Best Hotels Los Angeles - Fed Up Airline Passengers Demand Traveler's Bill of Rights

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Kate Hanni used to be a Realtor.

Hanni and her husband and two sons were trapped on an American Airlines plane on the runway for more than nine hours. Texas, then she got stuck on a grounded airline flight in December of 2006 in Austin.

Access to fresh air and toilet facilities if passengers are stuck for longer than three hours, the bill would guarantee basic necessities such as water. And she has spent her time since then lobbying hard for an airline passengers' bill of rights, the event changed her life.

Say aviation experts, incidents of passengers being stranded in airplanes on runways for excessive periods of time are on the upswing.

More than 426 flights were stranded on runways for over three hours, during the month of June alone. Last year was a particularly rough year for passengers.

" They don't have to guarantee you the right that you can get off the plane, once that door shuts. They don't have to provide you with food, an airline does not have to provide you with water, "When you get on an aircraft. " said Hanni to reporters, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that, "Airline passengers have less rights (sic) than a prisoner of war per the Geneva Convention. Say passengers, that's not okay.

But the measure stalled in the Senate, where it passed, hanni helped to get a passengers' rights bill to Congress.

000 per passenger if they are not provided with basic necessities on a delayed flight of more than three hours, in which airlines are fined $1, new York already has such a bill. And several are currently considering legislation to do just that, now Hanni is trying to convince individual states to pass laws protecting airline passengers' rights.

And it therefore nullified federal jurisdiction over it, district Court judge ruled that the case involved basic human rights and was not a simple customer service issue. A U.S. But lost, the Air Transport Association took New York to court over the bill.

In large part due to runway delays, and US Airways Group - received an "F" in customer service, continental, delta, which released a report card last month wherein four major airlines - ExpressJet, kate Hanni has formed the Coalition for an Airline Passenger Bill of Rights (CAPBOR).

This means that some of the more egregious offenses - like the stranding of 10 JetBlue flights on February 14th of 2007 for more than 11 hours each - was not included. Because no records are kept on these flights, this did not include flights that were later canceled or redirected. The four airlines were responsible for stranding passengers for over four hours on more than 122 occasions last year.

Two airlines - Northwest and Southwest - received good grades from the group for their small number of excessively delayed flights.

" Needs to be done to resolve the core issue of delays that result from our increasingly antiquated air traffic management system, of course, more. But complex problem of extended flight delays, "The airline industry is well aware of the serious, releasing a statement which read, the Air Transport Association has responded to Hanni and the recent focus of public attention.

Overcrowded airplane before being allowed to get off, hanni says that the only way to force airlines to respond is to legislate limits on how long people can be expected to sit inside a hot. The statement is not enough, for Hanni and others.

And snacks if necessary, and adequate toilet facilities, fresh air, such as providing water, california state assemblyman Mark Leno is sponsoring a bill similar to New York's which would set rules for airlines to follow in cases of long flight delays.

" "We should not have to relinquish access to these basic human needs just because we board an airplane. " said Leno to reporters, "The status quo is a disaster waiting to happen.