Last week in Washington, D.C., Kate, other coalition members and attorneys visited the offices of Senators Boxer (D-CA), Casey (D-PA), Dorgan (D-ND), Hutchinson (R-TX), McCain (R-AZ), Spector (R-PA), and Webb (D-VA). We also visited the Department of Transportation. Kate made a speech at the Airport Council International Meeting on Irregular Operations (i.e. tarmac delays,etc). And we posted our final comments on three DOT rulemaking processes. Whew!
Our primary message was that the senate needs to modify and support amendments to change language in the pending FAA Modernization Act that 1) ensures that airline contingency plans must be reviewed and approved by the Secretary of Transportation, 2) preserves the right for consumers to sue an airline, and 3) state laws for health and safety cannot be preempted.
The overall feedback from each of the senator's offices was very supportive.
This week, Senator Boxer and Senator Snowe submitted a joint letter to the DOT urging that the DOT set minimum standards for essential needs, and also that passengers should have the right to deplane after three hours. They also urged that the DOT establish minimum standards rather than allowing airlines to create their own contingency plans without DOT review.
They also wrote "It is important that any rule established by the DOT should not preempt state efforts such as the law recently passed in New York, or those measures currently under consideration in California, Rhode Island, Washington and other states."
… and speaking of those state measures.
As you may know, New York started a trend by passing a Passenger Bill of Rights for their state. Other states are joining this fight with Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Washington having already proposed their own Passenger Rights bills. The airlines oppose these laws on the basis that it creates a "patchwork quilt" of different laws in each state. They also have opposed legislation at the federal level for the last eight years. Why you ask? They want to make their own laws. They want to keep their own patchwork quilt.
On Tuesday, Kate testified at a senate hearing in Olympia, Washington. Lawmakers in that state are considering a passengers rights law that includes essential needs and deplanement. We only had a couple of day's notice that Kate was to testify there, so it was not possible to mobilize our members to attend that hearing.
However, the senators of the committee wanted to know where everyone was! We must have more participation from you at these hearings. Also Kate cannot go to every state to testify. So we need members in each state to be ready to volunteer to show up and maybe even testify. It's easy! If you think you can do one or the other, but you have any obstacles or concerns about doing so, contact Kate and she'll try to resolve the problems.
California and Rhode Island are next! We need some of you to show up at the State House in Sacramento and Providence. Please don't think someone else will do it. We need you! Your elected state representatives need to see more than just Kate Hanni sitting at these hearings - they know her story already. They want to hear yours!
If you have a stranding story, please contact Kate, and let her know if you can be in Sacramento or Providence to support the coalition and maybe even testify. We don't have exact dates yet, but we do know they will be sometime in February. We may need you on one or two day's notice - to be ready!
So come on! Take action!
Mary E. Peters, Secretary of Transportation, has selected Kate Hanni to be a member of the National Task Force to Develop Model Contingency Plans to Deal with Lengthy Airline On-Board Ground Delays (Tarmac Delay Task Force). Congratulations on your selection. The first meeting of the task force will be sometime in late February 2008.
Congratulations Kate and congratulations coalition!
February 14th,
2008 will mark the first
anniversary of the Valentine's Day Stranding with Jet Blue and other airlines
stranding thousands of people on
the tarmac. To mark the event, we will be
unveiling our second report card at a press conference in Washington D.C. on
February 14th. We may set up the Mock-I on the mall again for the press
conference, but we're not sure about that yet. Anyone who can make it, please
let us know. This will be our most important event ever...hopefully with
members of the Senate attending and lots of media.
We need a few of our Texas members to meet with Senator Hutchinson in Dallas sometime in the next few weeks. We do have a core team of members already, but we need a few more of you to attend. Please contact Kate if you you are interested.
We still need a National Airport Coordinator to organize and work with volunteers around the country in handing out brochures and other airport related activities.
If you can help, please email Kate or Mark (kate@flyersrights.com or mark@flyersrights.com).
The enhanced FLYERSRIGHTS hotline (1(877)FLYERS6) is going strong, but we need more volunteers to help with the calls. Please contact Kate (kate@flyersrights.com) if you are willing to help out.
This is a very important thing each of our flying members can do to help the cause. We need video, audio, photographs ... anything to record the ugly reality of air travel. Screaming babies, whom we love, are also good audio. Every day we get requests from media outlets for photos and videos of the conditions on airplanes during strandings and other airline related bad behavior. The media will even pay for photos or video if the content is dramatic enough. So if you are an eyewitness to stranding incidents on board aircraft, mishandled baggage, sleeping cots lined up in airports, or anything else that might be interesting to the cause, please take photos or videos and email them right away to mark@flyersrights.com. If the video files are too large to email, contact Mark at that address and we’ll work out a way to get them.
Please don’t break any laws in pursuit of these pictures, and always follow the directions of flight crews regarding the use of portable electronic devices.
You might recall from out last newsletter that we decrypted and converted an important NASA report and released it on our website – something NASA had refused to do. Well, after we did that, NASA finally caved and released the data themselves. Score one for the public's right to know!
Passenger rights bill gets a push in state – Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004139780_airlines23m.html
Airline passenger 'Bill of
Rights' proposed for Washington - KOMO TV
http://www.komotv.com/news/14013302.html
Airline Passenger Bill of Rights on Table in Olympia – KNDO TV
http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp?S=7759052&nav=menu484_2_10
Aviation Week Podcast with Kate
http://aviationweek.typepad.com/airports/files/kate_hanni_final.mp3
Airports, Airlines Develop Plans to Handle Extended Passenger Delays
http://aviationweek.typepad.com/airports/2008/01/airports-airlin.html
In an effort to increase funding, we've implemented some new programs. Beginning next week, you will be seeing an email from give@flyersrights.com. This is a legitimate fundraising effort by the coalition. For those of you who already give generously, please don't feel pressured to do more. We deeply appreciate your past donations.
In fact, we are implementing a subscription-based method of donation so that you can sign up to donate automatically on a monthly basis. To sign up please go to our website (http://www.flyersrights.com/contribute.html) and select the monthly contribution of your choice. Credit cards or Paypal can still be used for single donations. For the monthly subscription, you will need to set up a Paypal account. It's easy! The buttons will walk you through the steps.
We also accept checks. Please send check directly to:
CAPBOR C/O Kate Hanni 159 Silverado Springs Drive Napa, CA 94558FYI, no one gets paid from these donations. All monetary contributions pay for our bulk email service, website, advertising and other necessary expenses. Coalition volunteers use their own money for travel, hotels and meals, and these expenses are not tax deductible.
You are receiving this email because you signed our petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/airline/petition.html.
If you have trouble unsubscribing to these emails or changing your email address, please email mark@flyersrights.com. If you are a Hotmail or MSN user, please just unsubscribe or contact Mark. Be careful with that Unsafe button. It causes us a lot of extra work.
Best Regards,