FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 13, 2001
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.:
(202) 366-5571
DOT
35-01
DOT
To Consider Updating Denied Boarding Compensation Rule
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y.Mineta has ordered a review of
the current airline oversales rules to consider increasing the maximum amounts
of compensation due to passengers bumped from oversold flights.
The review will also consider other improvements, such as expansion of
the flights to which the rule applies.
In
requiring this action, Secretary Mineta pointed out that bumping compensation
amounts had not changed since 1978.
“Our effort to improve customer service ranks second only to safety, which continues to be our highest transportation priority,” Secretary Mineta said. “We will examine our bumping rules as part of our broad-ranging effort to examine areas in which improvements in customer service may be needed.”
The purpose of the oversales rule is to balance the
rights of ticket-holding passengers with the needs of air carriers to minimize
the adverse economic effects of passengers with reservations who do not take the
flight or cancel their reservations. The
key provisions of the current rule require that, in the event of an oversold
flight, the airline must first seek volunteers who are willing to relinquish
their seats in return for compensation offered by the airline.
If there are not enough volunteers, most passengers who are involuntarily
bumped are eligible for denied boarding compensation, with the amount depending
on the price of the ticket and the length of the delay.
If the airline can arrange alternate transportation
scheduled to arrive at the passenger’s destination within two hours of the
planned arrival time of oversold flight – or four hours on international
flights -- the compensation is the amount of the fare to the passenger’s
destination with a $200 maximum. If
the airline cannot meet the two- or four-hour deadline, the amount of
compensation doubles, with a $400 maximum.
This compensation is in addition to the value of the passenger’s
ticket, which the passenger can use for alternate transportation or have
refunded if not used. There are
exceptions to the required payment, including equipment substitutions for
operational or safety reasons, or instances in which the airline arranges to
transport the passenger to his or her destination within an hour of the oversold
flight. Also, the rule does not
apply to flights operated with aircraft designed to have a maximum capacity of
less than 60 seats.
Airlines are required to provide passengers notice of their rights in the event they are bumped, and a passenger who is denied boarding involuntarily may refuse to accept the denied boarding compensation specified in the rule and seek additional compensation through negotiations with the carrier or by private legal action.
In
response to a recommendation from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s
Inspector General, the aviation industry’s Air Transport Association recently
requested that the Department examine the reasonableness of the current denied
boarding compensation amounts. Pending
legislation in the Senate also would require an increase in bumping
compensation. Airlines already are permitted to provide compensation
greater than the amount specified in the rule.
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