(Or, the Passengers' Bill of Rights)
Recently, the public has been demanding more out of the airlines. Poor service has taken its toll on the consumer's opinion of his or her air carrier. Since the governmental deregulation of airlines in 1978, some say that airline service has gone quickly downhill. Sometimes, even the safety of the passengers is compromised.
Here is a summary (with my commentary) on the bill of rights, courtesy of the Republican Bay.
1. "Passengers do not lose their rights as citizens or the protection of constitutional law when they enter an airline terminal or embark upon a plane."
This essentially means that no passenger can be arrested for something they wouldn't be
arrested for normally.
2. "Airlines have the technology and the information available to them to create
passenger manifest lists. Relatives should be able to confirm within 24 hours whether a
loved one was or was not a passenger on a particular airplane."
Each airline must create a list of passengers for each flight, just in case.
3. "Passengers shall not be subject to physical confinement in airplanes or temporary
incarceration in terminals for purposes of airline scheduling and airline operation."
This may sound silly, but when people get on a plane and then the flight is delayed,
the sirline will sometimes demand that no one gets off the plane. If an airline
confines people without any safety-related cause, then it is wrong.
4. "Protection from Pilot Fatigue: Terminal Time and waiting time shall count as
working time for all pilots. Additional pilots shall be provided so that passengers are
not endangered by pilots who have worked beyond an ordinary eight-hour shift."
This is quite self-explanatory, and especially a safety issue.
5. "Protection from Hazardous Cargo: Transportation of Passengers and transportation
of miscellaneous cargo are incompatible uses when the safety of the passenger is
valued."
Remember ValuJet? That was supposed to have been caused by fire-enhancing oxygen
containers that were in the cargo hold.
6. "Passengers should have the right to tell each other of their experiences. As long
as they are recounting their experiences truthfully, they should be allowed to tell those
experiences in a public forum without fear of retaliation or the threat of "nuisance
litigation"".
We should be able to tell airlines exactly how much they stink without fear of being sued.
7. "The technology exists, and commercial practices have existed for many years in
other industries for secure check-in and checkout systems. The open baggage claim system
subjects passengers to confusion when similarly appearing luggage is pick up by mistake,
as well as exposing the items to theft."
Passengers are simply tired of losing their luggage. Placing this standard into
effect would definitely make the service quotient better on all commercial airliners.
8. "A trained pilot with current experience will perform pre-flight and pre-landing
checkout, including the lowering of flaps before landing. Airline managers who are not
full-time pilots are not considered to be pilots with current experience for this
purpose."
We don't want an airline manager flying the plane. Quite simple, indeed.
Some other suggestions from passengers for the PBOR:
1. Make the seats large enough to sit in comfortably.
2. Improve foodservice.
3. Make airline ticket pricing easier and not as confusing.
4. (Humorous) Do not subject passengers to the safety lecture.
5. (Humorous) Do not enlighten passengers in the middle of the flight to which city in Indiana they are flying over or near.
Sources:
Notmuch.com (Humorous PBOR Articles)
