Travel: Lose Your Cares, Luggage, Sanity

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

(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.

So many bags are getting separated from their owners, the airlines are running out of places to put them, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes. This July was the worst on record for mishandled bags. Nearly eight of every 1,000 bags were lost, damaged or stolen, compared to 6.5 per thousand last July.

The year started out bad and only got worse.

The airline industry's on-time performance in the first seven months of 2007 was its worst since comparable data began being collected in 1995, according to the government. In July, the most recent month for which data are available, 20 carriers reported an on-time arrival rate of 69.8 percent, down from 73.7 percent a year earlier.

Last Dec. 29, lightning storms and a tornado warning shut down the Dallas-Fort Worth airport several times causing American Airlines to divert more than 100 flights and stranding many of those passengers on board aircraft waiting to take off for as long as nine hours.

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.

[gunownerdan]

"Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom. The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."
-- President John F. Kennedy, January 29, 1961

[johnny_chaos]

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
-- John F. Kennedy

[barbaraf4]

"Travel: Lose Your Cares, Luggage, Sanity
Airline Fashion Cops, Missing Suitcases And Runway Rage; In 2007, Consumers Said "Enough"

Apparently you can also lose your life.

[lochlan-2009]

Welcome to the "New World Order", where the citizen is always wrong.

[photogeezer]

Don''t be deterred from travelling. Carry only the essentials in a carry-on bag. The *** WANT you to be isolated and fearful. The world as a whole is neither hostile nor dangerous. Travel and get in touch with your European, Asian and African roots. When the airlines screw up, holler long and load.

[lckmstr4u]

This is not just a airline problem, ever traveled on AMTRAK? it''s a goverment sponsored corporation, and there are no competitors, Washington d.c. to LA, four days lots of stops and missing baggage, nasty food , unscheduled stops for freight trains that share the rail lines,oh, but they do stop to let the smokers off for a smoke break....stolen checked luggage and no electrical outlets for ipoda, laptops or dvd players,travel is a billion dollar business,we pay ,and they get rich!!!next time I''ll fly !

[jetranger7]

LET ME SEE IF I GET THIS STRAIGHT,, THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY IS IN A MESS, HAS BEEN FOR YEARS, AM-TRACK IS IN A MESS, AND DEFINETLY, MOST DEFINETLY THE "TRUCKING INDUSTRY" IS CERTAINLY IN A MESS, MAKES YOU WONDER WHAT THE SECETARY OF TRANSPORTATION IS DOING ABOUT ANY OF THIS ?? THINK ITS WAY PAST TIME TO TURN UP THE HEAT ON THESE WASHINGTON POLITICIANS, AND GET THEM TO START DOING THEIR JOBS AND ENACTING LEGISLATION ON BEHALF OF THE CONSUMERS AND THE WORKERS, AND NOT THE CORPORATE CEOs, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH OF THIS, IT IS NOT WORKING ! THEY LIED TO ALL OF US, "DEREGULATION DID NOT WORK" !!!

[lissettemc]

My luggage was lost by Spirit Airlines on July 9th from San Juan, PR to Fort Lauderdale, FL. This airline has no concern for their customers what so ever. They charge you for your luggage and on top of that they loose it. I have been trying to contact them to find out the status of my claim and they do not answer and they don''t return calls. I can go on and on but the what for nobody listens...

[godswill02]

TO be labled CBS News Correspondent Nancy Cordes, you need more knowledge than just a label.

Despite the fact that Lexicon, Lexington and Louisville all start with the letter "L" there is no further connection.

Ms. Cordes declared that horrific Commuter AirCrash last year in Lexington, KY happened in Louisville.

NOT so. Check your copy before you speak, pls. -w-

[hungry1968]

"LET ME SEE IF I GET THIS STRAIGHT,, THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY IS IN A MESS, HAS BEEN FOR YEARS, AM-TRACK IS IN A MESS, AND DEFINETLY, MOST DEFINETLY THE "TRUCKING INDUSTRY" IS CERTAINLY IN A MESS, MAKES YOU WONDER WHAT THE SECETARY OF TRANSPORTATION IS DOING ABOUT ANY OF THIS??"
Posted by JetRanger7 at 05:35 PM : Oct 01, 2007



He was probably "Brownie''s" replacement at the American Quarter Horse Association and is unaware that there is a problem currently happening.
Just like when CNN had to show people at the Superdome to Brownie, maybe someone shouls show this ding-dong the tv images of people being scr*wed around.

[johnny_chaos]

The republicans(alleged) in power hate government, why would they want to run it well? its the end result of tearing apart the agencys that impose rules on corporations agenda. its rolling back the clock to the days of the robber barrons. eventually, it will all fall apart and those of us that supported this free market excess will be left holding worthless stocks and bags of manure.

[ladyjaneg]

Honestly, with all these rules of security changes, (you can''t let your child drink water?) and policy changes and how customer service is a code for "rude, stuck-up, torture service" and how high the prices have gone...it just seems easier to just stay at home.

[eggy1620]

Hey whispyseas (aka oakishpines), please disable your spamming software before you crash these message boards again.

[hideronpaul]

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