Getting bumped gets more lucrative

[MissBurrill]

Getting bumped gets more lucrative

The rule is that if you get bumped and the airline can get you to your destination within two hours of your original scheduled arrival time, you're entitled to cash equal to the value of your one-way ticket, with a max of $400. If you get there more two hours late, you get double the value, up to $800. Not bad, huh?
But now, the Department of Transportation is changing the rule so that this will go up substantially. Now, if you arrive within two hours, you'll get double the value of your ticket, up to $650. If it's more than two hours, you'll get four times the value, up to a whopping $1,300.

It's an American article and if you're not in a hurry the increased compensation sounds quite good.

 

[samh004]

That might teach them a thing or two about overbooking routes.

 

[tipsy.skipsy]

Any such offer available Down Under !!!:mrgreen:

 

[toottifruitti]

We got bumped SIN to HKG on a Monday morning @ 08:00...nice lil pick up to go shopping with.

 

[anat0l]

We got bumped SIN to HKG on a Monday morning @ 08:00...nice lil pick up to go shopping with.

Settle down. The context is in America, a new directive by the US Department of Transportation (DOT).

I'm not sure where the policy applies - I'm assuming at a minimum it applies for any domestic US flight (operated by anyone), and all USA-registered carriers (so for all of their international and domestic flights). Can someone double-check this one (not sure how to do it)...

In any case, I doubt it applies to a SIN-HKG flight, unless possibly it was operated by a USA-registered carrier (UA possibly?)

The extent of the cost is meant to compensate the passenger for their inconvenience but in reality part of it has to go towards defraying some of the collateral costs e.g. associated with travel insurance excess. Sometimes if you really needed to be there or had an important meeting etc. then these measures mean little....

 

[straitman]

Quite an in depth article on the topic.

The Shifting Sands of Passenger Rights | AVIATION WEEK

Apr 22, 2011


By Andrew Compart
Washington

Airlines in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere are confronting sweeping new U.S. regulations on how they sell tickets, advertise their prices, disclose fee-based optional services, compensate customers and operate flights.

On the surface, this trend toward re-regulation of customer services seems to present a challenge for airlines, today and going forward. However, there are signs that regulators in the U.S. and Europe are having second thoughts about how far their rules should go, providing hope to airlines that their arguments for government restraint and greater reliance on market forces are having some impact.

The messages seem contradictory but are suggested by the second round of rules on passenger “protections” just issued by the U.S. Transportation Department. Many of the rules will impact not only home-country carriers but also any foreign airline that operates to the U.S. or sells tickets to U.S. customers. They cover issues such as tarmac delays, fee disclosure, baggage fee consistency, fare advertising, denied-boarding compensation and 24-hr. reservation holds.

 

[oz_mark]

The denied boarding compansation is the least of the changes. The compensation changes are, in realtiy, a CPI adjustment from when that rule first came in.

Market forces don't always work, and sometimes companies have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to sort some of their practices out.

 

[ethernet]

Well that's America.
Does or is our local Aviation / DOT Minister going to 'harmonise' our regs to be the same?

In Australia, the costs of a missed flight are arguably much higher.

 

[codash1099]

Well that's America.
Does or is our local Aviation / DOT Minister going to 'harmonise' our regs to be the same?

In Australia, the costs of a missed flight are arguably much higher.

I, for one, won't be holding my breath.