When Kate and Tim Hanni left Napa for Point Clear, Ala., with their children at 3 a.m. on Dec. 29, they had no way of knowing they were about to embark on the worst plane ride of their lives.

But they are turning their nearly 10-hour wait on a Texas tarmac into something more than a rotten memory. They are pushing members of Congress for a new “passengers’ bill of rights.”

Kate Hanni, a broker at Napa’s Intero Real Estate and her husband, founder and board member of Winequest, recently joined forces with Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, to try and address problems of airline travel. Thompson said he plans to introduce a Passenger Bill of Rights on the House floor next week. If passed, the bill will guarantee airline passengers certain rights, including the option to deplane after spending three hours on a grounded aircraft.

A press release from Thompson’s office said if passed, the bill would allow passengers to deplane if a flight is grounded for three hours, and stated airlines must provide food, ventilation, clean restrooms, a comfortable temperature and clean drinking water for passengers on delayed flights. Airlines would be required to release information about chronically delayed flights at the time of ticket purchase and post their own passengers’ bill of rights.

Thompson said the bill would benefit both passengers and the airline industry. “People on airlines have a right to know what to expect, and it also would provide a degree of protection for the airlines,” he said.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., plans to introduce the Passenger Bill of Rights to the Senate.

JetBlue Airways unveiled its own passenger bill of rights Tuesday, after weather-related delays and cancellations put thousands of its customers in situations similar to Hanni’s earlier this month.

Grounded

Kate Hanni said during American Airlines flight 1348 from San Francisco to Dallas, the pilot announced the plane would be diverted to Austin due to bad weather conditions. The plane arrived at Austin around noon, she said. “We were the first of a dozen planes to land in Austin and go into parking position. We could see the terminal easily from there, and see the other planes stacking up.”

Passengers relaxed after the pilot announced the flight would soon take off for Dallas, Hanni said. “But that never happened. Three hours later, they said they’d get buses out to us and get us off the plane and bring food. (At that point) we were on the plane for six-and-a-half hours without a snack.”

Hanni said a small bus carried about 15 of the 128 people off the plane, adding that airline employees said the elderly, disabled, and those with small children should have precedence. But Hanni said she later learned the 15 people were residents of Austin.

Meanwhile, on board toilets overflowed and food was in short supply, she said.

“There were no fistfights on our plane, but there was some hollering. We really reached the tipping point,” she said.

At 9:30 p.m., passengers aboard flight 1348 deplaned, she said, after American Airlines pilot, Jesse Fodero, pulled into a gate without permission. “The pilot kept apologizing for American Airlines and said it was an embarrassing day. He didn’t know what to say, but he defused the anger for a while,” she said.

Hanni said two journalists among the 128 passengers on her flight called the press while stranded on the tarmac, starting national media coverage of the event.

When Hanni, her family, and fellow passengers entered Austin airport around 9:30 p.m., she said, all the restaurants were closed and airline officials offered no food, drinks or vouchers to passengers. Hanni said she and her family went to baggage claim, waited 2 1/2 hours and didn’t get their luggage. A security guard told her to return at 6 the next morning to “resume her flight,” she said.

After leaving the airport, the Hanni family found a hotel, paid for their room themselves, and Tim Hanni took the couple’s children to a restaurant while Kate Hanni stayed at the hotel. They returned to the airport early the next morning, after only a few hours’ sleep, but airline workers had no boarding information, she said.

Airline employees eventually printed improvised boarding passes for the Hanni family, but when they reached the gate, a pilot said the plane wasn’t moving, telling the family to get a different flight to Dallas. Once at the Dallas airport, he said, the Hannis could catch a connecting flight to Mobile, Ala. “Our bags were on their plane, but we were told we couldn’t take the flight. An airline worker said ‘Unless you’re the queen of England, you’re not getting on our flight. Don’t blame us for the weather.’”

The Hannis eventually caught a different flight to Dallas. Hanni said only one flight from Dallas to Mobile, Ala. was offered daily, and it had left by the time the family arrived in Dallas. They spent a night in Dallas and flew to Mobile the next day, she said.

Once the family’s travel ordeal ended, the Hannis contacted Thompson, a friend of Tim Hanni, telling him the circumstances of their trip. “Mike Thompson wrote a letter to the president of American Airlines, but (the airline) never responded. So we drafted the Passenger Bill of Rights on Jan. 17,” Hanni said.

Hanni boarded a flight Tuesday for Washington, D.C., where she said she had appointments with congressmen and senators regarding the Passenger Bill of Rights.

She didn’t anticipate any delays.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

For information about the Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights, visit the stranded passengers blog.