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The Herd Getting Heard in Washington, DC

Here at Aircomplane, we wear our raison d'être on our sleeve: we're here so you're heard. This blog is a place for tired, trodden, and mistreated passengers customers to have their say, hear stories of passengers customers just like them, and make the airlines take heed.

The most important thing for airline customers to remember is that you're not alone; if you've had a bad experience flying, so have hundreds of others. Individually, we may not be able to get the attention of airline executives and bureaucratic decisionmakers, but together, we can make some noise.

That's just what one organization is going to do on September 19th in Washington, DC.

The Coalition for Passengers' Bill of Rights, formed by the passengers of several American Airlines planes stranded in Austin, TX for over 9 hours in December 2006, is taking their message to Congress.

The group is hosting a strand-in on the National Mall, recreating the hellish ordeal their founders and hundreds of other paying airline customers have endured, complete with the sights, sounds, and smells of a long-term airline stranding. Members of Congress will be there as well as the national media, and it's all to convince Congress to establish a maximum tarmac delay period, so airline passengers will be treated humanely during flight delays.

Read about the protest in The Washington Post, or read the Coalition's letter to Congress. Most importantly, attend the strand-in in Washington on Wednesday and join hundreds of flyers like you who just want to be treated like paying customers they are.

The details:
Who: The Coalition for Passengers' Bill of Rights
What: Strand-in Simulation on the National Mall
When: Wednesday, September 19, 2007, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Where: The National Mall, between 12th and 13th Streets NW, Washington, DC

UPDATE: Flyersrights.org, The Coalition for Passengers' Bill of Rights' website, was hacked yesterday by vandals who clearly didn't like what they have to say.

   

These goons are going to learn that they can't silence the movement for Passengers' Rights quite so easily. Show your support by attending the Strand-In tomorrow.

Will the "Passenger Bill of Rights" Prevent the Illegal Imprisonment of Airline Passengers?

Your Aircomplane.com Spite Attendants are not linguists or lawyers. Our grasp of the English language was established by formal education and is maintained by feeding the engine (reading and research), natural curiosity, and as a vocational imperative since entering the communications field (blog publishing). That said, let's explore what really happens when airlines find themselves with a plane loads of "passengers" and due to less-than-optimal flying conditions, refuse to let them go.

As passengers, at what point do we no longer tolerate the airlines' unfettered interpretation of  "security" and scheduling issues with re-clearing passengers.

In case you missed it:

• Just this past weekend, passengers were held on a Royal Air Maroc plane for almost 14 hours at Kennedy Airport between Saturday night and Sunday.
• On a Virgin Atlantic London flight, passengers were kept on a plane at Kennedy Airport from 9:45 p.m. Friday until 4 a.m. Saturday. The flight was finally canceled.
• Passenger Rahul Chandran said he and others were held aboard a Cathay Pacific Airways jet to Vancouver from midnight until after 9:00 a.m. The flight was finally canceled.
• In February, JetBlue Airlines stranded passengers on several planes for over 10 hours during a storm. The airline blamed their inability to deice the planes.
• January: American Airlines subjected passengers to overflowing toilets and pretzels (only) during a nine hour ordeal in Austin. The flight, if it had happened, should have taken three and one-half hours.

If you're not furious yet, know that this list goes on. What other industry in the United States would be allowed to perpetrate such an offense? Yes, we are in complicated times with respect to security, but when did the terrorists abscond with our common sense?

It is simple. If the previously cleared passengers are held on a plane more than two hours without taking off, they are being wrongly imprisoned. If you don't believe us, ask them.

OUR NEXT POST: The Passengers' Bill of Rights.