Here’s your chance to let the government know how you’d change the rules on airline oversales — better known as bumping. The U.S. Department of Transportation is asking for for public comments on possible rule changes. You can go to its Web site tomorrow, type in the docket number OST-01-9325, and leave your comments.
The timing couldn’t be better. Or worse, if you’re an air carrier. Airlines are doing a lot of bumping this summer, as flights are running at capacity levels. And passengers are fed up with it.
Currently, an airline must first ask for volunteers who are willing to give up their seats in return for compensation offered by the airline. The airline may bump passengers involuntarily if not enough of them volunteer, and these passengers are eligible for cash compensation in most circumstances.
The compensation isn’t much (the rules were first adopted back in 1962). If the airline can arrange alternate transportation scheduled to arrive at the passenger’s destination within two hours of the planned arrival time of the oversold flight (or four hours on international flights) the compensation is the amount of the fare to the passenger’s destination with a $200 maximum, according to the Transportation Department.
If the airline can’t meet these deadlines, the amount of compensation doubles, with a $400 maximum. These payments are in addition to the value of the passenger’s ticket, which the passenger can use for alternate transportation or have refunded if not used.
The government is considering several possible changes. Among them:
» Increasing the $200 compensation limit to $624 and the $400 limit to $1,248.
» Increasing the compensation limits to $290 and $580, respectively.
» Doubling the compensation limits to $400 and $800.
» Eliminating all compensation limits and making compensation equal to the value of the ticket with the payment doubling for longer delays.
» Leaving the current limits in place.
The government is also asking for comments on other possible changes to the bumping rule, such as extending the rule to aircraft having 30 to 60 seats, which are not currently covered, and clarifying the criteria airlines may use in deciding the order in which passengers will be bumped.
Needless to say, everyone who reads this should cast their vote for a sensible rule change. Oversales are a shameful airline industry practice that should be discouraged by the government. The EU has already made significant changes to its bumping rule, as I noted in a recent column.
It’s time for us to do the same here in the States.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The rules for reimbursement for involuntary bumping are way out of date. In fact, rather than have a limit, let’s use a free market solution–the kind of solution business proposes when it works in their favor. Why not just eliminate the cap and allow passengers to bid the price up to a point at which they get enough volunteers? It would probably be reasonable to put a cap on the reimbursement in unusual weather situations when passengers will pay just about any price to keep their seat, but that should be the exception, not the rule. If so, the decisions as to what constitutes a weather emergency should be determined by a neutral party, such as the FAA.
Airlines have too much control over the destiny of passengers. It’s bad enough they have cut services to the bone and charge for every little thing nowadays, they need to STOP the practice of overbooking for one, and need to pay passengers for the inconvenience of being bumped. We pay good money for tickets these days, so they owe us something. Heck, the airlines these days is like going Greyhound – only with wings.
Not a comment, but a question: our service man son recently came home for a leave before deployment to Iraq: although he had confirmed, paid for tickets (we’d been planning this trip home for a couple of months)–the airline bumped him off without any offer of compensation. The flight attendant told him it was because they had a “VIP” who needed our son’s coach seat for one of his staff. Our son was not told who the VIP was–if we knew, we’d be blasting that guy’s mail box. So–our question; although we find the bumping of servicemen reprehensible, does our son have any recourse?
I have been reading many of the comments on the DOT web site, and have found that many of the solutions seem to be the same. I would agree with most of the solutions presented, but would offer a solution that may get the airlines attention. It would simply say that the selling of a ticket with a reservation is a valid contract and failure to complete the contract gives the ticket buyer the right to sue in a court convenient to the ticket buyer. I would bet the airlines wouldn’t like that option.