Biden connects the dots on air travel

[PatSeg]

Sen. Joe Biden today promised to tackle the toughest air travel issues during his first year in office, in an effort to make flying easier, more convenient and safer. Passengers should be made aware of their rights and more information should be provided to them regarding customer service.

snip

Joe Biden would:
* Require carriers to provide food, water, and restroom facilities to passengers during delays - or give them the option to deplane.
* Require carriers to publish customer service policies and post information about chronically delayed flights.
* Expand inspections of health and safety conditions on planes.
* Urge the air traffic controllers' union and the FAA to return to negotiations to provide incentives for controllers to postpone retirement and keep the US system moving. A record number of veteran air traffic controllers left the FAA last year - we cannot afford to lose the expertise of experienced controllers.
* Ask National Academy of Sciences to conduct an independent study of air traffic control staffing needs.
* Create an interagency task force (including Department of Defense and Federal Aviation Administration) to speed the implementation of the Next Generation Air Traffic Control system which will use satellites and advanced communications to improve management of the nation's crowded air space and develop a national Air Traffic Congestion Management Plan to alleviate highly congested corridors.
* Invest in airport infrastructure and modernization to build new runways and increase capacity of our nation’s airports.
* Require DOT to review and update carrier compliance with overbooking regulations.
* Create an Aviation Consumer Protection Commission and expand DOT investigative authority into consumer complaints regarding cancellations, overbooking, lost baggage and overcharges.
* Establish a national Travelers Complaint Hotline.

http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=111149

[ixion]

1. gee, and no mention of the fascist TSA procedures currently in place

joy.

[high density]

3. My first thought as well

Clicking on this thread, I thought that's what it would be about. So then I read the article (err, press release), still no mention of the TSA. Flight delays and overbooking are the least of our problems until the TSA is disbanded and these insane rules are dropped or modified.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Take Amtrak when possible. Cancel all flights between NYC-Bos, DC-NYC. nt

[PatSeg]

5. The airlines are in complete disarray

I won't set foot on an airplane anymore. Things just keep getting worse and the chaos at airports has become a nightmare.

[Basileus Basileon]

4. All good ideas. Whoever wins the election should implement all of them. The only one I disagree wi

is the "review and update carrier compliance with overbooking regulations." Frankly, the fines for bumping passengers don't matter; they rarely have to pay them, since they can usually entice people off with vouchers and the like.

A better idea, IMO, is to cap the extent to which airlines can overbook (at, say, 100%+5 or something).