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Airlines jettison compassion, hoping it will lift earnings

June 19, 2008

The so-called “flat-tire rule” that allows airlines to rebook passengers who are delayed for reasons beyond their control went flat last year. But now there’s evidence that the proverbial wheels have come off this plane.

Travel agent Richard Kenner had two clients who recently tried to invoke the rule when they missed a flight at JFK because their taxi driver was confused about which terminal they were flying out of.

Delta refused to do anything other than treat this as a voluntary change and I got nowhere on the phone with them. Has there been a change here?

Well, it turns out Kenner follows airline contracts closer than I do. (I have links to the full contracts here.) After some digging, he determined that a small but significant change had taken place in airline policies regarding missed flights.

Before 9/11, when the flat-tire rule was in effect, most airlines had a policy that they would reschedule you on the next flight if you were late for reasons beyond your control.

Between 2001 and 2007, the policy was more amorphous. Which is to say, the airlines quietly did away with the flat-tire rule without necessarily informing their passengers. And they allowed for some exceptions.

This year, airlines for the first time codified their refusal to rebook tardy passengers.

For example, here’s Delta’s Rule 135 governing cancellation of reservations. Check out paragraph C, subparagraph 3.

Passengers must arrive at the airport sufficiently in advance of a flight departure time (generally, not less than 2 hours) to permit completion of government requirements, security procedures, and departure processing.

Departures will not be delayed for passengers who are improperly documented, or have not completed all security processing, or have not met the carrier’s check-in requirements. Delta is not liable to the passenger for loss or expense due to the passenger’s failure to comply with this provision.

Paragraph D says Delta is not liable when it cancels the reservation of any passenger in accordance with this rule, but and (2) of it says:

If such reservation was canceled pursuant to other paragraphs of this rule, Delta will refund in accordance with Rule 270 (Voluntary Refunds).

“I’m fairly sure that older versions of the document didn’t go that far out of the way to disclaim responsibility for missed flights,” says Kenner.

Ditto for Continental, which just revised its contract in May. This is from Rule 5, section D, of its contract.

It is the Passenger’s responsibility to arrive at the airport with enough time to complete the security screening process and to comply with these CO minimum time limits.

Doing away with the “flat-tire” rule may be good for an airline’s bottom line, but I think it’s morally wrong.

Passengers cut airlines all kinds of slack for circumstances beyond their control, including weather and air traffic control delays. These provisions are even written into the airline contracts.

Shouldn’t airlines extend the same courtesy to their customers? Or have we really become, in the parlance of flight attendants, nothing more than “self-loading freight”?

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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18 comments

  • frostysnowman

    The flat-tire rule is definitely gone from Delta’s rule book, in my experience. I was late for a flight this past March after being stuck in traffic jam caused by a tractor trailer that had jackknifed over three of the four lanes on the highway. Delta made me pay the $50 fee to get a confirmed seat on the next flight to my destination. I asked to get it waived, because of the circumstances and because I wasn’t sure my company would reimburse me for the expense, but the answer was a firm “no”. I dropped it at that point because I didn’t want to risk them forcing me to pay any difference in the airfare between the two flights as well.

  • rmarkson

    I think you make an important statement here. “Passengers cut airlines all kinds of slack for circumstances beyond their control, including weather and air traffic control delays.”

    We sit for hours in the terminal or on the airplane, we no longer get food (soon we won’t even get water) and because of circumstances beyond their control (or just poor planning) we deal with it. We are too afraid to complain in case an air marshall or overzealous pilot decides that we are “dangerous” to the flight and kicks us off.

    It amazes me that we still pay for the privilege of flying.

  • http://www.stephenpickford.com Stephen Pickford

    The way the airline industry treats its passengers, it fully deserves to come under the heavy-boot of government regulation….and when there are fewer and fewer passengers, as they sit around and cry about high fuel prices, taxes, unions, etc., etc., I wil sit and laugh and watch them go under, so their employees can stand in line for jobs at Wal-Mart and McDonald’s, where the kind of abusive customer service standards that they were trained in previously will be quickly beaten out of them or they will be goners.

  • John

    I’m a frequent traveler, and as such I take responsibility for being on time for a flight. I think that everyone should leave their house in time to get to the airport and through security, even allowing for something to go wrong.

    If my cab gets a flat tire, I call the airline and let them know, and I call another cab immediately. If I am stuck in traffic, I call the airline immediately, and they are more likely to re-accommodate me than if I end up showing up at the airport with seconds to spare. Or too late.

    I know it’s human nature to take the passengers side, but a lot of passengers cry like little babies at the slightest upset.

  • Jasper

    The problem is that many many many passengers abuse the flat tire rule. Especially on early flights, there are whole flocks or (business) travelers who don’t like getting up at 4 for their 7am flight, and that walk in at the last possible moment. Worse, they get to walk by the folks who got up in time laughingly, because airlines don’t like to have to rebook all those folks. And worst, they openly admit that they came late, had no reason for it, and laugh in your face when you mumble about it. Very annoying. I wish airlines would stop letting these folks jump in line, and would bump them hard from their flights.

    On the other hand, people who can demonstrate that they really had an issue truly beyond their control (show your AAA tire exchange receipt, the hospital bill, or check the local traffic headlines), should get some slack from the airline folks.

    Unfortunately, there is no slack left. There is nothing left in the airline industry. It’s become a hollow shell that is about to collapse.

  • Joe Farrell

    @John – you ‘call the airline and let them know you are running late.”

    And how does that information from a call center in Bangla Desh get delivered to the Gate Agent in Kansas City or Moline? Fairies with pixie dust?

    I ROTFLMAO when I read that. You can not get information into your record that is needed to actually depart and you think that ‘call the airline’ will get you some kind of slack when you are running late? Do you have the numbers of all the station managers in all the stations?

    Yeah, I bet that just calling the airline and telling them will solve all these travelers problems. Just like they call you every time they change the schedule or have a delay, right?

    Sure – hahahahahah – that was the best post I’ve read in months.

  • Mike

    @Jasper,

    It even happens at night. A month or so ago, I was in the security line about 11:00 pm for a 12:40 am departure. A half-dozen people wanted to jump the line because they had an 11:15 pm flight. Funny, I had no delays on the train system to the airport. It’s annoying to have to wait a few more minutes for losers who show up so late.

  • Mike

    @Joe,

    Calling the airline is better than just crossing your fingers.

    As an Admirals Club member (AA), I can call the specific club where I am departing, and that might give me a chance of getting some help.

    That said, the only time I was in jeopardy of missing a flight was in Miami a few years ago. We had to reclear security at the “high E” gates (which aren’t connected to the other gates) and it was complete chaos. They literally closed the door behind me. I couldn’t even use the restroom (which I really needed to do). I thought I had allowed enough time for the connection, but I was wrong.

  • http://travel-babel.blogspot.com Claire Walter

    Sometimes airlines abuse passengers by tightening policies to generate a wee bit more revenue. Sometimes passengers abuse airline procedures by not leaving enough time and pleading they were victims of circumstances beyond their control.

    However, I see a real double standard, Airlines that mercilessly suspend the flat-tire rule cut themselves a lot of slack. Several circumstances when airlines routinely inconvenience passengers come to mind: When incoming planes are late in arriving and causing missed connections. When planes are loaded and pull away from the gate just so that the airline can improve it’s on-time record even if there’s an obvious conga line before actual take-off. When air traffic control directs the pilots to circle because of heavy traffic .When a plane arrives on time but there is a plane parked at the planned arrival gate. When there is a mechanical delay. Airline personnel, who are often overworked and stressed these days, do apologize and thank passengers for their “patience,” but carriers have been showing less and less patience for passengers’ problems. Are you reading and hearing the word “staycation” all over the place now? I am.

    Claire @ http://travel-babel.blogspot.com

  • WishingEveryoneWasLikePalmairEuropean

    Several years ago, we hit heavy traffic on the way to the airport (in the US). Unsure of what would happen, we called the airline to let them know what was going on (they asked us our name & flight details). When we got to the airport, other people who were caught in traffic got rescheduled, but we were told in no uncertain terms that we had to buy new tickets (at walk-up rates, of course). The agent said that there was nothing he could do, as a notation had already been made in the computer that we knew we would be late. The implication is that we knew in advance we would likely miss the flight, and therefore it was our fault. He implied quite strongly to us that we would have been placed on the next flight — for free — if we simply hadn’t called.

    We had the courtesy to call them and let them know we were running late, and we had to pay thousands of dollars for it, while others got put on another flight for free. Go figure.

  • Aimee

    When traveling for the first time to Philadelphia, I was astonished at the length of the security line. The person I happened to talk to was an airline employee (I swear they weren’t in uniform!) and he estimated that it was about an hour wait from where the line was ending at that point. I asked what was special about that day to make it so long, and he said it can be really long or really short at their airport, and it varies. I asked for a specific time or day when it was shortest (I was ready to change my return flight!) and he said it was just variable. I sat for 15 minutes watching the line barely move at all. It was truly painful, and I wasn’t even in it!

    How do you prepare for that? Even if you get to the airport 90 minutes early, as suggested, if you return your rental car, sit in an hour security line, and get picked for extra screening, you will be darn lucky not to miss your flight. Forget buying water and going to the bathroom! My daughter and I arrived 2 hours before a US flight, waited 25 minutes in line, got picked for extra screening (after all, there are so many scary 8 year olds out there) and we STILL came within 10 minutes of missing our flight because it took them over an hour to get through all the crap that they felt they needed to do to ensure my 8 year old wasn’t carrying explosives. How do you plan for that? A four hour early arrival? And rest assured, we wouldn’t have been cut any slack by our airline. I asked.

    Moral of the long-winded story? Don’t fly if you have a choice. The airlines have stacked the deck too high in their favor. And they have yet to figure out that the reason they are losing money is because fewer people are flying due to dissatisfaction with the service.

  • Jesse

    @ John: I would argue that most of us reading this column are good about following rules, etc., but you know there are times when things happen.

    @ Mike: not all of us have Admiral’s club membership and now with $15.00 per first checked-in bag, I believe many less will have it.

    I am surprised we are still flying with companies that basically have taken any privileges away from us, next up, AA will charge for breathing unless you have your own oxygen, but they’ll charge you $50 to bring it with you.

    Is anyone fighting for passenger rights? The government does not seem to be fighting for our rights, we seem to be having some problems with that as well, where are we going to end up?

    Would anyone like to start a passenger activist group?

  • http://www.advicegoddess.com Amy Alkon

    Philly TSA is the worst I’ve been through in recent memory. Enormously long line at the TSA on the way out, and at 6am, United. I said something — noted that they might check how many planes were leaving and accomodate them with an adequate number of TSA workers, and this seemed a foreign concept to them.

  • Roger

    I fly prettty frequently for work for a small software company. On a recent trip, I flew my wife out to join me for the weekend in Phoenix. On Sunday morning we were returning the rental car to the offsite consolidated rental center and construction and closure of the road the runs into to center caused us to drive around in circles trying o return our car. As a result, we arrived at the counter too late to check in for the flight. The US Airways agent was EXTREMELY helpful. She presented us with our options (all of which involved having to spend the night somewhere that was not home,) and allowed us to book a flight the next morning. She even waived the $100 per ticket change fee for both tickets. (the experience with TSA at PHX is another post altogether…)
    On my next rrip 6 days later, I arrived early for what was to be a three hour layover in Philly – there was an earlier flight to my home airport of GSO, I asked at the gate if I could possibly board – the gate agent check and was able to get me home 3 hours early. I even got my preferred window seat!
    Maybe US Air has taken their bad press to heart…

  • Jack

    Last October I was catching a flight from Dallas to get home and my arriving flight was early. I made it to the AA counter in time to see an earlier flight still at the gate with the boarding ramp sitll in place.

    I asked if there as a chance to board this flight and go a very mean “NO”. Nothing else as to why not. If the agent had even lied and said the flight was full I would have believed her.

    I said “oh well, I’ll wait 3 hours for my scheduled flight” at which point the agent really ticked me off by saying “And don’t go over to TGIF and drink as we’ll deny you boarding when your drunk”. I said “no problem as I don’t drink”. She said “Yea right….we hear that all the time”. And to top it off she had a self serving smirk on her face.

    She was correct about not boarding intoxicated passengers and I agree with her 100%…but she seemed to totally enjoy insulting me. Of course she didn’t know I’m not a drinker, but If their job is so bad they get off on insulting a customer, then it is about time they went back to school and learned something to get a job they would enjoy more. I did this 12 years ago….hated my casino job with a passion…sucked it up..went back to school and am now a much happier person. I did this at 43 years old so it is possible.

    I will do all I can to avoid flying in the future due to the callous attitude of the airlines.

  • William Hope

    What a contrast with the practices that were routine within living memory. About 1999, I was flying Sfo to MSP on NW, had actual flat tire near Sacramento. Called to rebook out of SFO if possible, told phone agent I was other side Sacramento and would never be able to make it to SFO, asking if a later flight available. She asked if I could get to Sacramento in time for a flight from there that was to leave in about 2 hr. That was a lot simpler so the airline rebooked me, and asked if I wanted to ret to SAc or to SFO. I decided to go to Sacramento on return, it was done, and no extra charge(s). Future generations will no doubt look at us when we haul out “now, back in my day” stories like this and snicker at how everything was soooooo much better back in Grampa’s day.

  • Joseph Yoon

    @ Jesse

    There is a passenger rights group run by Kate Hanni called flyersrights.org. You should check them out as I’m sure they would love to add any additional members who are not happy with the current state of air travel.

  • Harristottle

    Delta currently strands people all over the nation, childern from their parents, dividing groups, and other people from their luggage. If you misplace your boarding pass, you are screwed, if you check in online but need to print a boarding pass you are screwed, this policy is to screw customers when they have oversold flights. Delta not only implements a policy to screw customers on overbooked flights but they then attempt to charge same day flight prices to book a later flight with them.

    Within 45 minutes of a flight, Delta freezes all computers to screw any customer needing assistance. The heartless policy probably results in a huge yearly bonus for some numbskull manager with no empathy or concern behond his on well being who was rewarded by superiors for stomping on his coworkers to attain this position. The world would be better off without this person, yet money flows into his pockets from the management of Delta Airlines. Delta is the devil and it shows.

    My personal experience was arriving over an hour before the flight after checking online but losing my boarding pass printout, then attempting to use Delta’s worthless electronic boarding pass on my iPhone. After 15 minutes of attempts I tried the Kisosk but it was OOC, then went to security line to find that I had to go to ticketing for a boarding pass. I got through the line to the counter with 44 minutes prior to scheduled departure. The employee said there was nothing he could do as Delta freezes the computer and allows no help to customers at 45 minutes prior to scheduled takeoff. He tried to sell me a airline ticket to fly later but said it would be expensive as it was the only seat remaining on the flight. I asked for a complaint form, they wrote delta.com on a piece of paper and said it was on the website.

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