This evening, we reported that Jetblue had stranded passengers on several planes for more hours than even they thought were accepted, and followed up on American’s response to their similar situation. Our counterpart at Upgrade Travel reported on their attempt to take the wind out of the sails of the Passenger Bill of Rights…the way they and the other carriers did in 1999.
American Airlines says it will not hold passengers for more than four hours in such a situation, and has made changes in its operations center to better handle diversions and ensure that officials are aware when wait times are at this point, including automation tools tools to warn managers of these situations. It is even creating a position to oversee diversions and help schedule flights to get passengers back to their hubs.
It is good that American is acknowledging problems in its handling of a situation and investing in fixing it…assuming it works. Jetblue will likely take similar measures. No company wants the negative publicity. We hope it works, because one more airline getting in the news about this type of massive delay may force Congress to look at it. While we think federal regulation can be a good thing…we don’t trust the federal government to act in our best interest. We hope to be able to trust companies to do what is in the passenger’s best interest to avoid losing passengers and revenue and to avoid the government involvement.