Clams, eh? O_o

Very strange story, will be interesting to see how it plays out at trial.

I guess Delta couldn't afford better hackers?

Yeah, it's a sad day when America Online can catch you hacking. Good job Delta!

I hope she gets her moneys worth, these corporate clowns need to piss off... no one cares about the ppl anymore... and to think I was about to fly with delta earlier this week...

"filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas"

Would like to know where Hanni is based. If it's not Texas, I call shenanigans and tell her to stop using AOL in the first place. Get a real provider.

something does need to be done with these airline companies stranding you for hours and giving nothing back in return.i have been stuck in planes and it is BS to force us to stay on a plane for hours.
frak you bigwig air companies you do not care about people enough.

WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU USE PDF!? hmmm owel at least its not jpeg.

This is the first I've ever heard of an "Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights"
Could it just be to get the word out?

Couldn't find where she's based, but many things are pointing that she does live in Texas. Looks like this all stemmed from a bad flight she had with Delta back in the 90's when her and her family were stranded for 9 hours without food and water along with other passengers.

She had a good movement going to get something passed with John McCain backing a bill, but then aviation lobbying knocked it off it's tracks and that's about it.

Here's a copy of the complaint filed in Texas: http://www.scribd.com/doc/20998899 [...] nt-Hanni-2

Mmm.."customer service" would be a nice thing to see eventually. On another note - Tom's should find a new picture to paste into evvverrrryyyy hacking story, it's getting a little old.

Never mind her law suit, shouldn't they be facing criminal charges? I would have thought that those actions would constitute a felony...

Playing devil's advocate... so we're all saying that something should be done about airlines and being stranded on the tarmac. But if this bill is passed, and it ends up costing our cash strapped airlines 40 mill in rev, how the H*$& do we expect our airlines to PROGRESS in passenger comfort, safety, etc. While I realize that most airlines wouldn't have used that 40 mill towards positive passenger experience, taking that away from them is only giving them more reason to charge more for bags, food, tickets, and services. So... yeah.

You criticize and yet you know nothing. Would you rather the airlines rush through their pre-flight checks? Or if the conditions are unsafe for take-off they should take-off anyways? Or maybe the airplane should take-off anyways even if another airplane is trying to land on the same runway? Your right, the big wigs don't care about anyone....just their lives and safety.
Think for a second before you open your mouth.

What i find most disgusting is that someone has to lobby congress to "FORCE airlines to provide food, water, and access to restrooms and clean air during 'long tarmac delays.'"

Fk me sideways. Id think providing people with food and water should NOT be an option in todays society. These are the most basic requirements for human survival and should not be optional.

Isn't the real problem that they were using AOL in the first place?

I thought PCs are much much much more secure than Macs. What happened? It must be Apple fanboys' evil work!!!

-ND

If the files were going to an unspecified location, how does she know it was Delta? Sounds like she just got infected with some form of malware and she's trying to use that to sue Delta.

No, the problems aren't with the FAA mandated preflight checklists or taking off in unsafe conditions. This is meant for those times where you arrive late and ground crews have gone home and there is nobody to park the plane. This is for the times where they have a line stacked about 50 deep waiting to depart because they overcrowd departure times past airport capacity. This is for the times that airlines fail to show compassion to the paying customer, not safety.

Apparently thinking isn't happening before you open your mouth.

if her files were "corrupted" i'd be more apt to blame whatever new version of MS Word she installed thinking it was compatible with the docs she authored using an older version of MS Word. cant tell you how many times this has happened over the years at companies i've worked for. cant blame Delta for that.

but the other stuff, go ahead (although the story does have a slight whiff of delusional paranoia too).

I hate flying...
Nothing like waiting hours in customs for nothing at all... almost missed my plane down south... two plane trip... I would have been stranded halfway between my home and destination... the food was also insanely expensive and tasted like shit...

Driving 1000km is often easier than getting through Canadian-American customs...

Sure....you just know it all don't you? Airlines just leave people on planes just for the fun of it. They re-route planes just to screw with people. I am glad everyone here is an expert on airport operations.

If you have such a big problem with airliners then learn to drive.

You guys are ALL arguing for NOTHING.

I used to work for Delta airlines and Delta Tech is the Department Responsible for Computer issues.....I used to work in that Department and None of these guys are even remotely capable of hacking PERIOD....This lady's claims are BULLSHIT....Techs have better things to do like trying to close open tickets and catch the metro link at 2pm before it departs so we can get home to our families.....it must be someone else......

I believe the current FAA rules prevent the serving of food/drinks and going to the bathroom whilst on active taxiways. Perhaps it would be better if the campaigner was lobbying for the FAA to provide some provisions for the relaxing of those rules in specific situations.

Then perhaps we'd be able to see if it was the airlines or the regulations were at fault.

Most of the bill of rights for passengers i agree with, but the sort of publicity this is going to get is going to do more harm to her organization that help it, especially if she looses.

Also...i would have to blame TSA and airport security since they are the ones who inspect the laptops and nobody else.

Anyone else wondering how this bill would cost airlines $40 million? More likely, it would generate more revenue than it costs.

if the bill required airlines to *give* passengers free food and water on long tarmac delays...well...let's just say, i'd have gotten several in the years i've been flying.

of course if the airlines estimated that number, they'd be telling you $40M based on that 4 oz bottle of water and .5 oz bag of pretzels that they'll claim cost them $1 each. lol

If what she claims is true, I personally hope she wins and takes Delta to the cleaners. Their execs have been losing them money for years now, and their service on-board has gone to pot.

Of course, her laptop password was probably her dog's name or her birthday or something real easy if a hacker got into that easily.

Many of the comments here on airline's treatment of passengers are over simplifications. In the end, you always get what you pay for.

The airline industry is a highly competitive sector. Passengers always want the lowest fair. To have plans in place, in order to provide service for passengers, when things do go wrong (weather, mechanical difficulties) are all added expenses. For the most part, passengers have voted with their wallets, that they want: airlines that don't have the budget for backup plans, aircraft with cramped seats, and miniscule (you will always hear big American people complain about this one) or no meals.

Also, no one wants an airport in their back yard or pay more taxes to expand existing ones.

Money, gang, money.

We are kept in the plane because Airlines are charged for the time a plane spends at the gate. Once they push the plane away, the cash register is closed. It costs money to pull the plane back in. It'll take regs to fix that.

I think the real news here is that people still use AOL

I like clams.