Comments on: Government says airline bumping rules could be revised

By: Gary Anderson

Gary Anderson — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 07:35:58 +0000

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.

By: Audra Ranous

Audra Ranous — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 05:48:03 +0000

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?

By: Van Williamson

Van Williamson — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:06:47 +0000

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.

By: David Broomhall

David Broomhall — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 11:16:37 +0000

The rules for reimbursement for involuntary bumping are way out of date.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.