Air Travel

Hassled by TSA? FlyRights app helps you complain

9/11, Air Travel, , , ,

A new app – FlyRights – offers a fast and easy way to complain about discrimination, profiling and other improper behavior by TSA officers at airport security checkpoints.

The app was created by the Sikh Coalition, which found that while only 11 complaints of improper screening by the TSA were filed during the first two quarters of 2011, many Sikh, Muslim, and South Asian travelers believe they are regularly profiled by TSA at airports.

At some airports, the coalition says, 100% of Sikh travelers report being subjected to unfair secondary treatment.

The Sikh coalition says it created the app “to bridge the gap between community frustration about airport profiling and official action,” and worked closely with civil rights groups in the Black, Latino, South Asian, Muslim communities to develop the tool.

The coalition says complaints filed through the app will be reviewed as official complaints by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

DHS currently takes complaints on-line through the Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP).

On TSA.gov, travelers who feel they have been profiled or otherwise discriminated against at an airport checkpoint based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability or sexual orientation are encouraged to submit a written explanation of their complaint.

In addition to allowing travelers to file complaints on-the-spot rather than after the fact, the FlyRights app includes links that go directly to the section of the TSA website that lists the current rights and screening procedures for travelers.

Fun food news from SAT airport and KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines

Air Travel, Food, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs, , , , ,

Great airport souvenirs usually show up on Stuck at the Airport on Sunday, in the occasional Souvenir Sunday feature, but I make exceptions when it comes to chocolate.

 

(Photo courtesy San Antonio International Airport)

These jalapeno and red chile-flavored chocolate bars were spotted at San Antonio International Airport, which joins the city in celebrating Fiesta.

In addition to this chocolate, airport spokesperson Rich Johnson says that in honor of the citywide party and cultural event, “There are lots of cool, cultural items in our shops, including piñatas, clothing, cascarones (egg shells filled with confetti) and other items.”

There’s also a food-related celebration on some KLM airplanes.

From now through June, the sandwiches served on the European routes flown by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will sport festive wrapping paper designed by students from an art and design school in the Netherlands.

Students were asked to come up with designs that were “culinary, surprising, inspirational and energetic,” and, after polling Facebook fans and experts, three winners were chosen.

The designs will be featured through June on packaging in KLM’s “Delicious” economy-class flight product line, which includes snacks, meals, sandwiches and hot towels.

Artwork by Silvie Buenen, Tom van der Pijl and Agnes Loonstra; images courtesy KLM.

Greetings from Dubai

Air Travel, family travel, ,

14 hours – give or take an hour or so if the winds are with you – is all it takes to fly from Seattle to Dubai on the new Emirates route that started on March 1, 2012.

First-Class passengers have private suites, Business Class passengers like me (thank-you Emirates) get seats that turn into lie-flat beds and everyone gets to use ice – the in-flight entertainment system that has information channels (including an external camera), phone, text and email service (at a cost) that also allows you to call other passengers on the flight (free), and more than 600 channels of movies and other entertainment.

I haven’t yet had a good tour of the Dubai International Airport but here are a few quick takes from arrival:

For families getting off the flight, Emirates thoughtfully provides strollers right there at the gate.

There are palm trees in baggage claim.

And the location of the prayer rooms are clearly marked.

Stay tuned for more..

Airplane lavatory-inspired art

Air Travel, Art,

No fewer than eight people sent me a link to Nina Katchadourian’s artwork this week, and thank-goodness!

 


On her website, Katchadourian says she improvises with materials close at hand and that her Seat Assignment project consists of photographs, video, and digital images all made while in flight – and all with nothing more than a camera phone.

“The project began spontaneously on a flight in March 2010 and is ongoing. At present, over 2500 photographs and video, made on more than 70 different flights to date, constitute the raw material of the project.”

For the photographs in the Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style portion of the project, she says:

While in the lavatory on a domestic flight in March 2010, I spontaneously put a tissue paper toilet cover seat cover over my head and took a picture in the mirror using my cellphone. The image evoked 15th-century Flemish portraiture. I decided to add more images made in this mode and planned to take advantage of a long-haul flight from San Francisco to Auckland, guessing that there were likely to be long periods of time when no one was using the lavatory on the 14-hour flight.

Here’s a sample of what she came up with.

Katchadourian’s Seat Assignment exhibit is on view from April 14 through May 26, 2012 at the Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco.Find more here.

NY-area airports want to fine unruly passengers for flight delays

Air Travel, Airlines, Airports, FAA, , , , , ,

Here’s an intriguing idea: the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK, LaGuardia and Newark International airports, wants to sue unruly passengers who cause major flight delays.  This is the story I wrote Monday for msnbc.com.

 

Unruly airline passengers at any of the three New York area airports (JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty) may soon have to go to court and pay for the cost of delaying a flight.

“On a regular basis we’re having issues where planes have to come back to the gate because of disruptive passengers,” said Steve Coleman, spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three airports. “We’re looking to cut down on the number of incidents that require police response and reduce the amount of time and money airlines lose because of these incidents.”

Coleman said the airport authority is embarking on a campaign that will include the use of social media, posted signs and other methods to strongly remind passengers to behave and follow the instruction of airline crewmembers.

“Our lawyers are also looking at ways we can take civil action against the most egregious cases,” said Coleman.

The cost per hour to operate a U.S. passenger airline is $5,867, according to Airlines for America (A4A), the airline trade association. “So any delay represents a real cost to an airline’s bottom line,” said A4A spokesperson Steve Lott. If the new policy is enacted, the Port Authority might sue passengers responsible for a delay to pay for the related costs.

In 2011, there were 1.3 million flights at the New York area airports and Port Authority and police responded to close to 400 incidents involving disruptive airline passengers. “Most of those were due to people who wouldn’t turn off their electronic devices, which is a federal law,” said Coleman. Many other incidents were related to smoking and passenger disputes.

“And it’s not just a New York thing,” said Coleman. “This resonates with airports across the country.”

Research conducted by the Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) shows that passengers often blame the airport for airline-related delays. “So, certainly the discussion the Port Authority is having is likely to prompt other airports to think about this,” said Debby McElroy, ACI-NA’s executive vice president, policy and external affairs.

The incidents-to-flights ratio at the New York area airports and elsewhere “is actually quite low, but any effort that helps enforce the message of what the laws are will help,” said A4A’s Lott.

Brandon M. Macsata, executive director of the Association for Airline Passenger Rights, said he applauds efforts to reduce airline delays, but it seems somewhat unfair to single out airline passengers for systemwide problems. “There can be numerous reasons why passengers might be responsible for delayed flights, including what happened two weeks ago when a family was escorted off the plane because their daughter wouldn’t stop crying.”

Passengers who interfere with the duties of a crewmember and engage in unruly behavior can be fined by the FAA or prosecuted on criminal charges. Reporting incidents to the FAA is at the discretion of crewmembers, and in 2011, as of October, the agency had taken action on 127 incidents nationwide.

“The Port Authority has not contacted the FAA. So we are unaware of their plans,” said FAA spokesperson Alison Duquette. “The bottom line is that people should know if they behave badly on an airplane they can go to jail or be fined.”

What do you think? Should airports be able to levy fines on unruly passengers who cause airplanes to return to the gate?

Tracking a toddler’s airport pat-down

Air Travel, Airports, Kids, Kids travel, Security, ,

I spent much of Monday morning trying to track down the parent who posted the video (below) of a 3 year-old in a wheelchair getting a very thorough pat-down at an airport security checkpoint.

It turned out the video was shot in 2010 and had been posted on YouTube over the weekend. But that didn’t stop it from going viral.

Here’s my story about the video – and the TSA’s response – that posted on msnbc.com.

A video shot in 2010 showing a 3-year-old boy receiving a pat-down from a TSA agent went viral today. The toddler was wearing a cast and sitting in a wheelchair.

In an annotated videotape of the incident posted March 17 on YouTube, the father is heard reassuring his son, whom he calls “Rocco,” while a TSA officer is seen patting down the squirming boy and taking swabs of the chair and the cast. After asking the parents to lift the boy’s shirt and offering them the option of going to a private screening area, the officer is also shown swabbing the boy’s back.

The video has been viewed more than 400,000 times. [updated]

Before conducting the check at the Chicago Midway Airport, the TSA officer tries to reassure the boy by asking what he likes — “Tigers? Animals?” — and then asks the boy to sit up. During the inspection he also tells the parents what he is doing and tells Rocco that he’s a good boy.

Comments added to the video by his father, said, “I was told I could NOT touch him or come near him during this process. Instead we had to pretend this was ‘OK’ so he didn’t panic.”

Reached Monday morning,  the boy’s father, Matt DuBiel, said the video was made in spring 2010 during a family trip to Disney World.

“We had a baby five weeks ago, and I was looking at some old family videos on Saturday night, and I got incensed and emotional watching it.”

DuBiel says he posted it on YouTube to share it with family members who have heard him talk about the incident but who hadn’t seen the video.

Noting that the incident took place more than a year ago, TSA, in a statement, said: “Due to the fact that this passenger was traveling in a wheelchair and had a cast he would have been unable to pass through the walk-through metal detector or imaging technology and therefore received alternative screening, a pat-down and use of explosives trace detection.”

“It doesn’t matter when it was,” said DuBiel. “That’s the TSA and that is my son. And he is wearing a body cast. The TSA agent did the best he could with a ridiculous situation, but someone should have stepped in and said, ‘That’s enough.’ ” He said he didn’t make a fuss at the time because he was worried about getting the whole family through security. The family was traveling to Disney World.

“At the time, they didn’t  have the rules in place for children that they have now. But, regardless of the new or old rules, my position is that it’s unacceptable to treat a toddler this way.”

Last fall, the TSA revised its rules for children 12 and under, saying they no longer have to remove their shoes at security checkpoints. The agency’s policy for Children with Disabilities states that “if your child is unable to walk or stand, the Security Officer will conduct a pat-down search of your child while he/she remains in their mobility aid, as well as a visual and physical inspection of their equipment.”

“While recognizing that terrorists are willing to manipulate societal norms to evade detection, our officers continue to work with parents to ensure a respectful screening process for the entire family at the checkpoint,” TSA said Monday.

 

St. Patrick’s Day treats for travelers

Air Travel, Holidays

Airports and airlines will be joining in on the St. Patrick’s Day festivities.

In Chicago, concessionaires at O’Hare and Midway International Airports will offer St. Patrick’s Day specials for travelers on Friday, March 16 and Saturday, March 17.

At O’Hare there will be green beer – on Saturday only – at all 23 HMSHost locations that sell tap beer, including Chili’s, Macaroni Grill (Terminal 3), Tuscany Café (Terminal 1) and the Prairie Tap (Terminal 3).

Green tea will be on tap all weekend at Argo Tea (Terminals 2 and 3).

The O’Hare Bar & Grill (Terminal 2) will be serving corned beef and cabbage and, over at Vosges Haut-Chocolat (Terminals 2 and 3), you’ll find Guinness Truffles.

At Midway Airport, the St. Patrick’s Day line up includes corned beef sandwiches throughout the weekend at Gold Coast Dogs, Manny’s Express, Miller’s and Oak St. Beach Café, and corned beef dinners at Harry Caray’s and Manny’s.  Harry Caray’s, Miller’s and Oak St. Beach will also pour green beer through Saturday.

At both airports, all McDonald’s locations will offer Shamrock shakes and Nuts on Clark will feature green popcorn.

Not going through Chicago?

Economy cabin passengers flying on Delta Air Lines between New York and Los Angeles, and between New York and San Francisco on March 16 will receive complimentary headsets and a cocktail, while those flying the BusinessElite cabin will get a “lucky chance” to win a set of round trip tickets to Ireland.

 

 

TSA sends travelers age 75 and older to the front of the line

Air Travel, Airports, Security, Senior Travel, ,

TSA sending elderly travelers to the front of the line

Turns out age has its advantages.

Recent stories of a 95-year-old flier in Florida who claimed a TSA agent asked her to remove her adult diaper and an elderly flier who claimed she was strip- searched at JFK airport brought attention to the difficulties many elderly travelers encounter at security checkpoints.

Now the TSA  will begin testing new procedures that “enhance security and may improve the travel experience for passengers in this age group.”

Beginning Monday, March 19, modified airport screening procedures for passengers 75 and older will begin at four U.S. airports: Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Denver International Airport (DEN), Orlando International Airport (MCO) and Portland International Airport (PDX). According to TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein, the percentage of passengers in the 75 and older group is slighter higher at these airports.

The modified procedures being tested will be similar to those recently implemented for children age 12 and under who no longer need to remove their shoes and light outerwear at airport checkpoints and are allowed a ‘do-over’ through the advanced imaging technology to clear any anomalies. However, as with the procedures for young children, the TSA reserves the right to ask those over 75 to remove their shoes and undergo a pat-down if any anomalies detected during security screening cannot be resolved through other procedures.

Farbstein said there is no defined end to the pilot program, but noted that in August 2011, TSA began a pilot program of expedited screening procedures for travelers 12 and under and went national with that program a month later. “But I don’t want to be raising expectations too soon for this program,” said Farbstein. “Each airport testing the 75 and older program is doing so at only one checkpoint.”

Here’s where to get the expedited service:

  • Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD): Security Checkpoint 3, Terminal 1
  • Denver International Airport (DEN): South Checkpoint/USA Flag Checkpoint
  • Orlando International Airport (MCO): West Checkpoint
  • Portland International Airport (PDX): ABC Checkpoint, lane 7 and 8.

At the participating airport checkpoints, travelers will see a sign alerting them to the program. “We think people 75 and older will announce themselves,” said Farbstein. She added that officers will also do visual assessments and direct those who qualify to a special lane for expedited screening.

“We think this will improve security,” said Farbstein. “We know it’s not one-size-fits-all and this will allow us to focus more of our time on passengers we know less about.”

The TSA has implemented several other risk-based initiatives in the past year that have also reduced and/or changed the screening requirements for many passengers. Those programs include the Known Crew Member program, the use of expanded behavior detection techniques and the TSA Pre-Check  expedited screening initiative.

The agency also introduced TSA CARES,  a toll-free number (1-855-787-2227) to assist travelers with disabilities and medical conditions and answer questions about screening policies, procedures and what to expect at the airport security checkpoint.

The helpline hours are Monday through Friday 9 a.m. – 9 p.m. EST (excluding federal holidays) and accommodations are available for travelers who are deaf or hard of hearing. The TSA recommends that passengers call approximately 72 hours ahead of travel so that, if necessary, checkpoint support for a customer can be arranged with a TSA Customer Service Manager at an airport.

 

Airline food: there’s a science to it

Air Travel, Food,

In January, Singapore Airlines invited me to visit the building near San Francisco International Airport where the airline catering company called the Flying Food Group prepares meals for flights heading from San Francisco to Seoul, Hong Kong and, I believe, Singapore.

The occasion: the dishes on the menu for the three month cycle beginning in March were being presented for review.

This wasn’t just an “Oh, that looks nice,” session. As usual, Singapore Airlines had given the Flying Food Group a menu drawn from the airline’s library of more than 15,000 thousand menus and now the catering company was being tested on everything from preparation and taste to the plating and the weight – down to the gram – of each item.

Every airline has a slightly different method for how it tackles this task, but at Singapore Airlines signing off on the quarterly menu involves a day (or two) of tasting, photographing and discussing the details of each and every dish. And once a dish is approved, it is photographed for the “plating guide” given to crew members so they can make sure the meal served on board the airplane looks exactly like the dish that was approved on the ground.

Making food on the ground that will look and taste great in the air is a challenge – and a science. Especially when the cooking process involves cooking the food 60% through, then dropping the temperature to just above freezing before loading it onto carts with dry ice and sending it off to the planes.

The airline spends about $500 million a year on food and views it as passenger sustenance, of course, but also as in-flight entertainment. “When you operate the world’s longest duration flight [From New York to Singapore is about a 19 hour flight] it’s a necessity,” said James Boyd, an airline spokesperson. He also said the airline knows meal time on an airplane is an opportunity to create “credible service interacting moments,” something I can attest to as I recently flew just about around the world on Singapore Airlines: JFK – FRANFURT – SINGAPORE-TOKYO-LOS ANGELES.

As I said, each airline meal program is a bit different and on Sunday, the New York Times published a very detailed article on the subject. In Mile High Grub: Can Airline Food be Tasty?, Jad Mouawad outlines how airlines such as Lufthansa, Air France, Korean Air, Emirates Airlines and, yes, Singapore Airlines approach the task.