I’m not flying anywhere soon, so I don’t need an answer fast.
AIUI, airlines are required to compensate passengers who are bumped from a flight. Often the compensation will be a voucher for another flight, and/or a hotel room, and/or a meal voucher. But I’ve heard that airlines could be on the hook for a lot more; like 200% to 400% of the ticket price, depending on how late the customer would be. I think I’ve heard that legally, they could be required to pay more than that in some cases. Of course if the passenger accepts their offer, they’re off the hook for larger compensations.
Where are these compensation requirements codified? Is passenger compensation written out in Federal law? Where? Having citations at-hand would be a good negotiating tool for passengers who get bumped.
The trick is to be there for the flight when they’re trying to get you to voluntarily take another flight, and throw in miles, upgrade coupons, and even cash. Once that plane takes off they’re going to give you the minimum compensation required.
The minimum compensation according to that government link seems like it’d often be more than what they’d get from voluntarily bidding though. 200% of price for 1-2 hours and 400% of price for > 2 hours is not nothing. It seems likely to me that they’d get enough people to sign up for less than that voluntarily before having to resort to involuntary bumping.
I took a voluntary bump on Delta from Rome to JFK in March. For the four of us, we ended up with 2 rooms at the Rome Airport Hilton, 3 meals, USD$6000, and an upgrade from Premium Economy to Business Class.
Considering that was more than we paid for the return tickets originally, yes it was.
The BC upgrade was because of a mistake on the part of the gate agent. When he was checking for availability for rebooking before we agreed, he put the wrong date in 5 days away. By the time they realized the error, our original seats had already been reassigned so they had to find some way to get us home the next day.
Best I’ve ever gotten was when I double-bumped a flight from Denver to Ontario, CA. The first bump got me the leg free. The second bump got me a hotel room, meal and a free flight (plus upgrade) home from Ontario to Anchorage.
I was on a United Airlines flight a couple of years ago and prior to the flight, they asked how much I would want to be bumped (should that be necessary). This way they can only bump the passengers asking for the least amount.
I took a Voluntary bump last month for my flight from Atlanta to Alabama (about a 25-30 minute flight) and got $800 in cash (well, 3-$250 and 1-$50 Visa gift cards). Then the late flight they put me on was cancelled so Delta was on the hook for a Hotel and a couple of Meal vouchers. The overnight was inconvenient, but I was heading home and not in any rush, so it worked out for me.
Of the $800 (which IIRC I had 30 days to use or lose), I now have $3.51 left. Good times, good times.
Correct, but under US DOT rules they have to give everyone the top amount. In our case, another couple accepted $1000/seat. Since they offered us $1500 (we had declined the $1000 thinking it was total, and not per person!) the other couple got the same deal. They were quite appreciative we held out for the higher amount.