Call for action on airline gripes

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Consumer advocates have urged the Australian federal government to push ahead with proposals in the aviation white paper to introduce an airlines complaints ombudsman.

The government intends late next year to review how airlines resolve consumer gripes and wants them to also develop “corporate charters” that would set standards for complaint handling, the Australian reports.

Airlines are also caught up in a wider move to harmonise and co-ordinate state fair trading laws and improve protections for consumers and provide increased redress.

The new legislation will include new powers to look at unfair contracts that are too biased towards providers.

The government has also moved to make all-inclusive pricing mandatory and require airlines or travel agents to advertise a total price that is at least as prominent as the most prominently displayed component price.

But it believes it preferable to resolve complaints before they get to court and is pushing the airlines to have unresolved complaints examined by an independent third party, such as an ombudsman.

Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn said the group was seeing an increasing number of complaints from travellers and backed any move to have an ombudsman.

One problem was that people's rights on airlines were often less than they presumed.

“People don't always appreciate their rights, or rather their lack of rights, when it comes to flight and what the terms and conditions of the ticket mean,'' he said.

Source: The Age

Original post

How about this:

U.S. Limits Tarmac Waits for Passengers to 3 Hours

Quote : Airlines that let a plane sit on the tarmac for more than two hours without giving passengers food or water, or more than three hours without offering them the option of getting off, will face fines of $27,500 a passenger, the secretary of transportation announced on Monday.

“This is President Obama’s Passenger Bill of Rights,”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/business/22passengers.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=igw