Our dedicated readers, you will recall that last month we firmly established that you do not have the right to talk on your phone on an airliner or ignore the instructions of flight crew, lest ye face criminal fines and possible federal prison time … This month we bring you, courtesy of the Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights, what you are entitled to. So, let’s get started with your rights.
Unlike the actual Bill of Rights, which are the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, and guaranteeing fundamental individual liberties to the citizens of these United States (though we’re not going to go into the 1791 definition of citizen), the Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights (APBoR) is the collective term for an assemblage of Department of Transportation (DOT) enforceable provisions initially proposed in House Bill 1303 during the 110th Congress (2007-2008), passed in December 2009, having taken effect in 2010. (Even as early as 2007, all provisions of what came to be known as the APBoR applied equally to all airline passengers.)
The initial provisions of the APBoR included limits and fines to airlines for extensive tarmac delays (more than three or four hours), fair compensation for lost bags, and mandated better passenger communication with regard to delays and other operational issues. (See our previous series on passenger announcements.) “Tarmac,” is any non-runway surface of an airport—ramp areas, taxiways, etc. The word “tarmac” is a British-Welsh compound of tar and macadam (crushed stone) and is actually a patented road-surfacing material that has become a term in common use, much like referring to making copies as “Xeroxing,” or any internet search as “Googling.”
Through the years that followed the original provisions, rights were strengthened and added to the APBoR. These included requiring airlines provide reimbursements for meals and lodging as well as rebooking due to controllable cancelations, meaning the airline canceled the flight for aircraft or crew issues—not weather, airport, or ATC issues. I.e., these rights apply when it’s the airline’s fault. Under certain circumstances, other guarantees for compensation and refunds were also instituted alongside specific airline obligations for passenger support during delays, cancelations, and overbooking.
However, some provisions have recently been repealed under current Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, including the requirement that airlines provide immediate compensation to passengers for significantly (three or more hours) delayed or canceled flights that are within the carrier’s control. Although passengers are still entitled to full refunds for canceled flights, the requirement for automatic compensation for delays and provisions for hotel stays and meals have been suspended.
Yet how did this come about and what about the dark ages of airline passenger travel?
Back in 2006 or so, if an air carrier were delayed due to weather, passengers would have had to wait to leave their point of embarkation for their destination until the weather improved. Delays ensued. People slept in terminals. There were great wailing and gnashing of teeth. Today, this has not changed because the airlines still do not control the weather.
But back about 20 years (which is a long time if you’re a new first officer at an airline), with snow and ice falling at LaGuardia Airport in New York, and with nearly zero-percent chance of taking off in the next six-hours, we would still board up, try to taxi out, and then sit there until we reached takeoff fuel limits and then return to the gate and deplane. And typically, the flight would cancel a short time later.
Today, what has changed is that we do not board the plane unless we’re reasonably certain we can takeoff within a certain period of time based on all presently known factors that include weather, ATC traffic flow, aircraft maintenance, any airport operational considerations, and sometimes flightcrew availability issues. We don’t board. Crew wait, often with passengers, in the boarding area standing by for the flight to cancel, then crew go to a hotel and passengers go to the special services counter to be rebooked for a time when the weather will be better. As a passenger, at least you didn’t spend the day on the plane sitting between Bob the power broker and Aunt Maude and her hemorrhoids talking on their phones.
In the past, airlines used to lose more bags; yet, once they were fined for it (fines they pay to the government, not passengers), they started losing fewer bags. These days, “mishandled” bags are rare, mostly due to barcodes and computer algorithms that scan and guide bags from terminal to plane, and back again.
While there are more protections for passengers and their travel footprints, which is positive, there are also negatives as well. For example, in the days before “long tarmac delay” provisions, the crew could opt to get the passengers on board the plane and try to get into a position to take off (usually succeeding, but not always), thereby affording a greater chance of getting passengers to their destinations—albeit late, but at least to where they wanted to go, even if it meant sitting on the plane for several additional hours. These days, a potential risk exists in not boarding and waiting for “ideal” conditions to. The risk of “rolling delays” is the distinct possibility that the flightcrew will “time-out” before ideal conditions conjoin with weather and ATC flow. This means the crew will reach the end of their federally mandated on-duty time and will result in stiff fines for the offending airline if this situation is somehow missed or ignored and the crew “overflies” their duty time limits.
Referencing last month’s article regarding cell phones on planes, you will have noticed throughout this article that there was no mention of an entitlement under the APBoR to use your cell phone on a plane in flight. Provided the airline is at fault, what you are entitled to is being rebooked free of charge, reimbursed if your flight cancels, compensated if they lose your bag, and you don’t have to suffer sitting on a plane all day going nowhere. Instead, you can suffer with dignity inside an airport terminal going nowhere.
In addition to phone calls on a plane, here’s something else to which you are not entitled: you’re not actually guaranteed the seat you believe you have “purchased” for your flight from point A to B. The issue of what you have “bought” with respect to airline transportation, is yet another misunderstanding in the annals of passengerdom.
But stick with us. And in an effort to shed light on this great mystery, next month we’ll delve into the airline fine print, the contract of carriage.
