GreenDragon

If most of these pass, things will be nicer.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/06/02...ef=igoogle_cnn

Proposed changes include increased minimum compensation for bumps, increased rules on tarmac delays, full disclosure of baggage and other add-on fees, and refund of baggage fees if baggage doesn't arrive when it should. Granted, this is just the proposal - the reality may fall far short. But it's a step in the right direction.

alanRow

<<< increased minimum compensation for bumps >>> for involuntary bumps - all the airlines will do is tighten up their overbookings and charge more in the first place for tickets

<<< increased rules on tarmac delays >>> more cancelled flights

bettyk

Unfortunately, more restrictions usually equal higher airfares. I'm sure some won't mind paying more, but for others it will mean less frequent air travel which will just squeeze airline profits even more.

GreenDragon

ANY restrictions will increase airline prices, yes. That's the price we pay for reassurance that bad things won't happen, like 6 hour delays on the tarmac, or my bag missing for 5 days, and STILL having to pay for a baggage fee.

bettyk

You are correct, GreenDragon. But those 6 hour delays only occur in a small number of flights. However, higher airfares will affect all travelers.

And, unfortunately, it still doesn't insure that "bad things won't happen."

GreenDragon

No, it doesn't. Nothing will ever guarantee that. But having been a passenger on a flight sitting on the tarmac, and being a passenger who has had lost luggage on 3 of the last 6 flights I have taken, event his small incentive should help. Airlines have little incentive to get bags back to you quickly, on an individual basis, but if they have to give back some of that new-found revenue stream, it may help them do it more efficiently (I'm praying so, at least).

Already the fares are up more than they were. I'm of the belief that we will not return to such low fares.

bettyk

I'm sorry that you have had such rotten luck, but I have never experienced lost luggage on any of my trips nor have I sat on the tarmac for hours. I imagine you are in the minority. It doesn't make it any less aggravating, I agree.

And, as far as airfares being up more than they were, I again have to disagree. I was able to get a fare to Frankfurt for a September trip that was a little less than I paid in 2006 for the same flights.

GreenDragon

Most of the flights I've had to Europe over the last 10 years or so have been under $700 including taxes. One (in August, Miami to London) was $450. I'm seeing mostly $800-900 as the best this year. I tend to look every year, since I travel as often as I can I just hadn't seen the 'good' deals come through this year. Usually they have for summer travel by February.

bettyk

There are still a lot of seats left on our September flights. I'm pretty sure that American will drop prices in the weeks prior to try to fill up the plane.

We usually pay anywhere from $600+ to $800+ for flts from Houston to Frankfurt when we travel in May or September. We don't do summer flights anywhere if we can help it.

clevelandbrown

In years of flying, we had one bag lost (-50 F in Fairbanks; they lost the bag that had our winter coats in it) but they delivered it to our hotel the next day, and I thawed out two days later. It seems to me that there is a lot of competition in the airline industry, and their incentive to get your luggage back to you is that, if they don't, you can switch to another airline. If an airline consistently loses your luggage, and you keep flying them, you must think it is not important enough to switch to another airline.

We've spent plenty of time in line waiting to take off, but I don't think the airline has ever been the cause of the delay; it was either weather, or the ineptitude of the FAA. We can't do much about the weather, but if there is a delay because of air traffic control, the FAA should be compensating us, not the airline. But I guess it is typical of the government to divert responsibility to someone else for its own shortcomings.

My concern is that if substantial fines are levied on an airline for waiting too long in the FAA controlled waiting line, the airline may just decide to cancel the flight when they get close to the limit, leaving a plane full of passengers stuck waiting until another flight can accomodate them: that may very well mean staying overnight, and buying some meals, with no compensation from the airline, as the delay was not their fault.

If overcrowding of airport capacity is a problem, and it is, we should demand that our politicians get the problem solved by updating the infrastructure.

GreenDragon

I suppose I've just been unlucky on my bags. But it's to the point I have to count on them being lost. My last vacation to Scotland had 6 of us traveling. Three of us had delayed bags. One was returned the next day, the second we picked up at the airport in three days, the third (mine) I got 5 days after the flight. And that was only because I called about 5 times a day (no exaggeration) and finally found someone responsible enough to go LOOK for the bag, rather than just seeing that it was gone in the system. It was a mess that ate up a lot of time the first 5 days of my vacation.

mimipam

GreenDragon, I know just how you feel. My husband has had lost/delayed baggage numerable times in the past. Once to Ireland, they lost his bag with his dress clothes and he did not get it back until after we got home from our trip. Another time, they lost both or our bags (and I had even "cross-packed") and we got those back on about day 12 in Italy - the day before our return flight home. This is why we travel with carry-on only, sometimes checking on the way home. Doesn't sound like there has been much improvement over the years to me.

bettyk

Those of you who have lost bags -- did you connect through Heathrow by chance?

mimipam

Once my husband's and a lot of others on our flight were left in New York. (all week) Another time I think it was Rome where the connection was and the loss occurred.

GreenDragon

Betty, we went through Manchester, not Heathrow, on the way in (when they lost 3 of our 6 bags). On the way out we went through Heathrow, and again 2 of our bags were delayed. But we knew the reason for that - somehow half the reservations had been canceled the night before on the entire flight, so it was a huge US Airways snafu.

bettyk

Several of the men I use to work for who traveled alot would do anything to avoid Heathrow simply because of the lost luggage issue. It happened to them too many times.