New Airline Passenger Bill of Rights

[SarahS]

Are the days of being stuck on the tarmac for four or six or eight hours finally over? On April 29, 2010, a new law went into effect that makes it illegal for airlines to keep passengers on a plane for longer than three hours while stuck on a tarmac. The law also has a number of other provisions, which you can read about at the link below. Do you think this law will make the air travel experience better for passengers? Weigh in here!

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Airline Passengers Get New Bill of Rights

[RichardNika]

I need to correct an error: ID is always required when you go through the checkpoint BEFORE you go through security. I have NEVER had to show ID after that point. All you need is your boarding pass. After passing that checkpoint, I always put my ID back in my wallet before going through the security check.

Yes, in fact the new law has already made things better. Kate Hanni of flyersrights.org, who got the law pushed through, said it dropped the annual number of cases of people being literally incarcerated in stalled planes and not allowed to reenter the terminal from something like 300 to ONE. The measure provides that, except in exceptional circumstances, the airline can be fined $27,500 PER AFFECTED PASSENGER if they hold people like that for more than three hours. Unfortunately, it seems that in their efforts to avoid these big fines, the airlines have also been canceling more flights than before.

[porkster]

What irks me is that it now seems that being forced to wait on the ground in an aircraft for three hours is acceptable....!!!!
It's not!