Just try to invoke a Rule 240 in Newark when your flight to Rochester is canceled. There are no other carriers for them to put you on. You are better off renting a car.

I agree with Josh thought that the flat tire rule doesn’t apply in Fumiko’s case. The air line was at fault, not the customer.

As for rule 240, that should come back immediately. Even if air lines have to pay each other, things should equal out, if they just use empty seats to get people around.

However, I think that they dropped the rule, because bean counters have been able to define the product that the airline sells narrower and narrower. As a customer, you want to buy transportation from A to B. That’s it. Preferably, you’d like to indicate when you leave and return, but as a customer you understand you depend on the air lines’ flight schedule, so you accept some inconvenience. As a customer you’re also willing to accept some delays, as long as you have the feeling that an air line it trying to get you where you need to be.

Air lines however, have reduced the product to the sale of a specific seat on a specific flight, at a specific point in time, with a specifically defined luggage allowance, a fluid quota and a little responsibility for any hick-ups that they legally can get away with.

The gap between the two is what people get angry and frustrated about. Basically, customers can not buy the product they want anymore, while airlines keep telling customers that that’s really not the product they want.

First of all, even domestic segments of international itineraries are considered international and you have to show your passport when checking in, I just experienced that a couple of weeks ago. I could not check in online, even for the 45 minute flight to Newark. Online check in is often not available for international flights, or you can only check in so far, and then still have to stand in line to show your passport to a person before you can get a boarding pass. I only fly internationally three or four times a year, and this seems to be different every time. The one nice part of this rule is that the international rules on compensation for lost baggage apply to even the domestic segments.

This case is completely American’s fault for not having enough staff to check in the flight, especially since they know how many people are on that flight, how many have printed out boarding passes early, and how many are or are not US citizens. There is no way we as travelers can know how long the lines are going to be at an airport, especially a strange airport, so we follow the guidelines that the airlines have given us and show up two hours early. Should we now show up three, four, five hours early just in case American didn’t feel like paying some employees and is understaffed? While she should have spoken up, or been on the phone to American’s customer service from the line, this is entirely American’s fault.

Now, for the rental car question. If I rent a movie and they tell me that it has to be back by noon or I get charged for an extra day, I have it back by noon or I pay for the extra day. This is much more within the control of the customer than the airline issue.

Ah, rule 240. There seems to be a lot of nostalgia for it, but that era seems to have gone the way of white wall tires and native English speaking call center operators. I would be happy with having one set of rules to follow for all airlines, but that too is probably wishful thinking.

However, airlines and rental companies should certainly have a little wiggle room built into their rules. Some things are completely beyond a passenger’s control. Ms. Seguchi was at the airport on time, doing what she was supposed to do. AA took shameful advantage of her and should have allowed her to go ahead and check in.

P.S. If online check in won’t work and the airline provides the little e-kiosks, USE THEM! If you don’t have changes to make to your ticket, you’ll still get through in about a third of the time versus standing in line.

It wasn’t an int’l flight–flying from Orlando on AA would be domestic to Chicago or Dallas or somewhere else. She did exactly what she was supposed to do. This one was AA’s screw-up. They should have let her jump the line.

I’m a regular United passenger, and at busy times at airports like SFO, the agents often ask “is anyone going to such-and-such city” when the time grows near and moving those folks forward (or opening an another line if possible). This is the way it should be–it’s just good business.

Running gas is a driver’s fault…if you’re going towards empty, find a gas station. It’s a shame that responsible travelers are punished because of their fellow travelers.

I agree about running out of gas — that is generally the driver’s fault (that’s one reason I never take the “purchase the tank” rental option; it’s too tempting to try to return completely empty). Although again, we give the airline some leeway for delayed/cancelled/misconnecting flights, so I think a little low-cost-to-them accomodation is appropriate.

But checkin lines? Of course everyone knows there will be a line, but *how long* varies greatly — Most of the time, there’s no more than 5-10 minutes delay at many airports; how exactly am I supposed to know that they’re short-staffed on a particular day and it’ll be 3 hours? Am I supposed to show up 6 hours early, just in case? Just pick a time and let people build that into their schedules (and if airline A says be there 3 hours early, and B says 2 hours early, people can build that into their price/convenience shopping).

The airline completely controls the throughput of those lines — the number of agents and how efficient each checkin is (remember the old days when even a standard checkin on a paper ticket resulted in 2-3 minutes of furious typing? That’s gotten a bit better now, but sometimes you get stuck behind others with weird problems)

Just tell me when to show up at the airport and I’ll be there (and take responsibility for anything up to then); after that IMHO it’s the airline’s job to get me where I’m going…

“couldn’t have anticipated the long check-in lines at the airport” — really? Has she not been in an airport recently? ever? Again .. NOT beyond her control.