Comments on: Government issues “precedent-setting” fines against three airlines in Rochester delay incident

By: Ed F London

Ed F London — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:26:58 +0000

Pardon me for being harsh, but I thought the last comment, “Hopefully, the DOT will turn its attention to other issues that affect all of us,” was disgingenuous. There are few of us who die in air crashes so the DOT should pay more attention to something that affects us all?? Like the quality of pretzels and peanuts since more of us encounter those than encounter crashes? Easy to make a comment like that about delays unless you happen to one of those impacted directly. Or may be some time in the future.

By: David Z

David Z — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:55:46 +0000

The only solution I can think about is perhaps a class action suit. I do not know how feasible be that would be.

A thing to note is lawyers essentially (if not always) take the biggest cut out of a possible class-action suit, even if it’s intended to make a point. Not to mention it’s sometimes (if not always, either) difficult to turn it into one to begin with.

By: barbie45

barbie45 — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:19:07 +0000

Thanks Dave, never heard of that dog food. by the way happyholidays

By: LeeAnne

LeeAnne — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:05:29 +0000

@Dave…ROFL! Thanks for jumping in and defending me. Nobody likes to have their nose rubbed in their minor typos…it’s just rude.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:13:37 +0000

barbie45, that’s I am, not Iam. The latter is dog food. See, anybody can make a mistake.

By: vanessa

vanessa — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:10:38 +0000

I agree Bill, atleast there is fine associated with the tarmac delays. Because of the ridiuclous govt spending I figure DOT is operating on a slim budget. Hopefully the money they receive will be put away to help with future admin and court costs against the airline companies that break these rules. Apart from these fines from DOT, the passengers should email and call the airline and nicely ask for recompense because more times than not the airline will reimburse them with either coupons, vouchers, or sometimes refunds. Thanks for the update Chris :-)

By: John

John — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:12:50 +0000

All… According to Continental (still trying to find the report where I read it and will post the link if I do), everyone on the flight received a full refund plus added “thank yous.”

In that case, I think Continental has gone well above what other airlines have done in this case. I guess it shows why Continental continues to rank high for customer service

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:25:33 +0000

Don’t worry about this fine money. I assume the passengers have pending lawsuits for much larger sums of money. They will be able to use the fact that that the government has fined all the airlines as evidence in these lawsuits increasing their odds of winning their lawsuits.

By: barbie45

barbie45 — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:46:59 +0000

Justin and Jeanne, Iam in total agreement. The only solution I can think about is perhaps a class action suit. I do not know how feasible be that would be.

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:54:57 +0000

Regardless of where the fines are going, the good thing is that there is starting to be a penalty for stranding passengers on the tarmac, which is a good thing. Hopefully, it will provide a deterrent.

By: MarkieA

MarkieA — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:08:42 +0000

And let’s not forget, the airlines are just gonna recoup these fines by raising the checked baggage fees by $5, or charge extra for a window seat, or use of the toilet. Whatever. Bottom line is… they’re bottom line won’t take the hit from this.

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 01:29:22 +0000

I agree that the fine should be divvied up among the passengers. Do those passengers have any recourse against Continental/ExpressJet/Mesaba? I don’t recall seeing how that worked out for the people who actually suffered.

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:34:44 +0000

The same sentiments as LeeAnne stated in her post. Where exactly is this money going? It should be divvied up among the passengers and put into their pockets. I don’t see how assessing a fine against the airline solves anything, if the DOT keeps the sum of the money. Poor DOT, they had to suffer by walking to the bank and cashing the check. Want real justice, reimburse the customers for their headaches and suffering. Then, we would have a REAL story to talk about. Since that won’t happen, this is more of a “F-U” to those who spent their day on the plane. Not only won’t they most likely see compensation, but someone else profits off their misfortune.

Justin

By: LeeAnne

LeeAnne — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:07:51 +0000

Barbie, darling…do you REALLY want to be doing spellchecks on all my posts? Would you like me to go back and do grammar and spell checks on all of YOUR rambling, nonsensical, illogical and utterly nutty posts over the past month? Trust me, there are exponentially more spelling and grammatical errors in your posts than in any of mine…or in the vast majority of posts from the other frequent commenters in this forum.

I agreed to stop calling you out for all of your racist, intolerant and imbecilic nonsense. I have left you alone to enjoy your mindless and pointless rambles. So can you please stop with the snippy little spellchecks? They bring nothing of value to this forum. And did you forget that you promised Christopher you would stop with this immature nonsense?

Let it go, dear. Holding on to a grudge is unhealthy.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:48:18 +0000

I agree with LeeAnne — I was thinking the same thing: “Great, $1000 per passenger might be a bit of a consolation”, but realized that the money just disappears into a black hole. The individual customers are still left to have suffered the delay plus pay all of their own lodging, car rental, parking, etc penalties caused by it.

I am glad to see the DOT holding Continental accountable too — I have no problem with companies contracting out services, but I can’t stand it when they try to wash their hands of responsibility when they do.