These two fight for fliers' rights

0 Comments | USA TODAY, May, 2008 | by Marilyn Adams

Kate Hanni and Paul Hudson, soldiers in the fight for airline passenger rights, make an odd pair. Hanni, 47, a gregarious former real estate agent from Napa, Calif., has blond hair to her waist and sings in a rock band for fun. Hudson, 60, a bearded and spectacled lawyer comfortable in pinstripes, is cautious and soft-spoken, a workaholic who takes legal files on vacation.

Yet Hanni and Hudson share an almost religious zeal for the rights of air travelers, ordinary people who put their faith in airlines and have no control over events when their trip goes wrong. After the worst year on record for delayed flights and passenger strandings, the activists have persuaded many members of Congress to back legislation requiring passengers be given food, water, working toilets...