An H1N1 end-run: How America’s airlines are profiting from Swine Flu

When discussing the airlines’ position on Swine Flu (H1N1) on-air, James May, the Air Transport Association’s chief executive, makes his industry’s position crystal-clear: “The real key is self-policing. If you are not well, if you’re ill, stay home.”

The only problem is that the airlines don’t walk their talk. They still have onerous change fees and cancellation fees of $150 and $250. And this is only the beginning of the added expenses, not to mention the hassles.

The Centers for Disease Control released a fact sheet on H1N1 that notes, “If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities.”

Common sense tells us we shouldn’t fly. The CDC tells us we shouldn’t fly. The airlines’ spokesperson tells us to stay home. But from their public statements, the airlines tell us that they will charge high change fees plus airfare adjustments if we don’t fly.

It seems awful counterproductive to me.

It’s clearly time for the airlines to announce that sick passengers should not fly and that these passengers will not be subject to change or cancellation fees. Plus, increased airfare penalties for flights they have to change should be waived. In order to maintain some control, I expect the airlines to require a doctor’s note.

Under the current airline rules, passengers who are sick and decide to change their tickets will have to pay the difference in airfare between the time they purchased their original tickets and the ticket price on date they plan to fly again. This is in addition to the change fee.

Passengers who have purchased “nonrefundable tickets” are stuck with nothing if they were planning a family event and have no use for the airline ticket in the future. The airlines will simply take their money for nothing if the ticket is not used within one year of the original date of purchase (not one year from the date of the cancellation or change).

With penalties this significant, sick passengers are less than willing to pass up their flight and be saddled with whopping change fees and additional charges. If they are traveling as a family, the costs of changing the date of travel are multiplied.

With what the head of the airline association and the CDC have to say in mind, one would think that the airlines would announce a clear and understandable policy for dealing with the outbreak of the flu season and H1N1. But they have not.

The airline response to Swine Flu decisions are made according to James May, “…on a carrier by carrier basis.” He encourages people to contact the provider of their travel. We did just that and the responses from the five largest carriers are all over the place. Worse, responses from the same carrier are different from one reservation agent to another and from day to day. America’s travelers need a clear H1N1 policy from the airlines. If they cannot stomach suspending their change fees, the DOT should mandate this action during the flu season.

Everyone admits that airplanes are instrumental in transporting this flu virus from country to country and that having people in close proximity makes the spread of the disease easier. Airlines have taken some preliminary steps such as removing pillows and blankets, but are limited in attempts to hinder the spread of this flu.

Airlines are stowing pillows and blankets, and rolling out the disinfectant wipes to discourage transmission of the swine flu virus, all the while stressing planes are as “safe” as trains or schools.

“The role of aircraft in spreading infection from one part of the world to the other is well established. The airplane is a vehicle for transmission,” said William Schaffner, head of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University medical school.

The airlines have also claimed that they have the right to deny passengers boarding, if in their opinion, that passenger poses a threat to the other passengers.

Generally, airlines will not ban passengers due to health issues. However, each airline has the authority to deny boarding to passengers who might pose a threat to the safe operation of the aircraft or the overall safety of other passengers and crew members. This includes people who are medically unstable and/or have a serious communicable disease that could be transmitted to others on board. The decision to deny boarding is made on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with well-established airline procedures consistent with Department of Transportation regulations.

It is interesting, that the airlines can decide for us, but we can’t decide for ourselves, whether we should fly or not. The airlines are willing to claim some sort of diagnostic expertise when it comes to determining who is too sick to fly, but will not accept a doctor’s note certifying a person’s illness.

Plus, the only actions on the airlines part so far have been to remove amenities and comforts from the passengers — all the while maintaining their onerous change and cancellation fees. It is one thing to capriciously change plans for your own good. It is something else when a sick person changes their plans for the good of others who would be traveling with them in the same closed quarters.

Even though flying in an airplane with recirculated air is perhaps safer than working in an office building or going to school, that doesn’t help when anyone is subjected to an errant sneeze. We all have the choice of staying home from work on sick leave and having children stay home from school when they are running a fever and have a runny nose. Only the airlines charge these whopping penalties when forced to stay home instead of getting on a plane.

NBC said that the inside of a plane is a “high risk” environment for Swine flu. Here is their recent report.

If the airlines are serious about working to contain the spread of H1N1 and then facing catastrophic losses, they should work to help slow any possible pandemic. For years, flights could be canceled without penalties with a note from a doctor. It is time that the airlines brought back that procedure.

Most importantly, the airline industry needs to let the American people know they are on their side in this looming flu-season battle.

(Photo: Hyacinthe Raimbault/Flickr Creative Commons)