
to San Francisco and are now flying seven instead,” he said. “It’s a situation where an airline might have planned eight flights per day from L.A. In many cases, the airlines stopped scheduling flights that were operating with MAX 8 planes, said Michael Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation consultant. American Airlines reported similar increases, from about 28,000 denied boarding instances in 2018 to almost 47,000 this year across its network (which includes branded codeshare partners such as Piedmont Airlines, Republic Airways and PSA Airlines) this year. The number of passengers bumped on Southwest flights more than doubled, from 4,994 in the first quarter of 2018 to 11,590 this year. Part of the increase can be attributed to the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX 8, which forced airlines, particularly Southwest and American, to find replacement aircraft for those flights. 3 percent of every 10,000 checked passengers, according to the report. That’s a 36 percent jump from the 94,577 people who were denied boarding from flights in the same period in 2018.Īnd while overbookings are on the rise, they still represent only. Of those, 6,175 passengers were involuntarily denied boarding, while the rest opted to be compensated with a travel voucher for another flight.

flights between January and March 2019, according to an Air Travel Consumer report from the U.S. One thing is for sure: More people are being “denied boarding,” the official term for those who have a confirmed reservation but are bumped from flights that have been oversold.Īlmost 130,000 passengers were bumped on U.S.

Max compensation for over booked flight free#
Others see it as an opportunity to score a free plane ticket. Those words can send a chill through many business and leisure travelers waiting to board a flight in a crowded gate area. At this time, we are asking for one or two passengers to volunteer to take another flight in exchange for a travel voucher.”
Max compensation for over booked flight full#
See the Transportation Department's website for the full set of rules.“Ladies and gentlemen, it appears as though this flight is over capacity. There are, however, a few conditions and exceptions. If you paid for optional services on your original flight (e.g., seat selection, checked baggage) and you did not receive those services on your substitute flight or were required to pay a second time, the airline that bumped you must refund those payments to you.The denied boarding compensation is essentially a payment for your inconvenience. If you choose to make your own arrangements, you can request an "involuntary refund" for the ticket for the flight you were bumped from. You always get to keep your original ticket and use it on another flight.If your ticket does not show a fare (for example, a frequent-flyer award ticket or a ticket issued by a consolidator), your denied boarding compensation is based on the lowest cash, check or credit card payment charged for a ticket in the same class of service (e.g., coach, first class) on that flight.


