Air Travel: Know Before You Go
hen you fly, do you feel like the focus of a cattle-herding operation? Cramped seats, endless delays and cheery flight attendants tossing bags of pretzels your way? Sorry - none of that will improve soon. But some things may get better, and an informed traveler is certainly a happier traveler. So here's what you need to know to help make your next flight more comfortable and productive.
Friendlier Skies
"Customers First" is the new watchword for the airline industry. On June 17, industry representatives unveiled their voluntary "bill of rights" for passengers. The initiative came in response to pressure from the White House and Capitol Hill, including several bills that would have forced airlines to change policies.
Twenty-three U.S. carriers, members of the Air Transport Association, have pledged, among other things, to:
- Inform travelers promptly of delays and cancellations;
- Assign a customer service representative to handle complaints and respond to them within 60 days;
- Ask the Transportation Department to consider raising the liability limit for lost luggage;
- Make food, water and restrooms available when a plane is sitting for an extended time on the tarmac;
- Make available information about airline policies on cancellations, restrictions, seat size and more.
The association's airlines, which carry more than 95 percent of air passengers and cargo in the country, say they will complete the plans within six months.
For more on Customers First, call the Air Transport Association at (202) 626-4000.
Carrying On About Carry-Ons
All the controversy about carry-on luggage has done nothing to simplify the puzzling hodgepodge of policies and rules. Each airline has its own guidelines on acceptable sizes and number of carry-ons - and even on what counts as a carry-on. While the airline industry sorts itself out, travelers are going to be confused.
The best way to avoid gate-side hassles is to call the airline or check its Web site before flying. (See box on page 63.) And check every time - don't assume the rules stay the same from trip to trip.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the luggage industry have teamed up to educate travelers about carry-ons; their new brochure includes tips on planning, packing and stowing luggage. "Think Small ... Think Safe ... Think Smart ..." is part of a safety initiative, Safer Skies, which is designed to reduce the number of air travelrelated accidents of all kinds 80 percent by 2007.
For a copy of the FAA brochure, go to http://www.faa.gov/avr/afs/cabin.htm or www.dot.gov/airconsumer or call the Luggage and Leather Goods Manufacturing Association at (202) 333-3847. For more on the Safer Skies initiative, go to http://www.faa.gov/apa/Safer_Skies/saftoc.htm
Security Measures
Checked baggage is under scrutiny too. The FAA has proposed to tighten security by requiring airlines to use an automated screening procedure called Computer Assisted Passenger Screening, or CAPS, on all flights that have 61 or more seats. The system selects baggage for screening either randomly or by using programmed criteria. Most major airlines have adopted CAPS voluntarily over the past year.
Passengers usually won't know whether their bags have been screened; the procedures - including scanning bags for explosives and ensuring that bags don't fly unless their owners are on the same flight - take place behind the scenes. The Justice Department has given CAPS the green light, saying it is not discriminatory.
The proposed rule implements a recommendation of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, which was led by Vice President Al Gore. The FAA has extended until Aug. 17 its deadline for comments on the new rule.
The FAA also is working with some of the nation's largest airports to tighten access to aircraft. This spring, FAA security agents posing as travelers went through 79 airports approximately 3,000 times and were able to slip past security and board aircraft unchallenged "in a very few cases," says spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler. "We were looking to test every single layer between the bad guy and the aircraft." The test revealed 393 lapses in security operations.
The FAA is working with the vulnerable airports to develop better security procedures and will send out agents for surprise tests later this year.
Quick Border Crossings
Zip through the Immigration and Naturalization Service checkpoint - sounds impossible, doesn't it? Travelers who go on three or more short trips a year to any of 26 countries are eligible for a new program to speed INS processing by using biometric imaging. At the airport, travelers registered in the INSPASS program have their palms read by a machine that looks like an ATM. The machine validates a user's identity and completes an inspection in 15 to 20 seconds. More than 70,000 travelers have used the program during more than 220,000 trips.
The machines are in place in airports in New York (JFK), Toronto (Pearson), Newark, Miami, Vancouver and Los Angeles. They are scheduled to be installed in San Francisco, Seattle, Washington (Dulles) and Honolulu by the end of the year. INSPASS won a Government Executive Technology Award in 1996.
Have a Seat
It's not your imagination - airline seats, and the space between them, have been getting smaller. But all airline seats are not created equal. In fact, different airlines install different numbers and configurations of seats in the same aircraft. Consumer Reports Travel Letter ranks airplane seating based on seat pitch (the space between two rows), seat width (armrest to armrest) and configuration (number of seats per row). The publication found that as many as half the seats on some aircraft are undesirable for one reason or another.
The newsletter also shares traveler tips on avoiding the worst seats - the ones that don't recline, which make up 10 percent of seats on some aircraft used for longer flights - and snaring the best seats. Top strategies include getting seat assignments early, requesting seats away from the restrooms, asking booking agents about non-recliners and requesting a seat in an exit row.
For a copy of the reports on airline seats, send $5 per issue to Consumer Reports Travel Letter, 101 Truman Ave, Yonkers, N.Y. 10703-1057. The October 1998 issue covers undesirable seating (the same issue also covers carry-on rules); the July 1997 issue ranks seating comfort by plane and airline.
For seating charts of most aircraft, see the Official Airline Guide, available at your travel office or library.
All Join Hands
The airlines are on a partnership kick, and although they like to make it sound like good news for passengers, it mostly isn't. Northwest and Continental, United and Delta, and American and US Airways all have paired up. Consumer advocates say this strategy is a way for airlines to decrease competition without provoking as much Justice Department scrutiny as a formal merger would.
Airline partnerships take several forms, from code-sharing - which allows airlines to sell seats on each other's flights as if they were their own, without informing passengers - to "mega-alliances" - which go beyond code-sharing to coordinated schedules, joint marketing and more.
Ultimately, such alliances could help airlines dominate individual markets and thus drive up prices. This trend has not yet affected federal travel fares, says Sue McIver, director of the General Services Administration's Services Acquisition Center, whose office negotiates the city-pair contracts each year. But "it is true that in markets where there is competition, we get better prices," says McIver. "And what happens in the commercial marketplace will ultimately affect us as well."
Competition in the airline industry is declining; more than half of the 18,000-plus domestic routes currently lack competition.
For information on the fiscal 2000 city-pair contract awards, see the Government Executive special travel supplement in
the November issue, or check later this month.
- Caroline Polk contributed to this report.
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