/PRNewswire/ -- Pro-consumer grassroots effort We Won't Fly is organizing mass x-ray scanner opt outs at airports around the nation for National Opt Out of the Airport Scanners Day, November 24, in order to highlight the health and privacy dangers of the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) backscatter x-ray airport scanners.
"Not only are these porno scanners a gross violation of individual privacy," said boycott co-founder George Donnelly, "they're also a threat to the health of millions of passengers and ineffective as well. The goal of the demonstrations is to urge Americans to exercise their legal right to 'opt out' of the scan."
If you have to fly on November 24, We Won't Fly urges you to opt out of the new scanners for your own health and privacy. Say "I opt out!" Be prepared for delays and intimate TSA "patdowns." If you're not flying on November 24, We Won't Fly urges you to tell your friends, family and community members who are flying. Organizers of local meetups can list their events on our nationwide map at http://WeWontFly.com/opt-out-day.
As University of California scientists noted earlier this year, the airport scanners may pose a serious health risk. "Our overriding concern is the extent to which the safety of this scanning device has been adequately demonstrated. This can only be determined by a meeting of an impartial panel of experts that would include medical physicists and radiation biologists at which all of the available relevant data is reviewed," they said in a letter of concern.
A recent article in the San Diego Entertainer on August 31, 2010 stated that "the scans are detailed enough to identify a person's gender... to identify a passenger's surgery scars, or to discern whether a woman is on her menstrual cycle or not." As CNN has reported, the scanners include ethernet connectivity. Images can be stored and shared by design. According to CBS News, US Marshals saved 35,000 images from similar scanners at just one courthouse.
We Won't Fly is a pro-consumer grassroots effort to boycott the airlines until they join with concerned consumers in opposition to the new airport x-ray scanners and enhanced patdowns.
-----
Community News You Can Use
Click to read MORE news:
www.GeorgiaFrontPage.com
Twitter: @gafrontpage & @TheGATable @HookedonHistory
www.ArtsAcrossGeorgia.com
Twitter: @artsacrossga, @softnblue, @RimbomboAAG
www.FayetteFrontPage.com
Twitter: @FayetteFP
Showing posts with label airport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label airport. Show all posts
Monday, November 15, 2010
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
New Survey Shows Consumers 'Mad As Hell' About Hidden Airline Fees: Two-Thirds Say They Have Been Surprised by Additional Fees at the Airport
/PRNewswire/ -- The Consumer Travel Alliance (CTA), Business Travel Coalition (BTC) and American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) today released the results of an online survey of 1,396 travelers showing widespread surprise and anger over hidden airline fees for services such as checked baggage, advance seating and priority boarding.
Responding to traveler anger, the groups announced the launch of a new website, http://madashellabouthiddenfees.com/, that will allow travelers to tell their own hidden fee stories, create YouTube videos, and sign a petition to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) urging it to take action to require airlines to disclose those fees in advance through every ticketing channel in which airlines sell their seats. The groups also announced that they were marking September 23rd as "Mad As Hell Day!" and planned to deliver thousands of traveler petitions to the U.S. DOT on that day.
"As we come to the end of one of the busiest air travel periods of the year, millions of Americans are returning from their summer vacations tanned, rested, and mad as hell," said Kevin Mitchell, Chairman of the Business Travel Coalition. "They are tired of arriving at the airport and finding huge unexpected costs for travel services they thought were part of the ticket price. It's time for consumers, corporate travel managers and travel agents to stand up and say 'we're not going to take it any more!'"
Conducted over the last two weeks before Labor Day, the hidden fees survey found:
-- Two-thirds (66%) of respondents said they had been surprised at the
airport by unexpected fees for things such as checking bags,
requesting a seat assignment, getting extra legroom, or flying
standby.
-- Nearly a third (29%) said they were surprised often or nearly every
time they travel via air by such fees.
-- Nearly two-thirds (65%) said such fees placed some or a great deal of
unexpected financial strain on their budget for the trip, while more
than a quarter (26%) said that those fees placed a great deal of
unexpected strain.
-- A nearly unanimous 99% of respondents said that they think airlines
should be required to disclose all of their fees in advance on every
website that sells airline tickets.
-- When asked to rank the fees they found most annoying, respondents
rated carry-on baggage fees the most annoying, with 91% calling those
fees "very annoying," followed by seat reservation fees (88% very
annoying), checked baggage fees (74%), and telephone reservation fees
(67%).
"Hidden fees are a violation of a traveler's most basic right: to know how much they will have to pay for their trip," said Charlie Leocha, President of the Consumer Travel Alliance. "When two out of every three air travelers say they have been surprised by hidden fees at the airport, you know the current system is broken and needs to be fixed. Airlines should have to share their fees with every traveler, through every ticketing channel in which they participate, to every point of sale."
The three groups have called on Congress and DOT to take swift action to ensure that all ancillary airline fees are fully disclosed to travelers through every distribution channel in which carriers participate so that the total cost of air travel options can be compared among carriers.
"For a travel agent, comparing air travel costs without fee transparency is like trying to read a book with half the pages torn out," said Paul Ruden, Senior Vice President of Legal and Industry Affairs for the American Society of Travel Agents. "We must level the playing field to ensure that travel agents and their customers can make apples-to-apples comparisons of the costs of each trip."
Methodology
The survey was conducted among 1,396 air travelers from August 20 - August 31, 2010. Respondents were recruited from the readers of online travel newsletters distributed by organizations such as Consumer Traveler and the Consumer Travel Alliance, and the survey was conducted online via SurveyMonkey. Full results of the survey can be found at http://madashellabouthiddenfees.com/.
-----
Community News You Can Use
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
Follow us on Twitter: @GAFrontPage
Responding to traveler anger, the groups announced the launch of a new website, http://madashellabouthiddenfees.com/, that will allow travelers to tell their own hidden fee stories, create YouTube videos, and sign a petition to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) urging it to take action to require airlines to disclose those fees in advance through every ticketing channel in which airlines sell their seats. The groups also announced that they were marking September 23rd as "Mad As Hell Day!" and planned to deliver thousands of traveler petitions to the U.S. DOT on that day.
"As we come to the end of one of the busiest air travel periods of the year, millions of Americans are returning from their summer vacations tanned, rested, and mad as hell," said Kevin Mitchell, Chairman of the Business Travel Coalition. "They are tired of arriving at the airport and finding huge unexpected costs for travel services they thought were part of the ticket price. It's time for consumers, corporate travel managers and travel agents to stand up and say 'we're not going to take it any more!'"
Conducted over the last two weeks before Labor Day, the hidden fees survey found:
-- Two-thirds (66%) of respondents said they had been surprised at the
airport by unexpected fees for things such as checking bags,
requesting a seat assignment, getting extra legroom, or flying
standby.
-- Nearly a third (29%) said they were surprised often or nearly every
time they travel via air by such fees.
-- Nearly two-thirds (65%) said such fees placed some or a great deal of
unexpected financial strain on their budget for the trip, while more
than a quarter (26%) said that those fees placed a great deal of
unexpected strain.
-- A nearly unanimous 99% of respondents said that they think airlines
should be required to disclose all of their fees in advance on every
website that sells airline tickets.
-- When asked to rank the fees they found most annoying, respondents
rated carry-on baggage fees the most annoying, with 91% calling those
fees "very annoying," followed by seat reservation fees (88% very
annoying), checked baggage fees (74%), and telephone reservation fees
(67%).
"Hidden fees are a violation of a traveler's most basic right: to know how much they will have to pay for their trip," said Charlie Leocha, President of the Consumer Travel Alliance. "When two out of every three air travelers say they have been surprised by hidden fees at the airport, you know the current system is broken and needs to be fixed. Airlines should have to share their fees with every traveler, through every ticketing channel in which they participate, to every point of sale."
The three groups have called on Congress and DOT to take swift action to ensure that all ancillary airline fees are fully disclosed to travelers through every distribution channel in which carriers participate so that the total cost of air travel options can be compared among carriers.
"For a travel agent, comparing air travel costs without fee transparency is like trying to read a book with half the pages torn out," said Paul Ruden, Senior Vice President of Legal and Industry Affairs for the American Society of Travel Agents. "We must level the playing field to ensure that travel agents and their customers can make apples-to-apples comparisons of the costs of each trip."
Methodology
The survey was conducted among 1,396 air travelers from August 20 - August 31, 2010. Respondents were recruited from the readers of online travel newsletters distributed by organizations such as Consumer Traveler and the Consumer Travel Alliance, and the survey was conducted online via SurveyMonkey. Full results of the survey can be found at http://madashellabouthiddenfees.com/.
-----
Community News You Can Use
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
Follow us on Twitter: @GAFrontPage
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
