Don't Get In A Flap!

You know things are very bad when a top U.S. government official admits failure. Even before he has taken the job. Last month, while still just a nominee for Secretary of Transportation, Norm Mineta was already warning airline passengers that this summer would outdo even the terrible summer of 2000 for awfulness. "I need to be very candid with you," he told a Senate committee. "We are likely to have similar--or worse--delay problems this year as well. We simply have an air-traffic-control system that has not been able to keep pace with rapidly rising demand."

The airlines themselves aren't doing much better at improving life for travelers. Two years ago, after a flurry of customer complaints and a congressional threat to impose a passenger bill of rights, the major U.S. carriers made 12 specific commitments aimed at making air travel better. Among them: notifying passengers in a timely manner of delays, cancellations or diversions; and meeting customers' essential needs during long on-aircraft delays. Last week the Department of Transportation's Inspector General reported that the airlines had failed to fulfill many of the pledges. Among other things the report concluded that the airlines frequently gave "inaccurate, incomplete or unreliable" information and often failed to offer the lowest possible fare; and that fewer than half the carriers had customer-service contingency plans to handle problems.

The airlines responded by blaming the air-traffic-control system and at the same time announced a flurry of new initiatives, including customers-first.org , a new website to help passengers get information on exactly what to expect if problems should arise. The airline lobby also called on the Bush Administration to speed up modernization of the air-traffic-control system. But that volley might not be enough: Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, for example, stands ready to reintroduce legislation on the Hill that would require airlines to improve customer service or face sanctions. "We're not calling for a constitutional right to fluffy pillows," says Wyden. "But we do want timely and accurate information about what to expect from airlines."

Until such a bill is passed, travelers may be unhappily surprised to learn that today they have only two "rights" when it comes to air travel, and neither one is easy to exercise. One is that airlines must compensate you for lost or damaged baggage--but with no more than $1,250 a bag, no matter how valuable the loss. (On international flights, on which loss is measured by weight rather than value, you will be reimbursed no more than $9.07 per lb.) The second right is that passengers must be compensated if they are "bumped" from a plane that has been oversold. The amount owed the traveler depends on the price of the ticket and the length of delay in eventually arriving at the destination. If the airline gets you home more than two hours after you were due, for example, the compensation is double your fare, up to a $400 maximum.

The most pernicious risk in flying these days--delayed flights--is not covered by law but instead by Department of Transportation regulations, which offer only guidelines for what a carrier must do. That boils down to rebooking you on another one of its flights or endorsing your ticket over to another carrier. But if weather is the cause of the problem, the airline can just label it an act of God and make you sit and wait for the delayed plane to take off, no matter how long that may be. "Airplane flights are complex events," says Terry Trippler, president of onetravel.com , a travel website. "These days, passengers must begin to appreciate that there is some inherent risk involved."

So, aside from bringing along a copy of War and Peace, what should travelers do to prepare for their next flight? First and foremost, be aware that every airline has a "contract of carriage," which lays out its policies for dealing with problems. These customer-service provisions are also known as Rule 240 issues (in reference to the DOT regulations covering these events). In any case, before you fly you should have a look at the individual airline's terms, which can be obtained by contacting the airline directly. Beyond knowing what you are up against, you might also consider some of the following suggestions:

Start Early
Frequent travelers routinely book the first flight of the day to avoid the traffic jams that only get worse as the day progresses at the country's most congested airports. Also, flying out on an airline's early-morning plane means being freed from waiting for a connecting plane to arrive or for a new crew to make it in from Detroit. An added bonus: the parking spaces next to the terminal are empty.

Get Web Savvy
The Department of Transportation has an extensive website for air travel www.bts.gov/ntda/oai ) that includes comprehensive lists of on-time performance--broken down by airline, airport and even particular flight. Online travel site Expedia.com also provides on-time stats for individual flights. Finally, make use of the Web to see how the Federal Aviation Administration is reacting to the weather. Seemingly irrelevant thunderstorms in Cleveland may delay your L.A.-to-New York flight because the FAA sometimes orders that flights be held on the runway if delays are building up in the crowded Northeast airspace. You can see what the FAA is looking at by going to its command center's website www.fly.faa.gov ).