Travelers, officials once again at boiling point

Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, blamed the Transportation Department for failing to enforce the customer service standards agreed to in 1999.

In the case of JetBlue, Oberstar said the airline didn't have a plan to manage an extreme circumstance.

"The airline can't say, 'We didn't know, we didn't anticipate, this didn't happen before,'" Oberstar said.

A similar incident happened on Dec. 30, when American Airlines and American Eagle diverted 121 flights found for Dallas to other cities because of thunderstorms. About 5,000 passengers were left sitting on parked aircraft, some for eight hours.

The Dec. 30 incidents prompted American to say it would put a four-hour limit on how long passengers would be kept on grounded planes.

In the late 1990s, the nation's 14 largest airlines joined forces to block a drive by Congress to enact legal protections for passengers, changes that were sought after a series of flight cancellations and delays.

Instead, the airlines agreed to an Airline Customer Service Commitment and incorporated it in their customer agreements, called "conditions of carriage," which are legally enforceable by the customer against the airline.

Slide show   Treacherous travel A storm that blasted the Midwest blew snow eastward, paralyzing travel. Click to view images.

The airlines said they would notify customers of delays and diversions, try to deliver baggage on time, refund tickets promptly and meet customers' essential needs when they were stuck on parked airplanes.

The airlines, though, didn't agree to limit the amount of time they could keep people inside airplanes that aren't going anywhere.

By February 2001, the airlines were improving their customer service, according to a review by the Transportation Department's inspector general.

Slide show   Around the World From East to West, images of fantastic getaways across the globe more photos

A short time later, the airline industry lost record amounts of money. Some sought bankruptcy protection following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic, the war in Iraq and rising fuel prices.

By November 2006, customer service had slipped at many airlines, according to Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovell. Many airlines dropped their programs to control quality and measure performance, Scovell reported.

MORE FROM NEWS

News Section Front

Early arrival: Baby born at 30,000 feet Shuttered ‘Blue Hawaii’ resort hit by fire N.Y. terminals evacuated after wired device found Hawaii works to lure Chinese tourists Continental sees delays, cancellations this week Delta flight from Bogota to Atlanta turns back Report: Breast-feeding mother smothers baby on jet US Air pilots union wants probe of slot swap On board the world’s biggest cruise ship FAA transcripts show efforts to reach Flight 188 News Section Front   Add News headlines to your news reader: