Hanni, 47, was in Washington last week testifying before Congress on how miserable it is to be stuck for hours on a grounded flight with no food or water, and with bathrooms that quickly turn into toxic-waste sites.
This was an ordeal Hanni experienced firsthand in 2006 when her American Airlines jet remained on a tarmac in Austin, Texas, for more than nine hours after bad weather caused delays at numerous airports.
"Flying is the seventh ring of hell," she said by phone after winding up her appearance on Capitol Hill. "It's getting tougher and tougher."
Hanni said she remained hopeful that a passengers' bill of rights would be passed at the national level, if not at the state level in light of last month's court ruling. But she admitted that since her own nightmare in Austin, "nothing meaningful has been done for passengers."
For its part, the airline industry wants to keep things just as they are.
The Air Transport Assn., an industry group, said the striking down of New York's passengers' bill of rights "vindicates the position of [the association] and the airlines -- that airline services are regulated by the federal government, and that a patchwork of laws by states and localities would be impractical and harmful to consumer interests."
However, the group's president, James C. May, testified in Congress last year that the association opposed the federal passengers' bill of rights as it's now written. Washington insiders say the airlines are doing everything they can to water down the legislation.
All things considered, it seems fair to wonder if air travel will ever again be anything more than a prolonged exercise in discomfort and deprivation.
Ray Neidl, a prominent airline-industry analyst at Calyon Securities in New York, expects U.S. carriers to lose a combined $1 billion this year, and for the red ink to continue flowing as long as oil remains above $100 a barrel. (It closed Friday at $110.14.)
One problem, he told me, is that passengers insist airlines compete on price rather than on comfort or convenience. As a result, the airlines are constantly seeking new ways to economize so they can keep prices low.
This means you now have to pay extra for virtually everything -- food, blankets, pillows, entertainment, checked baggage. What it also means, Neidl said, is that airlines will increasingly focus on their more lucrative business-class passengers instead of us poor saps in coach.
