There’s something about travel — whether you’re flying, driving or sailing — that brings out the jerk in all of us. Like the guy in seat 26B just in front of me right now on a flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles, who is probably a nice guy on the ground. But put him on a plane, and shortly after takeoff, he jams his seat into my knees without so much as an apology.
Jerk.
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One of the Transportation Security Administration’s vaunted 20 layers of security has been looking a little porous lately, and the resulting dust-up is calling into question the effectiveness — and the cost-effectiveness — of post-9/11 airport screening.
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Topic “A” this morning is the U.S. tourism industry’s surprising call for a national “trusted traveler” program for airline passengers.
“There is a shared sense of a better, smarter way to make the air travel security system more secure and efficient for travelers,” said Roger Dow, president of the U.S. Travel Association. “We believe a trusted traveler program should be the centerpiece of an enhanced air travel security process.”
Would air travelers be willing to give up their fingerprints, eye-scans and other personal information information in exchange for a shortcut through the security line? And just how much grief would we avoid by becoming part of a “trusted traveler” program? The body scans and pat downs, but not the magnetometers (like flight attendants) or the whole thing (like senior government officials). Here’s a list of current exemptions.
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Today is, by some estimates, the busiest air travel day of the year. Here’s what to expect if you’re flying.
No significant delays have been reported yet, although there are a few potential challenges that you should know about.
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The federal government is giving travelers an extra month to comment on proposed new consumer rules for airline passengers.
You now have until Sept. 23 to let the Transportation Department know what you think of the regulations, which will affect everything from how an airfare is quoted to whether peanuts will be served on a plane.
Even with my God-given gift for hyperbole, it would be hard to understate the importance of this initiative for air travelers, which is why I’m writing about it again.
The earlier column drew an unusually large number of responses, the most common one being, “What’s the Web address for Regulation Room?”
Easy: www.regulationroom.org.
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Do you remember your first time?
The sweaty palms. The racing heart. And the paralyzing fear: What if something goes wrong?
Betsy Talbot was 25 when she took her first flight on a puddle-jumper from Midland, Texas, to Dallas. “I was almost vibrating with excitement,” she remembers. Then the pilot made an announcement: There was a mechanical problem. “All I could think of were disaster scenarios on take-off. I even seriously considered getting off the plane at that point, but when I looked around no one else seemed worried — frustrated, maybe, but not worried.”
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The ash from an Eyjafjallajokull glacier volcanic eruption in Iceland that forced the cancellation of more than 4,000 flights in Northern Europe this morning has raised some questions about the rights of air travelers, and particularly how EU laws handle displaced passengers.
Here are a some of them. You can also read this afternoon’s Washington Post chat on the topic.
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