What are your rights when you sit in a plane

Submitted by Patrick Grote on Wed, 01/10/2007 - 6:15pm.

As everyone knows, air travel has gotten worse and worse since September 11, 2001. I have a number of ideas as to why this is, but the biggest reason is pricing. In an effort to compete with each other, all the air carriers have cut their back ends to the bone. This means less people, which means less service.

This even applies to airline pilots. Due to government rules a pilot is limited in the number of hours they can fly. Sitting in an airplane counts as flying, so when delays happen you have to replace the pilots. Since the airlines have cut pilots they end up with even more delays.

Anyway, how would you like to have your plane diverted from the original destination due to weather and then have to sit on the plane for another 8 hours? Well, that happened to people flying American Airlines. For some reason, this happens to American Airlines a bunch. They've become known as the worst airline in the air among some people.

According to the story, people were forced to sit in an airplane with overflowing toilets, no water and no food. Sound bad? Try doing that for 8 hours:

After more than eight hours on the ground, and 12 hours after the plane had left San Francisco, the captain told passengers he was going to an empty gate, even though he didn't have permission.

Amazing.

What are your rights in a case like this? Sadly, you have very little rights. The airline, due to federal law, can keep you detained on the airplane for almost as long as they want. Do they owe you anything after it? No. Listen to what one person went through:

The Dicksons rented a car and drove to Dallas, and were able to get a flight to Belize the next day for their shortened vacation. The Welches waited in a line at the ticket counter, which was staffed by just two employees, they recall. They stood in line three hours. When they reached the counter, Mrs. Welch asked for a hotel voucher. The agent declined, Mrs. Welch says, saying the problem was caused by weather and American wasn't responsible.

Mrs. Welch began crying. She argued that the flight wouldn't have been in Austin if not for the original delay in San Francisco. The ticket agent relented and gave her a voucher for a hotel stay and breakfast.

Again, amazing.

It's a shame that all the airlines feel they need to compete with Southwest. Here's a tip to American Airlines, Northwest and their ilk ... customer service sells.