20071001 CBS/AP: Travel: Lose Your Cares, Luggage, Sanity

Travel: Lose Your Cares, Luggage, Sanity

Airline Fashion Cops, Missing Suitcases And Runway Rage; In 2007, Consumers Said "Enough"

Oct. 1, 2007

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(CBS/AP) For the thousands of passengers who spent hours stuck on runways, on crowded planes, staring at signs that quickly flashed from "on time" to "delayed" to "cancelled," 2007, was the year that time stood still.

This was the year air rage became part of the traveling lexicon and being successfully reunited with one's luggage became more wishful thinking then an expected occurrence. Once you were unsure if the airlines would search your bags for contraband contact lens solution. Now your too-sexy clothes may get you booted off a plane.

And it wasn't just the airlines who were behaving badly. According to the The Wall Street Journal American Airlines told the Transportation Security Administration in July that a passenger on a flight to New York had slapped a flight attendant when the plane was ordered emptied in Miami after bad weather kept the flight from leaving.

"Abnormal, aberrant or abusive behavior in the context of the air-travel experience" is back with a vengeance, Andrew Thomas, an assistant professor of business at the University of Akron, who has written books about air rage and aviation "insecurity," told the Journal.

More than 1 million pieces of luggage were lost, damaged, delayed or pilfered by U.S. airlines from May to July, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, reports the Washington Post.

June and July ranked among the 20 worst months for mishandled baggage in 20 years.

The year started out bad and only got worse.

[…]

Then, a harsh winter storm back in February triggered hundreds of flight delays. JetBlue suffered a terrible blow to its customer-friendly public image when ticket holders were stuck on the tarmac for nearly 11 hours. The airline weathered the storm but not before the incident sparked a new wave of consumer advocates and proposed guidelines that ideally guarantee the weary traveler "clean sanitary facilities, regardless of class of service" and truthful information regarding delays and flight status.

The summer was no better with problems piling upon cancellations. The nation's seven busiest airports now account for 72 percent of the nation's flight delays.

[…]

Read the entire article here: Travel: Lose Your Cares, Luggage, Sanity

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/01/travel/main3314904.shtml

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