Officials Looking to Increase Compensation for Bumped Flights

Filed in archive Aviation News on July 25, 2007

Hate getting bumped? Well, the Transportation Department is seeking to make airlines pay passengers triple compensation for being involuntarily pushed from a flight. Currently, the compensation minimum is $200 to $400. Officials are seeking to increase that to $290 and $580.

The Transportation Department sought public comment on Monday on four proposals to increase the penalty that carriers must pay individual travelers, under certain circumstances, for overbooking flights.

A fifth proposal would not change compensation levels now set at a maximum $200 if rebooking results in a delay of up to two hours for domestic travel and four hours for international flights. If those deadlines cannot be met, compensation can increase to $400.

In addition to compensation now, involuntarily bumped passengers receive a refund for their original fare or a voucher for future travel.

There were nearly 56,000 denied boardings in 2006 involving major airlines and their affiliates, up by 10,000 over the previous year, government figures show.

More than 550 million passengers boarded U.S. carriers last year.

There is no requirement for a change, but transportation officials have been criticized by government and consumer watchdogs for inadequately investigating consumer complaints about airline service.

There is no timetable for a decision, but Transportation Department officials have set a 60-day public comment deadline.

Agency officials said the proposed compensation changes are unrelated to that issue, which mainly focuses on flight delays and has led to congressional scrutiny.

One proposal would increase the $200 compensation to $290 and the $400 maximum to $580. A second plan would double the amounts and a third would triple the payments. A fourth proposal would make compensation limits equal to the value of the original fare and add other amounts if there are delays.

The chief trade group for major airlines, the Air Transport Association, said it would defer comment on the Transportation Department plan until it had seen the full proposal. But ATA spokesman David Castelveter said the industry has been successful in handling overbooking under the current compensation formula.

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