American Airlines flight 758 from Philadelphia to Athens and the flight was overbooked. The airline kept upping the voluntary compensation offer to get three people to give up their seats. Here they are offering $4,000 in travel vouchers to take a flight the next day.
American Airlines offering my flight $4k to fly to Athens one day late…wishing I said yes.
A manager can be heard pitching amazement at “$4,000 vouchers!”
This is highly unusual for American and something you see far more often on Delta. Delta generally will not involuntarily bump anyone. They’ll keep upping their offer until someone takes it. American is much more likely to stop bidding and pay out the legally minimum required compensation, leaving passengers behind involuntarily.
In fact, American Airlines usually stops the bidding with their third offer, requiring the gate to get outside approval to go higher, with an eye towards cost control.
Airlines are much better at managing their oversales, so bump compensation isn’t as frequent as it used to be. Nonetheless, here’s a flight where Delta handed out over $43,000 in compensation. Here’s one where they paid out $63,000. One Delta passenger last year paid off their car by taking a bump off of a Delta flight.
$4,000 is weak. Their policy goes up to $10,000. They oversold; that was their business decision. Make the airline pay the max. And, since the flight departs from Greece, EU261 applies, so if they cancel or significantly delay because they oversold, everyone is eligible for maximum compensation €600/passenger. Wish we had better passenger protections in the US, so that when airlines try to do this back home, they can be held accountable.
EU/UK 261 compensation rules apply to IDB, not just flight cancellations. So if the US had the same rule, they could just bump someone and pay them that (which is what happens in the EU, though I think overbooking is rarer there). Which is why I am of two minds about having a similar rule here.
If I understand it, IDB compensation caps out at $2,150 in the U.S., so I’m curious why they didn’t just IDB someone. Perhaps it’s because it’s a more time-consuming process, or DOT will eventually ding airlines who do this too much?
I wonder if AA vouchers have to be used in one shot or whether they can be used over several flights?
I think they can be used to partially pay for a ticket unlike some store coupons. For example, a store has a $5 coupon but it’s actually a $5 off a $5 or more purchase.
If airlines adopt both rules for their vouchers, that would be an incentive to force someone to buy an international lie flat seat ticket with a bump vouchers leading to some vouchers not being used.
I’ve been known to book flights that I have no intention of taking to see about getting offers at the airport.
I fly Alaska to Vegas. But I’ve often booked a Delta flight the same day an hour or two earlier. On more than a few occasions, I have “surrendered” my seat on Delta, received a debit card…aka cash…normally for $600..and then flown to Vegas on Alaska.
We points and miles freaks are a rare and odd breed.
@Arthur — No, EU261 provides compensation that in addition to any separate IDB (Involuntary Denied Boarding) payout you receive. That is why it is better to have an EU261-equivalent in addition to IDB.
@Taylor — Airlines will do almost anything to avoid an Involuntary Denied Boarding because the Department of Transportation tracks IDB rates; also, the public relations and operational costs far outweigh the cash cap. Most have gone up to $10K after Dr. Dao.
Except that no particular IDB payout other than the usual amount of EU/UK 261 payment is required, so the EU airlines don’t have to offer any compensation in addition to that required by EU/UK 261, and in practice, they don’t. I’ve heard about additional compensation being offered to a colleague in J by AF, but I’ve never seen it, nor a request for volunteers. Certainly no offers in the thousands like they do in the US (and I’ve received before), which I attribute to the Dao publicity and the litigious nature of Americans. If Gary has had different experiences, he can weigh in.
@Arthur — You moved the goal posts a bit there… this was American Airlines, a US carrier, flying EU-US. So, EU-origin, all airlines must comply with EU261. US carrier, IDB applies. Both here.
If merely an EU carrier, well, yeah, unless the carrier’s flight involves the US, destination or origin, they do not deal with US IDB rules.
EU generally still has better overall air passenger rights protections for delays, cancellations, which, we in the US can and should adopt something similar, if not even better. Look to Canada’s APPR, and bring back Rule 240, as well.
Today at ORD American was offering a $3000 voucher to take a later flight to Denver.
@JoeyH — Niccce! Did you go for it? Heck, if time wasn’t an issue, I’d drive to Denver from Chicago for $3,000.