The Navigator: Will this be the year for passengers' rights?

There's also some momentum on the legislative side to give passengers more rights. The most prominent example is the Clear Airfare Amendment to the FAA Reauthorization Bill, proposed by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), which would compel airlines and travel agents to disclose the full price of a ticket, including taxes and fees. The amendment would also force earlier disclosure in the buying process of any fees for checked baggage, seating assignments, optional in-flight goods and services and other fees that may be charged after the ticket is purchased.

How much earlier is a matter of some debate. The latest version of the amendment reflects airline industry pressure on lawmakers to mandate disclosure only at the time of booking, which would basically codify the airlines' deception about the total cost of a ticket. And everything hinges on the passage of the ambitious reauthorization bill, now in its 17th incarnation.

"Consumers have a right to know what they're paying for," Menendez said to me last week. "Travelers already pay enough without being hit with hidden fees."

But the House leadership is sending mixed signals about passenger protections. Although Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said that the FAA bill is a "top priority," he has also called for leaner, more streamlined legislation that "does more with less" - which suggests that some unnecessary amendments may be dropped before the bill is passed. Those may - or may not - include important airfare transparency provisions.

Seems to me that some difficult decisions lie ahead. Should the government, which promised to protect airline passengers last year, do the expedient thing - or the right thing?

A Southwest Airlines pilot faced a similar choice earlier this year, when he learned that a passenger on his flight from Los Angeles to Denver was running late.

Mark Dickinson of Sierra Vista, Ariz., was flying to Colorado to say goodbye to his 2-year-old grandson. Southwest, as it happens, has one of the worst on-time records in the industry; in November, the Transportation Department considered only 79 percent of its flights on time. So the pressure for a punctual departure must have been enormous.

But Dickinson's circumstances were extraordinary and tragic: His grandson was on life support after having suffered a head injury when his mother's boyfriend allegedly threw him across the room. This was Dickinson's last chance to see the child before life support was removed.

It would have been easy for Southwest to fly without Dickinson. But the pilot held the plane for 12 long minutes. "They can't go anywhere without me, and I wasn't going anywhere without you," he told Dickinson.

That wasn't the expedient thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.

Will the government and our elected officials have the courage to do the right thing, too?

Elliott is National Geographic Traveler magazine's reader advocate. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org.