Just a reminder of a recent Kitchen Cabinet story family travelers should keep in mind this weekend.

American Airlines has received a $900,000 fine for keeping hundreds of passengers cooped up for hours on planes in Chicago earlier this year.  You can bet other domestic airlines have heard that slap of the hand and will be taking extra steps this holiday season to avoid “leveraging” passengers with delays.  And thank heavens!  Is there anything worse than being held hostage by an airline INSIDE the plane? Longing you could put your foot through your seat window and escape?

Everyone understands weather delays, but earlier this year American Eagle Airlines served up tarmac delays of more than THREE HOURS on FIFTEEN separate flights arriving at O’Hare International Airport on ONE DAY!  That’s like sentencing air travelers to hard time!  CBS News reports that the new federal fine for air delays punishes airlines, but it also provides a premium to delayed passengers:

“The airline must pay $650,000 of the fine within 30 days, according to Transportation officials. But up to $250,000 can be credited for refunds, vouchers, and frequent flyer mile awards provided to the passengers on the 15 flights, as well as to passengers on future flights that violate the three-hour rule.”

If you’re planning to travel and see family next week for Thanksgiving, it might be helpful to know that transportation officials have put a NEW RULE in place limiting tarmac delays to no longer than three hours.  After that, airlines must either:  RETURN to the gate or PROVIDE passengers who wish to leave the delayed plane with the means to get off!  International flights have FOUR hours to do the same.

This important new limitation on domestic airlines is the least that consumers deserve.

The rule was prompted by a series of incidents in which passengers complained of being kept virtual prisoners on planes in sight of an airport terminal. In one famous incident on Valentine’s Day 2007, snow and ice in the northeast led to JetBlue Airways stranding hundreds of passengers on 10 planes on the tarmac at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport for up to 10 1/2 hours.

In August 2009, 47 people were stuck overnight aboard a cramped Continental Express plane with a stinking toilet and crying babies after an employee for another airline refused to let them inside a closed airport terminal in Rochester, Minn., where the plane was diverted due to thunderstorms.

Aren’t you glad…you weren’t there?

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Filed under: Economy, Featured, Inside The KC, Politics by Sonja Eddings Brown, Nov 25, 2011