Airport Misery Lingers; American Released
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again. Randi Kaye here, sitting in for Anderson, who is getting ready for CNN's big New Year's Eve special with Kathy Griffin. Tonight, though: what went wrong? Air travelers still trying to get home from Christmas trips, still stuck at airports around the country, possibly until New Year's or beyond. Were new rules designed to protect passengers to blame? Did government regulators drop the ball? What about the airlines? We'll try to get some answers, "Keeping Them Honest". Also tonight, breaking news in a story 360 led the way on -- American Paul Waggoner, who went from volunteer at a Haitian hospital to inmate at the country's worst prison, accused of kidnapping and turning a child into a zombie, Paul is free tonight. He's speaking out. And you'll only see it right here on 360. And later, "360 MD" Sanjay Gupta with a kid taking "Extreme Living" to new heights -- boy, you couldn't get much higher than this -- just 13 years old when he climbed Mount Everest. We begin tonight "Keeping Them Honest" on who or what's to blame for all the misery so many air travelers are still going through days after the blizzard. The outrage boiling over again today, as five new international flights are trapped on the tarmac at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, passengers waiting for up to nine hours to get off their planes, then hours more to retrieve their luggage. A total of 29 international flights have been stranded on the tarmacs of New York airports this week, including a Cathay Pacific flight stuck for a mind-boggling 11 hours. Of course, the problems didn't stop there. We can't forget the tens of thousands of air travelers around the country whose holiday plans were torpedoed by cancellations and flight delays, with no help in sight. Some won't make it to their destinations until after the New Year. And the initial anger and frustration is only growing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We looked up at the screen and it said canceled within three minutes of walking into the door. So, we had no other plans. We didn't prolong our hotel stay. We didn't do anything.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're telling us that they can't tell us anything.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The airlines couldn't tell us anything. That sounds highly inefficient.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're on a standby right now. If that doesn't come through, then we will be in real big trouble.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm definitely going to get home sooner or later. If I don't, I have got to stay here. I don't have any choice.</s>KAYE: More than 10,000 flights have been canceled since last weekend's blizzard dumped 20 inches of snow on New York, bringing air traffic to a standstill from coast to coast. And with airline phone lines, Web sites and reservation agents overloaded, re-booking those flights has been a nightmare. Imagine calling desperate for help, only to get this message.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks for calling Continental Airlines. Due to the weather in the Northeast, we're experiencing unusually high call volume and are unable to take your call. You can check the status of a flight or check in for a flight from your handheld device by going to PDA.Continental.com and enter your flight information.</s>KAYE: So, what exactly went wrong? Some experts argue nothing did. They say the aviation system is working just fine, given the circumstances.</s>YOSSI SHEFFI, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY CENTER FOR TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS: The aviation system is not broken at all. We had the severe weather situation in the Northeast United States.</s>KAYE: But others say thousands of flights may have been canceled prematurely, all because of the new airlines' passenger bill of rights. It fines airlines if domestic flights, not international flights, are kept waiting on the tarmac for more than three hours. Now, this was the first big test of the tarmac wait rule since it went into effect in April. And rather than risk those fines, potentially millions of dollars per flight, critics say the airlines simply grounded them, leaving passengers stuck in the terminal, instead of on the airplane. Meantime, the Department of Transportation is taking a hard look at what happened this weekend and will post its findings so consumers make informed decisions in future weather emergencies. But the department insists telling airlines how to schedule flights is not its job. Of course, passengers still trapped at the airport aren't interested in excuses. They just want to get where they're going and maybe an apology from someone, anyone, in charge. Cathay Pacific, the international carrier behind that 11-hour ground delay yesterday, was quick to offer one. In a statement, the airline wrote, "We are particularly sorry for the great inconvenience that more than 1,100 passengers have suffered throughout their long wait inside our aircraft on the tarmac." And what about an apology for passengers stranded by our airlines here at home? In airports across the country tonight, thousands are still waiting and waiting and waiting. Earlier, I spoke with Michael Boyd, airline analyst with the Boyd Aviation Group, and Brandon Macsata, executive director of the Association for Airline Passenger Rights, about who or what is really to blame.</s>KAYE: All right, Mike, let's start with you. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's my understanding that you think the airlines have actually done a fairly good job throughout all of this. Now, there are a lot of people watching tonight who probably disagree with you. So what makes you think that?</s>MICHAEL BOYD, AIRLINE ANALYST, BOYD AVIATION GROUP: Well, I think it's what you can do versus what you'd like to do. You know, having been on that side of the table, or both sides of the table of this, you know -- and I wasn't at LaGuardia to put up with this grief -- but what can you do when the -- the runways are shut down? You have 3,000 or 4,000 people there. You've got people calling reservations trying to re-book. You don't have many reservations people. That's a problem. I guess it's wrong to say I think they have done a great job. I guess the point is could they have done anything better under the circumstances? Probably yes, but would it be marginally better? I don't know.</s>KAYE: Well, that's what I was just going to ask you. I mean is this really the best we can do?</s>BOYD: Well, when you have every runway in the New York area shut down over a holiday period, and people trying to get home and airplanes canceled all over, I don't know what that means. It means, how do you handle it? You can't open the runways. You can't make airplanes fly in bad weather. So, the question is, how did you handle the people on the ground? And I'll bet there's legions of stories where people handled it wonderfully, and legions where the people sat there thinking, what am I going to do? Will I ever get out of this airport?</s>KAYE: And Brandon, this was the first test of the passengers bill of rights, which is supposed to prohibit airlines from scheduling those chronically delayed flights that we have heard nightmare stories of people spending 11 hours on a plane. And you say the bill of rights actually doesn't go far enough, or this wouldn't have happened.</s>BRANDON MACSATA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASSOCIATION FOR AIRLINE PASSENGER RIGHTS: Well, Randi, we would like to strike a balance. You know, we hear stories where people can't even get information as to when they might be able to get a new flight. That goes to the issue of, you know, the -- the phone systems being overloaded. They should have been prepared. We don't blame the airlines, or the airports, for that matter, for bad weather. We most certainly do hold them responsible -- responsible for being able to react when a situation like this arises.</s>KAYE: And Mike, we're talking about these -- these customer complaints. I mean on top of the canceled flights, the passengers couldn't get through to the airlines' phone numbers, as Brandon mentioned. They couldn't find out if their flights had been changed or even what flight they're on. The online services weren't working, no response really from the airlines. And critics have warned that this would happen when these regulations took effect. Do you agree?</s>BOYD: Well, I don't think the regulations had anything to do with this. I mean, we had a weather situation. And the problem when you fly, even in good weather -- and I'm sure Brandon's going through this right now knowing he's going to get on an airplane -- you have anxieties. But when you're in an airport crowded with people whose flights are canceled just like yours, you don't know when you're going to get out, and there's no information, yes, consumers are going to get upset, justifiably. The question is -- I agree airlines could do a much better job of this going forward to be prepared for it. At least to say, hey, everybody -- and I have been in this game -- hey, everybody, we don't know what the answer is, but we're going to try to find out, but we'll get through this.</s>KAYE: Brandon, would you say that -- that the airlines were too quick, really, to cancel so many flights, for fear of being fined if they had the passengers sitting on the tarmac?</s>MACSATA: You know, most passengers that I talked to would prefer that the airlines pre-cancel flights, so that at least people are home or maybe they're at their hotel, rather than, you know, stick with the flight schedule, knowing that it's going to be a disaster, get these people on the airport, get them in the airplane, and then be in a position where they have to delay it or cancel. And it -- it causes absolute havoc on the system.</s>KAYE: And Mike, why don't you react to that? Because I mean, this storm was predicted. It was not a surprise. So, what about a plan B here?</s>BOYD: Keep in mind, in the airline business today -- 10 years ago, you had a lot of ticket counter staff. Today, there's no tickets and no ticket counter staff. But to be prepared for this and have -- have some sort of anticipatory plan is good. And they are doing a good job, I believe, canceling airplanes, so they don't go to LaGuardia tonight --</s>KAYE: But what about staffing?</s>BOYD: -- get stuck under three feet of snow tomorrow.</s>KAYE: But what about staffing?</s>BOYD: Well, the problem is, sometimes --</s>KAYE: -- were they prepared for that? Were they prepared for passengers --</s>BOYD: Well --</s>KAYE: -- not being able to change their tickets online or get any information from the airline?</s>BOYD: Well, one of the things, too, is, you know, you -- you don't build a reservation system for, you know, 5,000 calls in one hour. I mean, so you can understand that to a degree. But the staffing part, maybe they didn't have enough staffing. But I would go along with Brandon and say it's real clear they didn't plan enough on this, because the whole idea is, they know the government's breezing -- breathing down their throat with silly regulations. And we know we have things like fines. You know, you want to anticipate that, and I -- I would question whether they did that in this case.</s>KAYE: And on the flip side of that, Brandon, what about consumers? Do they hold any responsibility here? I mean, the passengers also knew about the storm and many of them did go ahead to the airport and try and wait it out and get on a flight.</s>MACSATA: Passengers do hold some responsibility, but the lion's share of this burden falls directly on the airlines. I think what we ought to do is take all the airline CEOs and top executives, put them on a commercial flight, and let them experience what passengers have dealt with in LaGuardia. And then we'll see how quickly the airlines will shape up.</s>KAYE: Yes, that would be an interesting experiment. But let me ask you this. With so much cheap airfare out there today, is it a question of you get what you pay for here?</s>MACSATA: It's not just a case of cheap airfare and paying for what you get. I -- I think it's just the -- the airlines are -- are stuck in this outdated business model. They don't want to change. And when an issue like weather comes up, they just throw their hands in the air and say, we're not responsible for Mother Nature -- Mother Nature. And that's just absurd.</s>KAYE: And Michael, I mean, you -- you look at this mess, yet you still say that we don't need this bill of rights, this passenger bill of rights.</s>BOYD: What we need is somebody to enforce it. The Department of Transportation is incompetent. They don't have people that understand these rules. You don't want the DOT telling when an airplane could cancel -- should be canceled or not. These people are political appointees. So, it would make things even worse because we don't have the machinery to make it work. But on -- on another point, keep in mind, those passengers sitting out at LaGuardia today waiting to get out, I -- I can't blame them, because their tickets were probably non-refundable. And, if they didn't go, they're going to lose their money. So they're kind of forced to go out and get into this rodeo.</s>KAYE: All right. Gentlemen, we'll have to leave it there. Mike Boyd, Brandon Macsata, thank you. And I hope your -- your travels are smooth in the days ahead.</s>MACSATA: Thank you. I appreciate it.</s>KAYE: So, let us know what you think. Join the live chat now under way at AC360.com. Up next, breaking news: an American volunteer imprisoned in Haiti on just an accusation that he kidnapped and practiced voodoo on a child is out of prison tonight. We'll talk to Paul Waggoner about what it was like behind bars without being charged and what he thinks is the root of the false accusation against him. Also ahead, an Idaho man gets into a tussle on board a plane with someone using an iPhone and lands in police custody.