A few weeks ago I shared the unpleasant (that’s putting it mildly) experience of enduring a 5-hour delay at Chicago’s O’Hare airport with my 3-year-old. By hour three I had all but exhausted our entertainment options and tried not to glare at the United Airlines employee who kept repeating over the intercom that our flight would be departing “in approximately 15 minutes.” (Mind you she repeated this every 15 minutes for three hours.) Hours four and five of our delay were even worse as they were spent in the plane on the tarmac. (Have you been there? Have you been there with a severely jet lagged child?)
That said I took great interest in a report The Denver Post recently published regarding United Airlines’ new policy for long ground delays. According to airline executives, United is now aiming “to limit taxi-out delays on the ground before takeoff to three hours or less and limit taxi-in delays on the ground after landing to 90 minutes or less.” The company’s new policy comes on the heels of high-profile incidents in which JetBlue and other carriers suffered ground delays as long as 11 hours on some flights earlier this year. (So it wasn’t the letter I penned to the airline shortly after we arrived home.) If you watched even a few minutes of any news broadcast following those incidents you know that they spurred talk of federal legislation (a.k.a. a legislated Passenger Bill of Rights) that would bar or penalize airlines from keeping fliers trapped on delayed planes for more than a few hours.
United’s new policy specifically states: “any North American flights that have taxi-out delays longer than four hours, taxi-in delays longer than 90 minutes or on-ground diversion delays longer than four hours will be deemed by United as ‘flights of note.’ Passengers on such ‘flights of note’ will get a note of apology, a certificate for 20% off a United round-trip economy-class ticket and a $10 airport meal voucher.”
Before you start listing United as your preferred carrier of choice consider a great point made by the president of the Air Travelers Association. He warns that while United’s move “gives compensation where they historically have not, we as passengers have to recognize there is no free lunch. We pay for these things at the end of the day, so if an airline is very forthcoming with money, it’s going to affect fares at the other end.”
Upon personal reflection even if United’s new policy had been in place a few weeks back when I sat through 5-hours of sheer torture I still wouldn’t have been compensated because my taxi-out delay was only 2 hours and 12 minutes (to be exact) and according to United’s new policy, I would have had to endure four hours on the tarmac to get my $10 airport meal voucher et al. But, don’t feel bad for me… feel bad for the passengers who are forced to sit in a plane on the runway for three hours and 59 minutes only to walk away with nothing—except, perhaps, elevated blood pressures.
Related Articles:
Preparing For Travel Delays–Part 1
Preparing For Travel Delays–Part 2
A Place For Your Kids To Play Between Flights
Traveling With Children-More Airport Play Areas
Traveling With Young Children: More Dos and Don’ts
Traveling With Children-Learn From My Mistakes
Tips To Remember When Traveling With Children
Flying with Children: Layover or Not?