Q&A: Air Passengers Need a Bill of Rights
Kate Hanni was just a real-estate broker from Napa Valley, Calif., when she left her house for a flight to Mobile, Ala.–via Dallas–for a much-needed vacation. When storms in Dallas forced her first flight and 88 other American Airlines planes to be diverted and delayed, Hanni sat in a plane on the ground in Austin for nine-plus hours. Afterward, she formed the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights, which would enshrine minimal standards of passenger treatment in law. She talked to U.S. News about her ordeal and the campaign for change.
Tell me about the experience you had in December. Had you ever imagined something like this could happen?
No, I hadn't. My husband was in charge of international accounts for Beringer Wine for 12 years and traveled 80 percent of the year. And he never experienced–nor was he even aware of–the airline's ability to hold you indefinitely under certain circumstances. He'd had a few instances in China where he was stuck for four or so hours on the tarmac but never anything like this, where we were just put in what was basically an airline parking lot indefinitely. We weren't even delayed on the tarmac; we were off to the side, just watching other airplanes come and go. They didn't even seem to have any plans to let us off.
How long did you sit there in the end?
About nine and a half hours, but that was after our flight. We had left from San Francisco between 6:30 and 7 in the morning and touched down at approximately noon in Austin. And it wasn't until about 9:30 pm that we were able to get off the plane and set foot in the jetway; by then, we were shell-shocked, and all the restaurants in the airport were closed. My family and many other families ended up waiting several hours at baggage claim even after [our ordeal] only to find out from a security guard that they'd not only made a decision not to remove our bags but had never announced it.
There was a lack of information and, frankly, a lack of truthfulness from American Airlines. They kept telling us throughout the wait that we might still make our connecting flights. They kept telling us when we would call that we were confirmed on a connecting flight and that our flight was just delayed, not canceled. We now know that by not canceling it, they didn't have to refund the unused portion of our tickets. Had we gotten off the plane earlier, they would have had to formally cancel the flight.
Did you ever get any money from back from American?
Each of us got a $500 travel voucher with American Airlines but not until the national media got involved many weeks later. It had been like a snowball effect of media. It was just unbelievable.
I've read a bit about the toilets overflowing. Did that really happen?
They did not empty our toilets.... I stated one time that the toilets were brimming and I stated other times that the toilets overflowed, and it had to do with when I went in the bathroom. When I went in at 7 1/2 hours, they were brimming; when I went in at nine hours, they were overflowing. To be honest, you had to be a gymnast to deal with a situation like that. There were people that went to the bathroom in their pants.
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