Ask Mike: Get paid for flight delays
Hey Guys,
If you’ve ever been bumped from a flight, you’ll appreciate this. The United States Department of Transportation has recently changed the rules on what sort of restitution the airlines have to give inconvenienced passengers.
Airlines regularly overbook flights because, on average, a few passengers don’t show up for each flight. But when everybody does show up and there aren’t enough seats, something’s gotta give. New rules aim to make getting bumped a bit less painful.
If you are traveling internationally or taking a domestic flight that is longer than four hours, get bumped from the flight and are then delayed for two hours or more, you are eligible to receive a refund of four times what you paid for your ticket, with a max of $1,300. That’s a 63% increase over the previous max.
Additionally, new rules require that airlines refund luggage fees should they lose your bags (that’s on top of what they’d owe you for the luggage itself, your clothes, and whatever else you had inside).
Hopefully you won’t get bumped from a flight anytime soon. But if you do, remember that the airlines have to compensate you. Almost makes you want to hope to get bumped and delayed. Almost.
Thanks for reading,
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Yayyyy this is good news
agree or disagree
This is an interesting little development, however did you come by this news Mike?
What is interesting to note though, is that the airline didn’t offer it anyway…if people have already paid for their ticket then they have paid, the airline loses nothing and why should this be? Why should they be able to overbook and then tell passengers that they will have to be delayed for hours?
http://sparhawke.hubpages.com/hub/10-things-people-forget-to-take-on-a-camping-trip
I’ve never been bumped before, but now it’s not really a concern, unless I have to be somewhere at a certain time. As long as I get money, there’s no problem.
I had my flight delayed by over 15 hours just a week before this law was passed. Dangit
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lol I would love to get my flight delayed (not at the wrong time though) just for that!
What do you get if you bought the tickets using frequent flier miles?
But of course you get paid only if you know the rules and take the time to make the claim!
Hopefully you won’t get stuck dealing with customer service personnel who either don’t know the new rules or purposely argue with you to get out of paying any compensation claims.
Hi.. Thanks for the information.. I got bumped once as they have arranged charter flight.. They wanted to change our flight schedule. We had to halt one day in other place during our transit.. It happens..
Those who mentioned fight delays, was that due to being bumped or for other reasons? If it was not as a result of being bumped then this does not apply. Now if they were to bring that sort of regulation into effect in Canada…..
this will only work if you fly United Airlines, cause most other airlines deliver excellence.
Wow….Your posts never unimpress me, Mike!!
I bet a lot less people will be getting bumped now. Oh, and a lot less luggage will be getting ‘lost’ as well. The airline will have to weigh the costs. Will overbooking be more profitable than paying bumping fees? Or will bumping fees cut into overbooking profits making overbooking an expensive liability? We’ll see what the morons decide by how many people they continue to bump off of flights. Oh, and then there’s the little issue of lost luggage. What will they decide on that? To lose or not to lose, that is the question.
Mike isn’t talking about getting delayed (several comments about that), he’s talking about getting involuntarily bumped. I fly every week on business, and I’ve NEVER seen someone get involuntarily bumped. Key word here is INVOLUNTARY. The airlines aren’t dumb, they offer vouchers (usually start with $200) to get people to take a VOLUNTARY bump to the next flight. If no one volunteers, they up the offer. Highest I’ve ever seen it go was $700. So you’re not going to see involuntary bumping and the airlines having to refund thousands of dollars. Someone will always be willing to take the voluntary bump for the voucher. Once you take the voucher, you have waived your rights to the CASH that Mike reports.
Yes, its a voucher…its not cash. Usually expires in a year or even 6 months, and I’m betting a decent number of them go unused.
Europe seems different. I got bumped off, had to fly, so had to buy another ticket costing 50% more, then got bumped off the connecting flight, spent a night on Miami airport floor, arrived one day late for work and lost a day’s pay.
Return flight was also chaotic. Just caught a connecting flight after being told to rebook in Miami because the flight had left! Baggage unloaded in Madrid because the system thought I had not caught the next connection to Barcelona. Still waiting for the bags that were promised today!
Woah… before you get all excited people – read what was written. It is not for delayed flights !! Your whole flight is delayed, you get nothing. They sell 101 seats and 101 people show up and there is only 100 seats on the aircraft – only then does 1 person get a payout to reschedule to a later/different flight.
GREAT NEWS ! Thanks Mike
This is good news Mike!