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.
What sort of response have you gotten from people since you began this campaign? Is this a huge problem?
This is a huge problem. A few days ago, the Associated Press gave me a statistic from the Department of Transportation that said there were 36 flights that prior to departure sat for longer than five hours in the United States for 2006. But the operative phrase is "prior to departure." They don't have any statistic device yet for planes like ours that have left the airport and are just diverted–and I think that's intentional. I met with [Sen. Jay] Rockefeller's office and [Sen. Trent] Lott's office–the heads of the aviation subcommittee in the Senate–earlier today and I said to them, 'If these stranding incidents are such a statistical improbability, then why are the airlines fighting this so hard?' If it's not really happening all that often, then our legislation [which lets passengers deplane after delays on the tarmac of three or more hours] shouldn't have that much of an effect.
I have enough letters from people with exact flight numbers to convince me this is a big deal. I'm receiving text messages from people while they're sitting on planes–or their families are on planes and they want to know if I can help.... It's also worth noting, when [the feds] say complaints are down about these sorts of delays, that may be fundamental to the fact that no one I've talked to had any idea they should talk to the Department of Transportation about what's happened to them.
How many people have signed your petition for this bill so far?
Just a hair less than 14,000
Do you get the sense that people will support this measure on the Hill?
Definitely. The response they give me really depends on the number of constituents who have called their office. If there are lots, then obviously the response is very good. If they haven't heard from someone, they aren't saying that they're not supporting it. They've asked me this week to sort the petition list so they can see how many of their constituents are in our coalition. We also have the [U.S.] Public Interest Research Group's support, which has, like, a million members of something. They're in the process of sending out a letter now asking for cosponsorship in the Congress and on the Senate side.
Honestly, this has happened so fast. I'm being told that this has been extremely swift for this type of legislation to have been introduced on both sides, and now, it's all about gathering the support that is necessary, and that's what we're up to. I also believe there's business traveler support. I interact with some of my husband's business partners, who include people like the chairman of the board of Peet's Coffee [& Tea], the head of the Beringer Wine Estates, and a former board member of American Airlines, of all things, and I've asked them how much time is probably lost per year because of flight delays. And they've told me at least 20 hours out of a year of traveling for a member of an organization. Now that's extraordinary.
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.
What do you make of the idea that with all the bad publicity, the airlines will clean up these problems on their own?
They have no credibility on this issue. They've made commitments before, and they've broken them. When the airlines first had these problems in 1999, they said they would do something, and we believed that they would and they didn't. And then in 2001, of course, 9/11 happened and there was a lot of sympathy for the airlines, and people said, 'OK, we trust you. You're going through a hard time.' But the public sympathy is drying up now. There are a lot of unhappy people out there.