John Dean: Airline Passengers, Beware: Government Does Not Protect Your Rights When You Fly

[babylonsister]

Airline Passengers, Beware: The Government Does Not Protect Your Rights When You Fly
by John W. Dean | April 4, 2008



This is the first in a two-part series of columns by the author on the lack of legal protection for airline passengers. -- JT

Several years ago, I was stuck on an airplane that sat on the tarmac for just over three hours before taking off. As we waited, a flight attendant treated passengers just as a good Nazi might have. With this experience in mind, I applauded the fact that New York lawmakers recently took action to deal with the growing problem of imprisoning passengers upon planes from which, despite many-hour waits, they are forbidden to disembark.

Unfortunately, that very effort -- which was going to be followed by several other states' reforms -- has been overturned by U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Meanwhile, Congress has completely failed to respond to the problem, apparently bowing to pressure from the airlines, which oppose such reforms.

If you have not personally experienced this type of problem, you are lucky. It is a horrid situation, and there is nothing you can do about it. When you board a commercial airliner in the United States for a domestic flight, you have virtually contracted away your rights by purchasing and accepting your ticket to hell (metaphorically speaking).

Passenger Imprisonment and Airline Hubris: One Story Illustrates A Problem Many Travelers Endure

As a frequent flyer, I have had endured long delays (both on the ground and in flight patterns) but my first three-hour-plus delay was particularly unpleasant, because a young lady seated near me was having an awful time with her child, and Nurse Ratched (the harridan of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") was playing head flight attendant that evening.

It was the last flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles, during Summer 2000. Only after we pulled away from the gate did the captain announce that there would be "a slight delay" because of electrical storms in the area. Our short delay had already lasted about an hour when the young child in her mother's arms awoke and started crying. The young mother was in my row, seated by the window, and she rang the flight attendant call button. She explained to the flight attendant that the TSA had refused to let her take the child's water bottle through security, and asked if the flight attendant could bring the child some water.

more...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/13855

[valerief]

1. One could always cause a ruckus and get escorted off the plane.

I think a planeload of passengers screaming and tearing up the seats might help them get off the plane. Open the emergency door, perhaps?

[TomInTib]

2. Twenty-six hours from Manhattan to Las Vegas.

And six weeks of walking pneumonia.

Valentine's Day, 2007.

[babylonsister]

3. Jeeze, that sounds nightmarish. Happy Valentines Day.

:yoiks:

[Gman]

4. Jeez... I was just fine getting on a plane in Pittsburgh for Vegas

4 1/2 hours later I had a horrible cold. I was sick for a week.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

5. We were retuning to Tampa from

a family do in Austin several years ago. Weather fine in Austin, crappy t-storms holding just over Houston where we had a layover (same pilot, same aircraft). Delay on take off, pull back, return to the gate, pull back, return to the gate. A flight attendant buckled in next to me.
'You look calm' she said. Yeah, me and the two bloodys I'd had. I don't like to fly.
After the third return to the gate the pilot all but ordered us off the plane. If we could wait to fly out tomorrow, we should. If he didn't have to do it he would not. We bailed. The only catch was our checked luggage may go on without us if it couldn't be off loaded in time.
Luggage was there, spent another night in Austin. Our expense, but a great place.