The article below from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx /--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\ SIDEWAYS - WINNER! BEST PICTURE WINNER for BEST PICTURE at the IFP/GOTHAM AWARDS and one of the Top 10 BEST PICTURES of the Year from the National Board of Review, SIDEWAYS is the new comedy from Alexander Payne, director of ELECTION and ABOUT SCHMIDT and starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen. Watch the trailer at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/sideways \----------------------------------------------------------/ Business Travel: Airlines Blacklist Fliers, Some Merely Annoying December 14, 2004 By CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT Mark Adkins thought that he was doing America West Airlines a favor by giving up his seat on an overbooked flight from Tucson to Las Vegas. But he says the airline returned the favor a few hours later by banishing him for life. In exchange for surrendering his seat, Mr. Adkins had been offered a free ticket and an upgrade to first class on a later flight. "But right before the doors closed on the next flight," Mr. Adkins, a university research director, recalled, "a customer service agent boarded the plane and told me I needed to get off because I had been upgraded illegally. I told her my story, but she said she didn't want to hear it and if I did not get off the plane, she was going to call the police." He refused to leave. The airport authorities were called, and a police officer escorted Mr. Adkins off the plane. When he tried to book on the next flight, he said a ticket agent laughed at him and pledged, "You'll never fly on America West again." At a time when the federal Transportation Security Administration's "no fly" list is coming under intense public scrutiny, a growing number of air travelers have found themselves trapped on another kind of blacklist - one kept by an airline. Most commercial carriers maintain a small but, by some accounts, growing list of passengers they refuse to transport. The reasons for being blacklisted can include disorderly conduct, refusal to comply with a crew member's instructions or abusive behavior toward an airline employee. Mr. Adkins's exclusion, which occurred several years ago, was not a lifetime ban, an America West spokesman, Carlo Bertolini, said. "It was a notation in his flight record, but he was not put on a permanent no-fly list in any way," he said. Mr. Adkins is now free to fly on the airline, Mr. Bertolini continued, even as he disputed the passenger's version of the incident. It was unlikely, he said, that a ground-crew member in Tucson referred to Mr. Adkins's upgrade as illegal, adding, "We don't train our employees to talk that way." America West keeps an informal list of passengers it considers disruptive or who have made fraudulent ticket purchases, but does not check each passenger's name against the roster in the same way that the Transportation Security Administration does with its watch list. The government agency's database is compared with every passenger record to weed out suspected terrorists. Other airlines take a more formal approach to blacklists. At American Airlines, 138 passengers are now banned for offenses that range from striking a crew member to endangering the operation of a flight. "A passenger's behavior has to rise to an egregious level in order to get them on the list," a spokesman, Tim Wagner, said. "For example, if you have to be restrained or handcuffed, you would make the list." Not all airlines have such thresholds. Last year, US Airways blacklisted Jeffrey Gitomer, a customer-loyalty expert in Charlotte, N.C., after he published an article critical of the carrier. US Airways contended that it made the move largely in response to his abusive behavior toward employees, something Mr. Gitomer now acknowledges. "I was a lousy customer," he said. "I took my frustrations out on US Airways, and I probably could have been kinder to them in the press. In retrospect, while they may have acted a little harshly, I think if it was me, I would have done the same thing." Mr. Gitomer quietly apologized to the airline a year after he was barred from flying and was cleared for takeoff in November, he said. A celebrated case of an airline telling a customer to take her business elsewhere involved Southwest Airlines. Several years ago, Herbert D. Kelleher, then Southwest's chief executive, was asked to respond personally to a frequent critic who was dissatisfied with almost every aspect of her flight experience. After reviewing her letters, Mr. Kelleher replied to the woman, referred to internally as "Mrs. Crabapple," with the following note: "Dear Mrs. Crabapple, We will miss you. Love, Herb." Mr. Kelleher told another traveler who thumped a customer service agent on the head with a stanchion to "choose another carrier." "Herb would use these stories only to point out that employees always come first at Southwest," a spokesman, Ed Stewart, said. "Then customers, and finally, shareholders." But there is evidence now that the airlines, emboldened by the Transportation Security Administration's expanding no-fly list, are telling customers to take a hike more frequently. "There is zero tolerance for unruly passengers," said Sharon Wingler, the author of "Travel Alone & Love It: A Flight Attendant's Guide to Solo Travel." "And the support we get as crew members," she said, "is absolute, from upper management down to our co-workers." Airlines are not required to tell the government who is on their passenger-exclusion lists, so there are no hard numbers available on travelers who are banned. But for passengers faced with the prospect of being blacklisted, the shift in airlines' attitudes is noticeable. Joel Widzer, a loyalty program expert based in Orange County, Calif., was recently contacted by the security director of a major airline and asked to explain his behavior on a flight. If he could not, the official implied, he would be blacklisted. The incident involved an angry dispute with another passenger over a reclining seat. "The passenger behind me was kicking my seat and cursing at me for leaning back," he said. "Then he told the flight attendant that I was being abusive." Mr. Widzer had taped part of the argument, and after he played his recording, he was cleared of blame. "You definitely get the feeling that they are taking any kind of abusive behavior, and even the prospect of abusive behavior, more seriously than ever," he said. "Airlines are not afraid to tell their customers to take their business elsewhere." That does not sit well with some travelers, who say that the carriers have a responsibility to transport their customers, even if they do not like them. "When commercial airlines ask the government for subsidies to enable them to continue to operate," Sam Coleman, a San Diego teacher, said in an e-mail interview, "then they in effect become quasi-public servants. Every taxpayer in this country has in effect dug into their pockets to bail out the poorly run airlines. Therefore, the airlines are beholden to taxpayers to provide service. Period." Others support an airline's right to refuse service. "The privilege of flying brings with it some rules to ensure we'll carry out those privileges responsibly," Michael Zimet, a management consultant in Putnam County, N.Y., said, also by e-mail. "Sure we can debate the value of some of the rules, but until someone develops a better system, I'll gladly stick with the one we have." Mr. Adkins, the passenger who was blacklisted on America West, said he had no plans to fly on America West again, regardless of his status. He dismissed the incident that led to his banishment as a "simple misunderstanding" and speculated that the employees who threatened to call authorities and then informed him of his presence on the blacklist were "just on a power trip." He acknowledged that the airline had turned a new leaf in its customer service, but said that the improvements were too late for him. "When they told me to take my business somewhere else," he said, "I walked across the terminal to Southwest Airlines. I've never looked back." Readers are invited to send stories about business travel experiences to businesstravel@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/14/business/14blacklist.html?ex=1104033315&ei=1&en=b1e0d447cae5436e --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@xxxxxxxxxxx or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@xxxxxxxxxxxx Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company