Tired passengers leave crippled Costa cruise ship

VICTORIA (Reuters) - Weary passengers complained of unbearable heat and appalling hygiene for three days in the Indian Ocean aboard cruise ship Costa Allegra after a fire knocked out the vessel's main power supply.

With no air conditioning, running water, lights or hot food, the 627 passengers were forced to sleep on deck in the stifling heat until the liner was towed intoSeychelles capital Victoria on Thursday.

One of the Costa Allegra's three diesel generators caught fire on Monday and although the blaze was extinguished within an hour two more generators in the engine room then failed, the ship's captain, Niccolo Alba, told a news conference.

Alba said a general emergency was declared when the generator caught fire, the lifeboats were prepared and passengers were ready to abandon ship as the liner drifted in the Indian Ocean, where Somali pirates roam.

"It was terrible, as you can imagine. Hygiene conditions were absolutely deplorable. I have some photos that show the state of the toilets. We stayed for three days without electricity, it's very difficult to live in such conditions, especially in such heat," one passenger told Reuters Television.

Alba said two people had fallen in the dark and hurt themselves, but he denied an earlier report from a Seychelles health ministry official that six people had broken limbs.

"They were able to put the fire out and from that point on, it was just a matter of inconvenience, not having enough food, not being able to rest well at night...the heat is unbearable, so we had to spend most of our nights on the top deck of the ship," said another passenger.

More than half the passengers took up the offer of a seven or 14-day holiday on the archipelago from the ship's ownerCosta Cruises, the same company whose giant liner Costa Concordia smashed into rocks off Italy in January.

At 29,000 gross tonnes, the ship is considerably smaller than the huge Costa Concordia which capsized, killing at least 25 people.

A team from Costa Cruises, a unit of the U.S. cruise line giantCarnival Corp., boarded the Costa Allegra on Wednesday to arrange hotel accommodation and onward flights for the passengers. It said more than 600 airline seats and 400 rooms had been reserved.

"I WANT TO GO HOME"

A small generator was installed in the crippled vessel, but was only powerful enough to run its auxiliary communication system, not the air conditioning or cooking systems.

With no lights working on board, the company said it had dropped hundreds of torches onto the ship to help passengers find their way around at night.

A passenger from Germany praised the crew, saying they had tried their best to make those on board comfortable.

Another passenger from the Indian Ocean island of Reunion said he felt tired and dirty and had been afraid of pirates, but there was never any shortage of drinking water or sandwiches.

Norbert Stiekema, executive vice-president at Costa Cruises, told the news conference that all passengers were offered the option of a holiday or a flight home, and that all outstanding bills on the ship had been cancelled.

The passengers were met in Victoria by ambulances, aRed Cross medical team and a fleet of small buses to take them to hotels on the country's main island of Mahe.

One woman was rushed into an ambulance and another had to be supported as she walked off the ship.

The passengers, including four children, are from 25 nations. The largest contingents are 127 from France and 126 from Italy. There were also 38 Germans, 31 Britons, 13 Canadians and eight Americans.

The Costa Allegra left Diego Suarez in Madagascar on Saturday and, sailing northeast, had been due to dock in Mahe on Tuesday. While 376 passengers opted to stay on in the Seychelles, others had had enough

"I am no longer in the mood for a holiday. I want to go home as soon as I can," said another passenger.

(Editing by David Clarke and Karolina Tagaris)

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XL passengers invade my economy-class seat -- and airlines let them

When Elisabeth Haas took her window seat on an American Airlines flight from Orlando to Dallas earlier this year, she discovered a problem -- a very big problem.

"A morbidly obese seatmate encroached into my personal space," she says. "He required a seat-belt extender and that the armrest divider be raised to accommodate his girth during the entire flight, including takeoff and landing. He also had to walk down the aisle oriented sideways and moved quite slowly."

The problem of XL passengers on planes is hardly new, but their interactions with other passengers are creating a lot more friction lately. I know because over the American Thanksgiving holiday week, I reported about a man who says he had to stand on a flight between Anchorage and Philadelphia, and it became the talk of the town for about half a news cycle.

I heard from lots of passengers who said they, too, have tussled with oversized seatmates.

Haas, who was returning from a trip to see her dying grandmother in Florida, says she couldn't comfortably fit in her seat or stow her luggage under her seat because of the encroachment. She only had access to about one-third of her economy-class seat for the duration of the flight.

"Do you understand the horrific discomfort of feeling someone's massive, unrelenting, hot and sweaty flesh pressed into your body from shoulder to ankle?" she asks.

The American Airlines flight attendants were compassionate, and because it was a sold-out flight, they allowed her to sit in their jump seats. But when she wrote a polite letter suggesting that American Airlines change its rules to prevent this kind of thing from happening again, the best it could manage was to reply with a form letter.

"We are sorry for your discomfort on your recent flight with us to Dallas/Fort Worth," it wrote to her. "Our airport personnel must walk a fine line in order to satisfy the needs and rights of all of our customers. I am disappointed to hear that we were not more successful on this occasion, and I am genuinely sorry that the enjoyment of your flight was diminished as a result."

American Airlines didn't address any of her safety concerns, nor did it pledge to change its rules.

Airline policies on XL passengers are at best, amorphous. Only Southwest Airlines has a clearly defined and well-publicized policy -- it calls them "customers of size" -- but the other major airlines tend to dance around the issue. It's hard to find their policies online and they seem to be unevenly enforced.

When airlines do talk about their weighted customers, they do so as in gentle tones, as if at any moment, these big passengers could shatter into a thousand pieces because someone called them fat. (Come to think of it, isn't that how society deals with the problem of obesity?)

But the focus is on the wrong person. It isn't the morbidly obese who are in need of special protection, but the folks seated next to them. When the armrest is up, it can mean serious trouble for the other guy.

Norman Chance was the other guy on a recent flight between Anchorage and Chicago. Like Haas, he had a window seat in economy class, but found himself next to two "very large" people in the seats next to him.

"I had to sit sideways for the entire flight, in agony and pain," says Chance, who owns an aviation company in Indianapolis. "They both fell asleep and would not move despite my requests. I ended up injuring my back, which was only resolved after visits to a chiropractor."

He's angry that airlines can allow two XL passengers to fly in economy-class seats that are obviously too small, and he and Haas are upset that there isn't a law to prevent a situation like this from repeating itself.

"This type of incident happens far too often," he says.

And that's the thing. There are no rules about passengers having to fit into the economy-class seats. The closest the Federal Aviation Administration comes to addressing this issue is when it issues its guidance on passengers with disabilities, but it doesn't specifically classify a passenger's weight or size as a disability that is in need of protection. If it did, airlines would probably have to give every tall guy like me a first-class seat, which, now that I think about it, wouldn't be so bad.

But I think we'd all settle for a rule that says passengers are entitled to a minimum amount of legroom and personal space, whether they're on American Airlines or any other airline. The Transportation Department already has those requirements in place for animals that fly, but curiously, not for humans seated in economy class.

Such a rule would prevent a bulk of these XL passenger incidents from happening, and make flying a far more humane experience -- for all of us.

(Christopher Elliott is the author of "Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals" (Wiley). He's also the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the co-founder of the Consumer Travel Alliance, a nonprofit organization that advocates for travelers. Read more tips on his blog, elliott.org or e-mail him at chris@elliott.org. Christopher Elliott receives a great deal of reader mail, and though he answers them as quickly as possible, your story may not be published for several months because of a backlog of cases.)

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Amtrak sets record of 30 million passengers in past year

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amtrak trains carried more than 30 million passengers in the past 12 months, the most in one year since the passenger railroad was created four decades ago, railroad officials said Thursday.

Ridership during the budget year ending on Sept. 30 was 30.2 million passengers, up 5 percent over the previous year. Ticket revenue was up by more than 8 percent despite significant weather-related disruptions in much of the country.

Amtrak has set ridership records eight out of the last nine years. A decade ago, it carried 21 million passengers a year.

"Amtrak is fulfilling its national mission and is part of the solution to meet America's growing transportation and energy needs," Joseph Boardman, Amtrak's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Despite its success in attracting riders, Amtrak's critics in Congress are squeezing the railroad's federal subsidies and trying to take away its most valuable routes in the rail corridor that links Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

The House Appropriations Committee's transportation subcommittee last month approved a budget that sharply reduces Amtrak subsidies. In June, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., proposed soliciting bids from other railroads for the right to service the 456-mile Northeast Corridor, which is the heart of Amtrak's operations. He said it was taking the railroad too long to achieve consistently high-speed service equivalent to trains in Europe and Asia.

Amtrak has proposed its own plan to upgrade its Northeast Corridor track and trains and to eliminate bottlenecks so that trains can travel up to 220 mph. Trip time between Washington and New York would be reduced to 96 minutes and between New York and Boston to 93 minutes. But the plan would be phased in over 30 years and cost $117 billion to implement. The railroad is seeking private investment to pay for some of the cost.

"Americans are returning to the rails in record numbers, yet Republicans are pulling out all of the stops in their rush to auction off Amtrak's assets to the highest bidder on Wall Street," Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, top Democrat on the transportation committee, said. "It makes no sense to tear apart a railroad and its workforce while they are succeeding at their jobs."

Amtrak was created by Congress in 1971 after passenger railroads failed in the face of competition from airlines and interstate highway travel. With the U.S. population expected to exceed 400 million people by 2050, nightmarish congestion is forecast for the nation's already crowded highways and airports.

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Ban on use of e-cigarettes by airline passengers?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Wednesday proposed banning the use of electronic cigarettes on airline flights, saying there is concern the smokeless cigarettes may be harmful.

"Airline passengers have rights, and this new rule would enhance passenger comfort and reduce any confusion surrounding the use of electronic cigarettes in flight," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement.

The ban would clarify an existing Transportation Department rule prohibiting smoking cigarettes or similar products on airline flights.

The proposal would apply to all domestic airline flights, as well as scheduled flights of U.S. and foreign carriers to and from the U.S. The department is also considering whether to extend the ban to charter flights.

E-cigarettes, as they are popularly called, are designed to deliver nicotine or other substances to the smoker in the form of a vapor. They are powered by small lithium ion-batteries. Industry officials say there is no possible harm to the public from their use.

"Everybody knows that when you are smoking on an airplane that's an absolutely a no-no. But this is not smoking. This is vaping," said Ray Story, CEO of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association.

The Transportation Department is "asking for something that makes zero sense because this product emits nothing," Story said. "I don't think the masses have been educated enough to know this isn't smoking."

The department said there is a lack of scientific data and knowledge of the ingredients in e-cigarettes. The Air Force surgeon general issued a memorandum last year warning that one sample tested by the Food and Drug Administration contained diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical used in antifreeze, and other samples contained cancer-causing agents. The surgeon general also cautioned commanders that e-cigarette cartridges are replaceable and could be used to deliver substances other than nicotine.

Several states have taken steps to ban either the sale or use of electronic cigarettes. Amtrak has banned the use of electronic smoking devices on trains and in any area where smoking is prohibited. The U.S. Navy has banned electronic cigarettes below decks in submarines.

The e-cigarette association, which represents 25 manufacturers and distributors, says on its website that there are only five ingredients in the devices: nicotine, water, coriander, citric acid and fragrant orchid element.

E-cigarettes have been marketed as a way to address both the nicotine addiction and the behavioral aspects of smoking — the holding of the cigarette, the puffing, seeing the smoke come out and the hand motion — without the thousands of chemicals found in cigarettes.

Nearly 46 million Americans smoke cigarettes. About 40 percent try to quit each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unlike nicotine patches or gums, e-smokes have operated in a legal gray area.

First marketed overseas in 2002, e-cigarettes didn't become easily available in the U.S. until late 2006. The FDA lost a court case last year after trying to treat e-cigarettes as drug-delivery devices.

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Online:

Transportation Department www.dot.gov

Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association http://www.tveca.com/contacts.php

___

Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

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Do flight attendants really hate their passengers?

When, exactly, did flight attendants stop caring about us?

I ask for two reasons: First, because of the luscious new trailers for the upcoming TV show "Pan Am," which depicts svelte young stewardesses -- yes, that's what they were called back then -- serving passengers.

Hard to swallow, that one. But yes, they served passengers back in the day.

And second, because of the preponderance of horror stories from readers like you that suggest things have gone too far in the other direction -- from the "coffee, tea, or me" stereotypes of pre-deregulation air travel to modern-day flight attendants who may actually hate us.

Well, "hate" may be too strong a word. How about "strongly dislike"?

Consider the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index numbers. Here are the 10 worst-performing companies, according to the survey. The score you see next to the company is on a scale of one to 100.

1. Pepco Holdings (54)

2. Delta Air Lines (56)

3. Time Warner Cable (59)

4. Comcast (59)

5. Charter Communications (59)

6. United Airlines (61)

7. US Airways (62)

8. American Airlines (63)

9. Continental (64)

10. UnitedHealth (65)

That's five airlines in the top 10. You have to work pretty hard to pull in that kind of performance, and it can only happen with the full cooperation of your employees.

But it's the stories from passengers like you that make me wonder if the love has turned to hate. And I'm not even talking about the headline-grabbing reports like flight attendant Steven Slater's meltdown on JetBlue Airways.

Lea McFall was flying from India back to the U.S. on American Airlines when one of her friends started feeling a little ill. The likely cause was her final meal in Delhi. She had a severe case of food poisoning.

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