The Coalition for an Airline Passenger’s Bill of Rights (CAPBOR) released a report card for airlines in the 2007 year. The report addressed several serious issues concerning airline treatment and passenger’s rights when left in a stranded flight situation.
The Report Card
The final 2007 Airline Stranding report card, found here gives a report by the coalition members based on press reports and government statistics from January to December 2007.
Airlines which received “A” grades included Aloha, Atlantic Southeast, Frontier, Hawaiian and Pinnacle for having 0 flights that had 4 hour delays. Those that received the “Above and Beyond” award included Virgin America, Aloha Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Hawaiian.
Those That Didn’t Make the Cut
Failing grades in the report meant failing to deliver even basic services to passengers who were stranded for more than four hours on a total of 122 different occasions through 2007. Several airlines received failing grades of “F,” including ExpressJet, Continental, Delta and US Airways.
Kate Hanni, Executive Director of CAPBOR notes the attitudes of some airlines: “they don’t have to give you water, food, anything. They don’t have to let you off the plane at all. That’s less rights than a prisoner of war in the Geneva Convention.” She continues, “incredibly, prisoners of war have more rights than passengers on a commercial airliner.”
The “Hunger Pain Award” and The “I Survived the Bathroom Award”
Other issues brought up in the report include, “The Hunger Pain Award” which grade airlines according to the duration and amount of sustenance offered during an extended tarmac delay.
Another problem brought to light was the “I Survived the Bathroom Award,” or the “Nausea Award,” which graded various airlines on the statuses of its toilet in delayed flight cases. Some examples of this issue included raw sewage running down aisles and clogged and overflowing toilets.
One noted story told of used mouse traps left under passengers’ seats!