Even at its finest, air journey is actually solely ever OK. You can at all times attempt to make it suck much less by ingesting alcohol, however then you must stand up and use the tiny questionably sanitary bogs extra usually. But whereas nobody’s ever really having the time of their lives on a business airline, there are many issues that may go flawed that make your flight depressing. Like lacking your connection as a result of your first flight acquired delayed. Or a storm inflicting 1000’s of flights to get canceled. Or getting caught on the tarmac for hours whereas ready to hopefully take off ultimately.
Sadly, there isn’t a lot that may be completed about storms, however the United States Department of Transportation is at the least making an attempt to do one thing about that final difficulty. In reality, Bloomberg studies that the DOT simply fined American Airlines $4.1 million for leaving passengers sitting on the tarmac for too lengthy. It’s at present towards the legislation to maintain passengers on the tarmac for longer than three hours with out returning to the gate to permit them to get off. And in keeping with the DOT, American Airlines broke that legislation at the least 43 occasions between 2018 and 2021.
“This is the latest action in our continued drive to enforce the rights of airline passengers,” Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg stated in an announcement. “Whether the issue is extreme tarmac delays or problems getting refunds, DOT will continue to protect consumers and hold airlines accountable.”
“American always strives to deliver a positive travel experience to our customers and takes very seriously our responsibility to comply with all Department of Transportation requirements,” American Airlines instructed Bloomberg.
The $4.1 million positive is the biggest ever handed out for delayed flights, and half of it is going to be used to compensate the 5,821 passengers who have been on these affected flights. If we’re doing our math appropriately, that solely works out to about $350 per individual, which isn’t precisely a lot. Then once more, it ought to nonetheless be sufficient to take the entire household out for dinner at Texas Roadhouse, which could possibly be a pleasant deal with.
Source: jalopnik.com