What happened to the Passengers Bill of Rights?

I remember the first time that I flew.  It was the summer of 1985 and I was flying to London, England on British Caledonian.  I thought, “Wow, this is the only way to travel.”  Having traveled by car and train, air travel was quick, comfortable, and customer friendly. 

Fast forward to 2007 … Air travel is still quick, but what happened to customer service and satisfaction.  Yes, passengers may have become less civil, we have experienced the tragic events of September 11th, more people travel and the air travel infrastructure has not kept pace.  Sure, these are challenges, maybe even legitimate problems, to air travel, but what happened to customer service and satisfaction.  When I travel on airlines, I sometimes feel like I am “troubling” the airlines and their employees.  It’s like they are doing me a favor …

Of course, I should feel honored and privileged that the airlines allow me to fly on their carriers.  Why should I complain about late or cancelled flights?  It’s not really necessary that the flight representatives acknowledge my presence.  I don’t need an update if my flight is late.  It is perfectly acceptable that air travel schedules are so fragile that a delay at one airport ripples throughout most of the country.  The airlines and airports handle a lot of luggage, so I shouldn’t get upset when they lose mine and then never give me an allowance, despite what their supposed policy say.  Now, this is really important, it is entirely unreasonable to expect short lines and courteous employee … that is just asking for too much.  I like standing in queue and having someone yell and frown at me with disdain, especially when I pay part of their salary.

Okay, those are my grievances, but what can we do?  The 110th US Congress talked a lot about a Passenger Bill of Rights.  What happened?  Why don’t we consumers have rights and protection?  Do other consumer rights apply to air travelers?  I don’t know, but I do know that customer service stinks from the time you arrive at the airport to the time you leave the airport when you reach your destination.  Now, not all employees and air travel is horrible.

When we flew to Amsterdam, our original flight was “delayed” more like cancelled, as a result of weather.  A dedicated airline representative worked tirelessly to find us another flight.  Raleigh-Durham airport actually found a very important book that I left at the check-in counter … I didn’t even have my name written in the book.  They found the book based on the title I gave them.  My point, as bad as air travel is, it is not a lost cause.  It just needs a major overhaul so that my anecdotal examples are the norm.