Airline Passenger Bill of Rights Aims to Deter Delays & Oversold Flights
Remember that time (or those numerous times) when you sat helplessly in a plane on an LAX runway for hours, breathing in stagnant air, listening to the sighs and mutters of disgruntled travelers? Well, a new airline passenger bill of rights took effect on Tuesday that should help prevent long lags on the tarmac.
Airlines often fail to promptly notify passengers of delays, leaving them pacing near gates, biting their fingers and irately texting those awaiting at their destinations. Among the new rules, airlines are now required to alert passengers immediately once a delay is certain.
International flights that remain grounded on a tarmac for four hours or more will result in over $27k in fines per person for the airline, reports KABC. But what about domestic flights?
Compensation for bumped passengers increased to $1,300 as part of the new bill.
Further rules included in the bill will not become effective until 2012.
Additional measures that will take effect beginning next year include requiring taxes and fees to be included in advertised fares, allowing passengers to hold a reservation without payment and cancel it without penalty for 24 hours after the reservation is made.
Perhaps the federal government does have our backs when it comes to flying commercial, but airline travelers will undoubtedly persevere with complaints about the phenomenon that is soaring through the air at several hundred miles an hour in a metal bird. That is what humans do, as Louis C.K. so perceptively pointed out in his "Hilarious" stand-up comedy special.
