Via
Rafi,
this is interesting:
An interesting lawsuit - a rav and his wife flew from Israel to the US and back on Israir Airlines. They ordered the "special kosher" glatt meal for their trip On the return trip, they were told that their names were not on the glatt meal list and therefore there were no meals for them.
When they got off the plane, the rebbetzin fainted, fell backwards hurting herself in the process, her sheitel fell off, and her dress became disheveled in a way that revealed her immodestly.
For their pain, embarrassment and discomfort, they sued the airline for 17,800 NIS.
I'm actually surprised they sued for only that amount; but, happily and rightfully, they won (though only 3,000 NIS). Whether someone thinks people "need" Glatt or not, and whether they could have "made do" with food that wasn't, the point was clearly that they felt otherwise and had been promised Glatt meals which were not served to them. As Rafi sums it up:
It is a ridiculous claim that they were not obligated to provide the requested meal - if they agreed to it as part of the flight, they have to provide it, and that they should have eaten the other food. If they do not eat it for religious reasons, that is their right to choose, and Israir has no right to say otherwise.
You make a good point, but my feeling is that if you need a special meal (or even if you don't, for that matter), you are foolish if you don't bring food that you can eat with you, regardless of the culpability of the airline.
ReplyDeleteOkay, take one 12 hour flight to Israel. At the end of it the woman disembarks and promptly faints. Why? Yes, why? I'll assume this woman must have a heter not to fast on Yom Kippur, a 25-hour fast, since she can't go 12 hours fasting. And was she fasting? Planes have available all kinds of food items that don't require a glatt certification which she could have availed herself of--there are juices and sodas and coffee and tea. There is fruit available as well as packaged snacks. One can get through 12 hours ingesting these things alone.
ReplyDeleteIf she has a medical condition that requires her to eat, then for heavens sake why did she not come prepared with food in her carry-on luggage?! A friend with a blood sugar issue never goes anywhere without food precisely because things that should be available aren't always.
Did these people verify at the check in desk that their glatt kosher meals were ordered? If the food is such an issue then they should have.
Meals on an airline are a "perk" of your traveling, not a God-given right. US national air carriers no longer serve meals to anyone but their first class ticket holders on flights in the US; it's snacks for everyone else, if that. And many of the airlines are considering either doing away with any meal service altogether, charging if they do serve a snack, and charging for soda and juices as well.
Call me cynical, but someone saw a way to make a quick buck.
Tesyaa - Agreed that it's always wise to pack food, but nevertheless, they do have the right to expect what they paid for.
ReplyDeleteProfK - Cynic! :)
I'm sorry, but people go into 25-hour fasts with serious eating and drinking so they'll be prepared. Shlepping luggage around an airport, waiting through security and boarding, etc. after either a nice night's sleep and maybe rushing out to get to the airport without breakfast is not the same thing. Then being on a very cramped, recycled air airplane for 12 hours - that's not fun. Perhaps she had some snacks, I'm not sure, it doesn't say. All in all, I would say that the reason they got only the 3k NIS is because they are being reimbursed for a portion of the tickets, since they did not get what they paid for. The fainting they probably did not collect for. Makes fair sense to me.
I never heard of Jews flying without food - "just in case"... we were always taught to bring food along for a flight. The airline can always be counted to mess up somehow,..but that doe snot mean a person is obligated to. They ordered the food and did not get it.
ReplyDeleteProfK, Ezzie - Conditions on a plane sometimes make people ill, and sometimes surprisingly so, too. I know someone who was always perfectly fine on planes and then one time he was flying, felt claustrophobic, got dizzy and ended up getting oxygen in the back of the plane. And this was totally not a consistent flying habit of his. That was not at all the airline's fault, but what I'm saying is, sitting on a plane is not at all the same as fasting 25 hours in your home. It can do funny things to you.
ReplyDeleteThat said, if they wanted to really blame Israir for her fainting, they'd have to prove she fainted from lack of food. Could be she fainted just from being on the plane and that it would have happened whether she'd eaten or not (and this is possible even if she'd never fainted before). Or maybe she fainted for some other reason. You'd need real proof to say she fainted because she hadn't gotten her meal. For instance, I usually don't eat on planes (even to Israel) because I'm weird like that and I feel too claustrophobic to eat (I also don't eat in cars. Whatever, I'm weird) and I've never gotten sick from it, or even felt faint at all. So, yeah, I'm me, not her, but then like ProfK said, if she knew she had an issue where she'd get sick if she didn't eat, then she should have brought food along (although that doesn't mean it was okay for the airline not to make sure she got a meal, but still. If she knew she had a problem, pretty stupid not to bring anything), and if she didn't have an issue, it's still possible that she fainted because she hadn't eaten, but you can't really say that's the definite reason without sufficient proof. People faint for all kinds of reasons.
Lawsuit awards in Israel are usually rather low. Direct damages have to be fully proven, punitive damages are almost never awarded.
ReplyDeleteHence what they were asking for was already low (by US standards), which was probably just their full travel costs and any medical costs, and what they were awarded even lower (probably just the price of her ticket).
You can debate the value of not having a system that assess punitive damages - certainly the system does not "feel bad" about abusing you, however the costs of defending against every kind of crazy lawsuit are not build into the system. [Costs of being taxed every crazy way are.]
agreed that they owe some compensation if the couple ordered a glatt meal and didn't get one. however, if she felt weak, juice or a sugared soft drink would probably have prevented the fainting as well as a meal would. therefore, the airline isn't responsible for her fainting.
ReplyDeletethat said, Israir must be pretty slow not to pack a few extra glatt meals. much of their clientele is charedi.
ReplyDelete