MFing worthless commission on Airline passenger rights

[n2doc]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal task force that spent nearly a year wrestling with ways to assist people delayed for hours aboard planes parked on tarmacs has finalized its recommendations -- none of which requires airlines and airports to do anything.


Guidelines on tarmac delays do not require airlines or airports to provide more services for stranded passengers.

The tarmac task force, as it is informally known, is expected to vote Wednesday on guidelines for airlines and airports on how to craft their own contingency plans for dealing with lengthy tarmac delays.

Among the problems: The task force was unable to agree on whether "lengthy" is one hour, two hours or 10 hours.

Kate Hanni, a task force member and passenger rights advocate, said Tuesday there is nothing in the draft document that requires airlines or airports to provide additional services for passengers stranded aboard airplanes going nowhere.

The report "is a set of best practices, but there's nothing enforceable where a passenger can say, 'I won't be held up for more than three hours or five hours or eight hours, or without a glass of water or a sandwich,"' said Hanni, founder of the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/11/12/airline.delays.ap/index.html

I don't need a year to tell the fuckers: 1 hour is long, 2 hours is unacceptable. Period. They should have put the lot of them on a small plane in summer in Laguardia, and let them sit for 10 hours....I'll bet they could have figured it out. :grr:

[mediaman007]

1. I like that idea! Recommended!

[wryter2000]

2. Figures

What a crock. This is why I'm definitely an Amtrak traveller. I'm not paying anyone to pen me up.

[n2doc]

3. You have got to be freaking joking

Some of the worst delays I have ever had were on Amtrak. They once literally unhooked our car and left it in the middle of the yard in a thunderstorm. I had to go and find a porter to help us gather up our stuff and carry it to the station.
Yeah, there is more room to wander about on a train, but getting in 10 hours late because of freight train holdups isn't fun either. Nor is leaving 10 hours late due to the same reason.

[wryter2000]

4. Yeah, it's late

But I'm usually comfortable while I'm waiting. Plus, it isn't something they're doing.