Clark Howard's Tips

August 14, 2007

The airlines are behaving so badly these days. Continental is often thought of as delivering the best customer service, yet something might be going wrong judging from the slew of recent horror stories Clark's been hearing.

First there was the tale of Continental's sewage-filled flight from Europe to New Jersey. Apparently there was a malfunctioning toilet that wasn't fixed before takeoff. It spilled raw sewage up and down the aisles all across the Atlantic. The company's response to that incident was lame at best.

Now there's been another Continental snafu. This one concerns a passenger revolt that took place on a grounded Continental flight, first reported in The Baltimore Sun. A flight from Venezuela to Newark, N.J., was diverted to Baltimore because of bad weather. Once the plane touched ground, it sat on the tarmac for five to seven hours.

Worse still, the passengers had no food, no water and no working toilets or toilet paper. So some travelers began rhythmically clapping their hands in protest while others beat out an accompaniment on the overhead bins. The unrest caused the pilot to radio the police, who put the passengers in a hallway with what some have called an "attack dog."

Continental doesn't even deny the facts. The airline only says that the airport couldn't make proper arrangements. But the airport denies this version of the story.

What this all points to is the need for a federal passenger bill of rights that guarantees food, water and working toilets during a delay, plus the provision that after a plane is delayed for three hours on the tarmac the passengers will be brought back to the terminal.

So far only JetBlue has even come close with its own passenger bill of rights that promises to pay customers if there are any delays.

Consumer advice courtesy of