-337-0328 or or
Kate@flyersrights.com.

FLYERSRIGHTS.ORG AND CANADIAN COUNTERPARTS: LET OUR PEOPLE OFF -- THE TARMAC THAT IS!

“Treat them like citizens and paying customers – not cattle,” says Hanni.

WASHINGTON (May 20) – Days before millions of Americans board aircraft for the Memorial Day holiday, airline passengers’ rights advocates from both Canada and the United States joined forces on Capitol Hill today demanding that both countries impose enforceable limits on how long commercial airlines can keep passengers onboard aircraft sitting on the tarmac.

“The House is about to take up reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration, but their bill allows the airlines themselves to decide how long we should sit on the tarmac,” said Kate Hanni, founder and Executive Director of FlyersRights.org, America’s largest consumer organization representing airline passengers. “There aren’t any limits, and airlines get to decide how long passengers can be held -- 6, 7, 8 hours or even longer.”

At a Capitol Hill news conference, Hanni was joined by Hon. Jim Maloway, a New Democrat Member of the Canadian Parliament from Manitoba, who has introduced a tough “Airline Passenger Bill of Rights” bill modeled after a similar measure in effect since 1991 in the European Union, which he says has reduced overbookings and flight cancellations significantly. “American and Canadian international airlines -- Air Canada or American or Continental – have been operating under the European laws for their flights in Europe since 1991. Why should an American or Canadian passenger receive better treatment in Europe than at home?” Maloway asked.

Under his legislation, Canadian passengers would receive compensation in the event of cancellations or overbooking; be provided food vouchers in the event of a flight delay longer than two hours; be given lodging if the delay lasts overnight; and passengers could get off the aircraft if their flights are delayed on the tarmac for longer than one hour. Additionally, passengers would receive $500 for each additional hour that their flight is delayed. Food, water, working bathrooms and temperature controls would also be required. Information and details on MP Maloway’s bill are available at http://www.jimmaloway.ca/airline.html.

Bruce Cran, President of the Consumer Association of Canada, noted that in reaction to Maloway’s bill, four Canadian airlines have voluntarily established a 90-minute limit on tarmac delays. “If four of the Canadian airlines can deplane their passengers after 90 minutes on the tarmac, they can all do so after one hour,” he said.

In contrast to the stringent requirements of the European Union and Maloway’s Canadian proposal, the bill scheduled to be debated in the House of Representatives tomorrow would merely require airlines to provide food, water, and temperature controls during tarmac delays and to disclose records of their delays.

Yet no statutory limits on tarmac delays are contained in the bill, Hanni noted. “Under the pending FAA Reauthorization bill, the airlines themselves will decide how long we have to sit on the tarmac,” she charged.

In remarks prepared for delivery later today before the House Aviation Subcommittee, Hanni acknowledged what she called “improvements” in the legislation compared to a similar measure last year, but implored the subcommittee to “not break our arms patting ourselves on the back for requiring that an airline provide basic human necessities like food, water, temperature controls and working bathrooms – not when passengers are being stranded on a tarmac for seven, eight, even nine hours.”

Urging Congress to include a “single, enforceable, industry-wide limit on the amount of time passengers can be held on board an aircraft on the tarmac,” Ms. Hanni asked lawmakers to “imagine 8 or 9 hours inside a sealed tube: the screaming children, the people in coach, In the middle seats. For them, these are not the ‘Friendly Skies.’ It’s time they’re treated like citizens and paying customers, not cattle.”

CONTACT:
MIKE COLLINS
TEL: (202) 494-6105
EMAIL: mikecollinspr@cox.net

###

Stranded on the Tarmac – A Flight from Paradise to Hell When will Congress Act?

Napa, CA – April 22, 2009: Delta flight 510 from Turks and Caicos bound for Atlanta on April 10th, 2009 started out like any other flight for vacationing tourists who had spent a week in the sunny Caribbean paradise. The passengers, spring breakers, families, and retirees were tired and a little depressed that their vacations were over, but they had no idea how their vacation would end.

The flight was scheduled to land at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta at 5:04 pm, but the plane circled for a while due to thunderstorms below, and was ultimately diverted to Columbia, S.C. Metropolitan Airport where it landed at 5:44 pm. And there they sat, and sat, and sat. Five and a half hours later they were finally permitted to get off the plane - not into the terminal, but into a cold, stark room with about 20 folding chairs. Over 120 passengers, US citizens guarded by armed security personnel and police, and nowhere for men, women and children to sit but a cold, concrete floor. “One elderly woman had to be removed from our “cell” by paramedics,” said one passenger.

There were passengers taking videos during this ordeal. We urge them come forward so the public at large can see what it's like being stuck for six hours on the tarmac, then thrown into a dungeon for three hours and treated like criminals in their own country.

Congress is currently considering a new FAA Reauthorization bill that several consumer groups have urged that passengers’ rights legislation be included that define specific limits for tarmac delays, and that would require airlines and airports to develop contingency plans for such emergencies.

This latest stranding event is outrageous. Here again we have senior citizens and children trapped without food and water. And neither the airport nor the airline had a plan, despite Delta's voluntary "commitments" to deal effectively with these tarmac strandings.

FlyersRights.org has 25,000 members and is the largest non-profit airline passengers rights coalition in the U.S. The organization operates a toll-free hotline 1-877-359-3776 to assist stranded airline passengers. Please contact Kate Hanni at 707-337-0328 or or Kate@flyersrights.com.

FlyersRights Airport Express Lanes Open for Business

Airlines and TSA Reach Agreement with Airline Consumer Organization

Napa, CA. 04/01/2009: Kate Hanni, executive director of FlyersRights.org announced today that the airline consumer rights organization has reached an agreement with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and major U.S airlines that allows members of the organization to bypass security lines and airline gates, by driving their cars straight to their airplanes and having them unloaded by specially trained airline valets.

“All they have to do is show a special ID badge issued by the coalition”, said Ms. Hanni. Recipients of the badge must be members of the FlyersRights organization which they can do by signing the organization’s website petition at www.flyersrights.org, and pass a strict security background check. “After that, it’s clear sailing. We even have valets that will park their cars after they unload their baggage at the cargo areas near the planes”, Ms Hanni added.

Unfortunately, FlyersRights.org can’t guarantee what will happen after their members get onto the plane, or that the plane will actually go anywhere. “Congress has still not passed a law giving passengers the right to food, water, usable restrooms or the right to deplane after three hours”, said Ms. Hanni. “But we are making the flying experience a little more enjoyable with this new agreement”.

Spokesperson for the Big Airline Association, Magnum PeeWee said, “We reached this agreement with FlyersRights.org to prevent their members from mixing with the rest of the flying population.”

CAPBOR has over 24,000 members and is the largest non-profit airline passengers rights Coalition. For more information, contact Kate Hanni directly at 707-337-0328 or Kate@flyersrights.com.

###

FlyersRights.org Responds to Department of Transportation Rulemaking Proposal

FlyersRights.org (formerly Coalition for an Airline Passengers Bill of Rights) today filed comments on the U.S. Department of Transportation's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on "Enhancing Airline Passenger Protections."

Our Comments: http://www.flyersrights.com/FlyersRightsMarch2009NPRMComments2.pdf

-Summary of position

In short we commented that the U.S. DOT should strengthen and adopt a final regulation on this topic as soon as possible. DOT must set minimum standards for U.S. airlines to meet in preparing their Contingency Plans to deal with lengthy tarmac delays - rather than letting each airline set its own guidelines without Federal review and approval. Those Contingency Plans and the 1999 -- unenforceable -- "Customer First Commitments" of the major airlines must be included in all airline Contracts of Carriage -- their contract agreement with their passengers. It is also critically important that DOT monitor the language the airlines insert in their Contracts of Carriage so that those airline promises and other obligations will be easily understood by laymen and not be so conditioned by exceptions that a state court (small claims) judge wouldn't be able to decide the passenger's claim.

- Submitting comments

We are inviting our members and any other members of the public to review our comments and, if you agree with them, posting a letter of support on that Docket (in Regulations.gov) indicating the degree of your support, and any other supplemental comments (or differences) that you would like to offer.

While the technical deadline for DOT's receiving comments is today (March 9), DOT will accept, post and fully consider your comments if received within the next few days.

The easiest way to file comments is by faxing your letter to (202)493-2251. It usually takes about one business day for the DOT to post comments. You may also submit your comments directly into the docket portal (go to http://www.regulations.gov and follow the online instructions for submitting comments), or by mail:

Docket Management Facility,
U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200
New Jersey Ave., SE., West Building
Ground Floor, Room W12–140,
Washington, DC 20590–0001.

At a minimum, include the docket number in your heading as we have done so that your letter will be recorded in the correct docket:

Docket No. DOT-OST-2007-0022
RIN No. 2105-AD72

Here is a link to the DOT Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that we filed our comments against.

http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/ContentViewer?objectId=09000064807aecba&disposition=attachment&contentType=pdf

Sincerely yours,

Kate Hanni
FlyersRights.org

FlyersRights.org Report Card: Airlines Flunk Again With 1,232 Excessive Tarmac Delays in 2008

Delta Worst For Long Tarmac Delays, Southwest Best In Customer Treatment

WASHINGTON (March 11) – Noting 1,232 tarmac delays of 3 hours or more last year, FlyersRights.org today issued its annual “Airline Stranding Report Card.”

Get your copy here>> 2008 Airline Stranding Report Card

The longest delay, 10+ hours on the tarmac, was on Delta Airlines Flight 1201 from Atlanta to West Palm Beach, FL, on January 16, 2008. With no food, water or temperature controls, passengers were given misleading messages about takeoff times as the plane was de-iced multiple times.

“Too many Americans are trapped in tubes on the tarmac for too long,” said FlyersRights.org Executive Director Kate Hanni. “It’s time for Congress to limit tarmac delays to 3 hours.” Hanni has lobbied for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights since being stranded herself for 9 hours on an American Airlines flight in 2006.

The report card says Delta had the greatest number of tarmac delays over 3 hours. Southwest Airlines was the best rated, for incorporating into their contract an actionable strategy to move customers off planes stuck on the tarmac and for providing food, water, trash removal, toilet cleaning and temperature controls.

The report was based on a combination of media accounts, government statistics and verified eyewitness accounts sent in to its website (http://www.flyersrights.org).

This year’s Special Award winners included:

• Delta won the "When you are on the ground they treat you like dirt" Award, for having the most and longest strandings and the most callous disregard for passengers.
• American Airlines won the “Flying Fickle Finger of Fate” Award, for diverting a 13 hour flight from Japan to Detroit, where it sat on the tarmac for 7.5 hours, forcing passengers to spend 20.5 hours on board. Vomit was in the sink and toilets, and the toilets were inoperable.
• US Airways won the “Nausea” Award for having the worst overflowing toilets.
• Southwest Airlines won the "My Heavens" award for best airline overall, since Southwest maintains a “contract of carriage” that protects passengers against strandings.
  

“It’s not just a matter of passenger convenience, it’s a matter of public safety. I wonder if heroic Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger and his crew could have performed as they did after 7, 9 or even 12 hours on the tarmac?” Hanni asked.

Canada and US Mark Up Passengers Rights Bills on Same Day

For Immediate Release:
Contact: Kate Hanni 707-337-0328 for more info.

Canada and United States to Consider Airline Passengers Rights on Same Day...
March 5th, 2009
Joint US/Canada Teleconference Wednesday: March 4th at 11:30 am EST

Who: Kate Hanni Exec. Dir. FlyersRights.org (CAPBOR) will be joined by HON. Woodrow French, Mayor of Newfoundland Canada, HON. Jim Maloway, Member of Parliament, Bruce Cran President of Consumer's Association of Canada to participate in a Teleconference discussing the serendipity of Canada and the US considering an "Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights" on the same day.

What/When: The teleconference will take place March 4th at 11:30 am ET, the day before FlyersRights legislation is to be considered in both the Canadian House of Commons and the Committee of Transportation and Infrastructure of the US House of Representatives.

On Thursday March 5th the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is scheduled to Mark up HR: 915 at 11:00 am, which contains an airline passengers bill of rights, simultaneously the Canadian Parliament House of Commons will debate C-310 the Canadian Airline Passengers Bill of Rights.

For an update on these two bills that will transform airline passengers rights in North America, please join us at 11:30 am Eastern Time to find out what these bills offer and why North America needs meaningful Passengers Rights legislation!

- Toll-Free Dial-In Number: 888-296-6828- Toll Dial-In Number: 916-233-0780- Participant PIN: 193856#

Call us!

To Book any of the participants call Kate Hanni (707) 337-0328