Q&A: Air Passengers Need a Bill of Rights
But your critics say this measure will only increase cancellations and cause more delays and headaches for business travelers.
First of all, in our situation, I don't know how that's possible! Had they canceled our flight, we would have had the opportunity to set ourselves up in another way. They didn't give us a chance to advocate for ourselves in any way. When they're holding us and we don't want to be held, there's no possibilities in that conversation other than what they want and what serves them–and yet, we're the paying passengers. In what other business in the world is that the way it is? It's just unfathomable to me.
What else do these bills do besides just allowing people delayed on the tarmac to get off the plane after three hours?
Sen. Barbara Boxer's bill in the Senate is limited just to addressing these [on-tarmac] flight delays, but I actually spoke to her office, and they said they didn't realize all of the troubles that had happened during our flight and they apologized. They were just thinking about the JetBlue incident when they wrote their legislation, and they included the right to get off the plane after three hours and the responsibility of the airlines to provide for basic needs like food, water, and restrooms during onboard flight delays.
The House bill, our bill, includes a return of baggage within 24 hours, and it raises the ceiling to $3,000 for what you can get compensated if you have to replace your luggage. There are also two 30-minute extensions [allowed on the three-hour deplaning requirement] included in the law because of the airlines' being so vocal about the idea that they could be taken out of the lineup to take off or perhaps have a situation where at three hours and one minute they're able to take off.
It also has something very smart: It calls for a government study to be done to determine how a plane could be returned to its place in line after going back to a gate to let people off. They also have to have real reporting on flight delays on company websites, and flights that are chronically delayed, meaning more than 40 percent of the time, must also be noted on the airline's website. People just can't get that information.
Have you ever been involved in any sort of advocacy campaign before?
No, I have not. I volunteer teaching music at my son's school, and I'm on the symphony board in Napa and have done a few fundraising events for different causes. When I decided to do this, I had no idea the magnitude of what I was getting into. According to PIRG, there has been no airline passenger advocacy group, no place for people to go when they have trouble with the airlines.
I've gotten thousands of E-mails from people that I've read. I've talked to them on the phone and listened to their stories. I talked to a woman whose daughter was having a seizure on an airplane, and she was stuck there for four hours. It was a traumatic event. On some flights, they won't allow people during these long delays to even get up and walk because of security concerns. I talked to someone who went to the bathroom in his pants in a first-class seat because of such a situation.
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