Lawsuits Against the Travel Industry Taking Off

Did the airline lose your bags? Did the in-flight meal make you sick? Did the tour brochure make promises it didn’t deliver? Worse yet, were you hijacked? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then chances are you have considered a lawsuit.

Business is brisk in at least one travel area--claims and lawsuits filed by angry, abused or downright greedy travelers. Many of the cases are, at the least, entertaining. And at best, the suits and threatened suits are enlightening--proof positive that many travelers are litigious.

Take the case of the agitated passenger who tried to jump out of a jumbo jet in flight. The plane made an emergency landing, and the man was arrested. Now he is suing the airline, claiming the flight caused his high anxiety.

“I’m always fascinated by these cases,” said Paul C. Jasinski, vice president and general counsel for Republic Airlines. “We’re a high visibility industry, and a lot of this seems to come with the territory.”

There was the time a Republic baggage loader broke a passenger’s skis. The airline immediately admitted it had goofed, and reimbursed the man for a new set of skis and bindings.

He Meant to Win

“But the guy came after us threatening a suit,” Republic spokesman Bob Gibbons said. “He said he had been flying to compete in a skiing tournament he had every intention of winning. And while he did compete (with his new skis), he claimed that when we broke his skis we denied him his victory. He wanted us to pay him the first place cash award.”

Needless to say, Republic refused to discuss the skier’s poor performance on the slopes and the claim went downhill from there.

At Continental Airlines, officials tell the story of the honeymoon couple. On their wedding trip to Cancun, the pair bought a cheap onyx chess set. On the return flight home to Texas, one of their bags broke, and the couple later discovered that one of the chess pieces was missing. Although the airline had reimbursed them for the broken bag, the couple threatened a lawsuit and asked for free tickets to Mexico so they could buy another chess set.

“They claimed that their marriage wouldn’t be the same without a complete set,” said Ben Hirst, Continental’s associate general counsel. “We denied the claim, and I suppose they could be divorced now, all for the lack of a queen.”

‘Turbulent Flight’

Colin Marshall, chief executive of British Airways, likes to tell the story of the “turbulent flight.”

“A stewardess tried to serve a passenger a drink,” he said, “and instead spilled a glass of Scotch on his lap.” A few weeks later, the man wrote that he was suing British Airways. He claimed that the Scotch had burned him “and interfered with marital relations.” Airline officials knew they served stiff drinks, but this claim seemed a bit much.

One suit against Continental involves the case of the “extra passenger.” A fully loaded Continental airplane took off from Houston. When the seat belt sign was turned off, a passenger went to the lavatory and found a man inside.

When questioned, the man claimed that during the boarding of the plane, he was not feeling well and went to the bathroom and stayed there during takeoff. With the plane fully loaded and airborne, the man no longer had a seat. Continental was technically in violation of FAA regulations, but there was nothing the flight crew could do by then except put the man in a jump seat in the cockpit.

Why Didn’t Wife Object?

When the plane landed a few hours later, security personnel met the plane and briefly questioned the man. When it was discovered that he had indeed paid for a ticket, he was deplaned. However, the man is suing Continental, claiming false imprisonment.

“What we can’t understand,” Hirst said, “is that his wife was also on the plane and never objected when we gave his seat to someone else.”

Airlines sometimes find themselves unwitting victims of a passenger’s misdirected anger.

“Unfortunately, we are quite used to people arriving at our ticket counters in an emotional state because something else happened to them on the way to see us,” British Airways’ Marshall said. “A taxi, doorman or other airline abused them, but our staff ends up bearing the brunt of something they often had nothing to do with causing.”

Marshall has developed some preventive measures to keep these problems from getting out of hand. He put all 38,000 British Airways employees--including himself--through an intensive two-day seminar called “Putting People First.” He followed up with a one-day seminar called “A Day in the Life of British Airways,” to educate ticket agents on the trials and tribulations of baggage handlers, to enlighten airline schedulers with the plight of mechanics, etc.

“It’s a program we will continue,” Marshall said. “We know we don’t always get it right, but at least we’re doing something. We’re not waiting for unnecessary and avoidable passenger problems to explode.”

A Last Resort

Then there’s the story of a man who went to a popular Caribbean resort by himself. He met a single woman who was also staying at the resort. They became friendly, then very friendly. Later, the man discovered he had contracted a social disease. He sued the place, claiming the resort had been negligent in not properly informing him that there was a possibility of catching an infection if he interacted with other guests. The suit was later thrown out.

According to Gordon Hentschel, general manager of the Hyatt Regency in Honolulu, “Hotel elevators and escalators seem to generate the most complaints and threatened lawsuits.” One lawsuit involved the Hyatt Regency in Maui. A guest took too long to exit a hotel elevator, was hit by the closing doors and pushed back inside.

“She claimed that as a result she developed a severe and irreversible claustrophobia problem,” Hentschel said. The woman sued the Hyatt Regency, claiming mental anguish.

Settled Out of Court

“By the time the case was resolved,” Hentschel said, “I felt like I knew everything there was to know about the manufacture, design and maintenance of our elevators.”

Hyatt settled the case out of court.

“We did it to get her off our back,” Hentschel said. Also, one hotel official admits that the settlement was made so as not to set a precedent for such cases.

“We do our best to prevent problems,” Hentschel said. The high-rise hotel is spending more than $3.5 million to retrofit the hotel with state-of-the-art fire safety equipment.

“Relatively few claims ever get to court,” Continental’s Hirst said. “One constant theme is that as laughable as some claims may be, these people are truly trying to intimidate us, they’re trying to get something for nothing.”

However, the few cases that do find their way to trial are hardly laughable. An involuntary confinement claim was recently filed against Eastern Airlines and a charter firm, Skystar International. Twenty-six passengers on a flight between New York and Rome last September are suing Eastern and Skystar for $1.3 million, claiming they had been forced to sit in a malfunctioning aircraft for three hours on the ground without being allowed off the plane or access to lavatories. The case is pending.

Tragic Magic

A magician/hypnotist was the featured entertainer on a major cruise liner as it headed across the Atlantic. One evening he asked for a volunteer from the audience. An elderly woman raised her hand. He apparently hypnotized her, but the sea was rough that night. During the routine, the woman fell over, hit her head and later died. The cruise line settled the suit for a huge cash figure out of court.

Then there was the case of the broken coffin. A businessman died while out of town. His remains were being returned to Texas. His wife was at the airport to meet the body. As it was being unloaded, the coffin fell off the baggage conveyor and hit the Tarmac, cracking open directly in front of the widow. “That was a lawsuit Texas International lost,” said spokesman Bruce Hicks.

A number of passengers on the hijacked TWA flight 847 last summer have sued the airline and their travel agencies, claiming they had not been adequately warned that they could become victims of terrorist acts.

Achille Lauro Case

Several Achille Lauro passengers have sued their travel agency, claiming mental suffering and loss of personal property. These cases are also pending.

What if you believe you’ve been seriously abused, albeit on a smaller scale? Before threatening to sue, it’s a good idea to collect all pertinent information and write directly to the customer relations department of the airline, railroad, hotel or cruise line. In many cases, it’s in their best interest to try to resolve the problem immediately.

If that doesn’t work, there’s always small claims court. One disgruntled Hermosa Beach woman, convinced that her TWA Getaway brochure hadn’t delivered what it had promised, asked the airline for a refund. It refused.

She went to small claims court and sued for the maximum amount, $1,500. The judge agreed with the evidence she presented, and awarded her the full $1,500. But TWA didn’t pay. Thirty days later, the woman hired a county marshal who went to LAX and threatened to impound a TWA plane until the judgment was paid. She received a certified check within the hour.