Profile: lfisher419
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What's Happening Now
August 1, 2010 5:48 am
Thank you for the comment. Allowing passengers to deplane without much wait time would certainly make travel more pleasant. The DOT is concerned about potential costs of such a system. For example, this may place a large financial burden on airlines/airports and lead to an increase in ticket prices. Would this be worth potentially paying more to fly?
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Your new requirements are excellent and warranted. I have copied them below to reinforce my support for their implementation.
I would add to all of the ideas below that when flights are significantly delayed or canceled, the passenger’s ticket should be tranferable to another carrier who has a flight with open seats leaving for the same destination shortly — and that the agent should expedite that change for the customer.
* Requiring carriers to reimburse passengers whose bags are not delivered on time or lost, for any baggage charges the passenger paid.
* Defining a specific time period after which a bag is considered to be not delivered on time (e.g., on the same or earlier flight; within 2 hours of arrival)
* Requiring the carrier to refund ticket costs —… more »
* Spelling out that refunds must include not only the base ticket price but also any optional fees (e.g., baggage, fees) that the passenger paid
* Requiring carriers to disclose the history of a particular flight — e.g., it is chronically late or frequently canceled — before a ticket is purchased.
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Baggage fees are a new form of usury and misery. While I realize that charging the customers individually is more just than adding cost to everyone’s ticket, the whole issue of whether these fees exceed any reasonable need the airlines have to control baggage or are simply a result of greed should be explored. I would like to see a return to the days when two bags could be checked free, then charges imposed on excess baggage. I do not understand the rationale for baggage fees except as a means for the airlines to make more money.
Yes, absolutely passengers should be allowed to deplane whenever possible. Clearly they should not even be boarded until there is a reasonable degree of certainty that no long delays are in the offing. Better planning, time management, and scheduling could certainly help in this regard. Holding passengers in cramped seats with poor air circulation and minimal services, little information and consideration for their comfort is both physically and mentally unhealthy. Every conceivable effort and regulation should be made to avoid tarmac delays for all flights.
More than a thirty-minute notice seems essential now that passenger are required to be at the airport an hour to two in advance of their flight. However, requiring advance notice by all and every means is an excellent idea and a new regulation I support.
I support DOT’s proposed regulations. The pricing system now in place seems like an Old West, frontier-days free-for-all: get as much as you can any way that you can. I never know when to buy a ticket, early or late. Also, to add to the comments below, I agree wholeheartedly with the complaints about too little leg room. It’s become a torture to fly long distances, something to be endured rather than enjoyed, at least for those of us in coach. A sad demise for the industry and its clients.