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Mike Thompson
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Consumer advocate Kate Hanni of Napa fielded media interviews all day Tuesday on Capitol Hill as she hailed the latest move to get limits into federal law on how long airline passengers can be stranded on tarmacs.
Hanni stood with Rep. Mike Thompson as the St. Helena Democrat introduced the 2011 version of his airline passengers’ bill of rights, which gives travelers the right to get off flights after three hours on the tarmac.
“He really set the gold standard,” Hanni said in a telephone interview, calling Thompson’s bill “the toughest legislation” to date.
Kate Hanni
The bill also requires airlines to provide food, water, adequate restroom facilities and ventilation aboard grounded aircraft.
Hanni, a former real estate broker, has mounted a one-woman crusade for passenger rights since she and her family were stuck in Austin, Texas for 9½ hours in 2006.
Thompson, whose district includes Napa, filed his first bill of rights measure in response to Hanni’s campaign the following year. It did not become law, but in late 2009, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ordered airlines to adhere to many of its standards and set fines of up to $27,000 per passenger for tarmac delays exceeding three hours.
“We’ve done quite well, I think,” Thompson said. But federal regulations “can come and go at any time,” if not enacted by Congress, he said.
His bill attracted 22 initial co-sponsors, including seven other California Democrats and two Republicans, whose support might prove important in a GOP-controlled House.
He also noted that Hanni’s web-based 25,000-member organization, FlyersRights.org, has followers in virtually every congressional district. “This is very popular with just plain folks,” Thompson said.
Some Republicans have fought the Transportation Department rules since they took effect last April, Hanni said.
In the last eight months, only 15 domestic flights have been stuck on the ground for more than three hours, Hanni said.
Three flights were delayed in December, but none of them due to the massive post-Christmas blizzard, the Associated Press reported, noting that 584 flights were stranded more than three hours in the same period a year ago.
JetBlue, which cancelled 1,400 flights in five days related to the December blizzard, said it resulted in about $30 million in lost revenue. But Hanni said the weather was faulted, not the federal rule. “We expected the airlines to blame us and they haven’t,” she said.
Passengers aboard foreign airlines, which are not subject to the current three-hour limit, were stranded for more than seven hours during the storm at New York’s Kennedy Airport. Thompson’s bill applies the limit to international flights.
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Mr Thompson’s last big legislation was to ‘tone down’ the commercials on the TV.
Didn’t work here, as TV 50 still blares the commercials. My remote control finger is going to get carpal tunnel. We should have rules, laws and fines for everything, as we humans can’t figure things out on our own anymore.
This will be one of those well intended bills that’ll pass and everybody will think that flying will get better but what will happen is the price of a flight will go up. Anytime the government gets involved prices go up. I challenge anybody to give me an example of a bill that has helped consumers that hasn’t caused prices to climb or a fee.
Airline customer service is, simply, the pits. But, why is this so?
Could it be because airlines have discovered that Americans will choose the cheapest airline fare they can find and then bitch about everything. But when offered better service for more money, they will again choose the cheapest flight . . . . and then bitch some more.
In short, we get what we pay for. Oh, and don’t remind me that American airlines have a safety record that is absolutely amazing. Despite cheap fares, the odds of dying in a plane crash are too low to seriously worry about. Can one say that about alternative methods of travel?
I dislike flying. The airport is crowded, the TSA needlessly intrusive, planes are dirty, and the lack of space insufferable. But in a capitalist society merchants sell only what the public will buy. Right now they’re buying cheap seats.
The airlines have a customer service policy that approximates “sit down and shut up” – Since they are propped up and bailed out by the government I think we need a bill of rights to give customers some decent rights.
If you don’t like the way an airline treats you then fly with another. Your not forced to fly with a particular airline. They will soon get the message.
I doubt that the Feds will ever fine an airline $27k per passenger. Sounds good though.