Let the holiday stranding begin

Press Democrat

Winter storms in parts of the nation combined with Friday's start of the Thanksgiving travel season that puts about 2 million people a day on airplanes portend a possible repeat of last year's mass delays.

"It's prime time for stranding," said Kate Hanni of Napa, a real estate broker turned consumer advocate.

Despite her crusade for an airline passengers' bill of rights -- boosted by North Coast Rep. Mike Thompson's legislative effort -- air travelers have no more protection from hours-long onboard strandings than they did a year ago.

A task force created to formulate plans for dealing with "tarmac delays" issued a report last week that set no firm rules for airlines nor guaranteed relief for passengers, leaving the responsibility to individual airlines.

Mandatory time limits, such as three hours advocated by Hanni, will backfire and cause more delays and flight cancellations, said Dave Castelveter of the Air Transport Association, an airline industry trade group.

And some airlines, such as JetBlue and Southwest, have adopted policies for dealing with delayed flights, including vouchers for inconvenienced passengers.

Hanni, who put her 17-year real estate career on hold to campaign for the flying public's rights, said the airlines can still "hold passengers against their will in a sealed tube on the tarmac for an indefinite period of time."

Hanni and Thompson said the task force's report leaves the public unprotected, three days before the start of the 12-day Thanksgiving travel season -- the busiest air travel time of the year -- when about 24 million people will fly.

"It didn't do anybody any great favors," said Thompson, D-St. Helena, whose legislation stalled this year in the Senate.

The task force appointed by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters voted 34-1 to adopt the guidelines. Peters described the task force's recommendation as a "model contingency planning document" for airlines and airports to use in formulating their own responses to groundings.

Hanni, who was stranded with her family for nine hours in Austin, Texas, in December 2006, cast the lone "nay" vote.

About 4,600 American Airlines passengers were stuck along with her that day on various runways across the country, and their plight was magnified by the Valentine's Day 2007 stranding of 100,000 JetBlue passengers, also during severe weather.

More than 24,000 people have signed the online petition maintained by Hanni's group, the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights. Bathed in media attention, Hanni became a familiar face on Capitol Hill and won kudos from Travel Weekly and ForbesLife Executive Woman magazines.

But she failed to convince Congress.

Passengers aboard weather-grounded airplanes are not legally entitled to food, water, toilets or cabin ventilation -- which Thompson's bill guaranteed.

Nor is there a limit -- Hanni wants three hours -- to how long passengers may be kept aboard a grounded plane.

Thompson, who makes about 30 coast-to-coast round trips a year, said his flights have rested on the tarmac for two to three hours.

Even though he's a congressman, when it comes to a flight crew's decision, "I don't think they care," Thompson said.

"This should not be happening in the United States," Hanni said, noting that Canada has a 90-minute limit on tarmac stranding.

"We're not trying to deprive anyone of their rights," Castelveter of the air transport group said. "We agree 100 percent that we need to do a better job of accommodating passengers (on delayed flights)." But logistics sometimes make returning a plane to an airport gate impossible or likely to prolong the delay, he said.

Lengthy delays are a "rarity," Castelveter said, noting there are 7.5 million flights a year in the U.S. and about 1,000 flights are held on the ground for more than three hours.

JetBlue awards vouchers of $50 to as much as a roundtrip ticket to stranded passengers, and pledges that passengers held on the ground more than five hours may deplane.

The airline paid out more than $40 million in vouchers following the massive 2007 stranding. "If we don't step up and take care of our customers they are going to go fly with someone else," JetBlue's Bryan Baldwin said.

Southwest, the nation's largest airline, says it won't board flights when it knows a delay of two hours or more is pending. It also promises to "make every reasonable effort" to provide refreshments and serviceable restrooms aboard delayed aircraft.

At San Francisco International Airport, flights delayed on the tarmac more than one hour will get either a return gate or buses to offload passengers, if the airline requests such help, spokesman Mike McCarron said.

That's happened about a dozen times this year, he said, emphasizing that the airline must make the call. "We don't have the authority to order them to do it," he said.

Oakland International Airport provides similar support, spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said.

Hanni and Thompson said they are hopeful that next year, after President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress are sworn in, policymakers will be more receptive to airlines passengers' rights.

Thompson said he will reintroduce his bill in January, and Hanni said that Obama, Vice President-elect Joe Biden and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., who will be Obama's chief of staff, supported the bill of rights.