If You’re Bumped from a Flight, They’re Gonna PAY!

by Mary VanMeer
Filed Under Air Travel 

Here is something you need to travel with — the knowledge that (as of May 2008) if you are involuntarily bumped from an oversold flight, the airline now has to pay you twice as much as before. 

Under the new rule, fliers who are involuntarily bumped can receive up to $400 if they are rescheduled to reach their destination within two hours of their original arrival time or four hours for international flights, and up to $800 if they are not rerouted within that timeframe.

The new rule also covers more flights, including those operated with aircraft seating 30 people or more; the previous rule covered flights with 60 seats or more. The amount of these payments are determined by the price of the ticket and the length of the delay, and are in addition to the value of the passenger’s ticket, which the flier can use for alternate transportation or have refunded if not used. 

You can go to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s website (http://www.dot.gov) and send U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters a thank-you e-mail.   To read about this and what other things the DOT is doing to help ease aviation congestion, go to http://www.fightgridlocknow.gov/aviation/consumer.htm.


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