USA Today
WASHINGTON — Major airlines are proving that volunteerism pays — on overbooked flights, at least.
With more flights overbooked, airlines often pay people who give up their seats voluntarily better than those whom they deny seats, a federal audit on airline service found.
That’s unfair, says Kenneth Mead, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s inspector general, whose office performed the audit.
Mead has called for an increase in compensation for travelers bumped involuntarily from overbooked flights. The maximum now is $400. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has introduced a bill that would require the DOT to issue a rule increasing the limit.
Airlines are free to pay whatever they wish to volunteers. Federal rules set compensation for involuntarily bumped passengers, and those amounts have been unchanged since 1978.
On 89 overbooked flights reviewed by the inspector general, three-quarters of the passengers who were bumped involuntarily got the same as or less compensation than those who gave up their seats willingly, Mead said.
On one flight, five passengers who agreed to wait for a later flight were given free tickets for a future round trip, while a passenger who was involuntarily bumped received no compensation at all.
Travel experts say they’ve witnessed similar occurrences.
"I have seen passengers getting $300 vouchers and $400 cash and an upgrade to first class the next flight if they agreed to take a bump, while on the same flight one passenger who didn’t volunteer to be bumped ended up with $400, which is exactly what the law says," said Terry Trippler, airline expert for Web site OneTravel.com.
Here’s how bumping works:
Airlines routinely book more seats on a flight than the plane actually has because a certain number of people won’t show up on any given flight. If more passengers appear than they have room for, a gate agent asks for volunteers to give up their seats in return for money or a voucher and a seat on a later flight.
"I like the way the system works because I know the rules," said David Maron, an Oxnard, Calif.-based software developer who has gotten vouchers for future flights in return for giving up his seat voluntarily.
But what doesn’t work well, Maron said, "is when you see people who don’t know the rules. They don’t have an advocate. They find out at the last flight of the day that they have this limited choice and that they could have gotten a better deal if they knew the rules."
The airlines don’t like to talk about how much they’ll offer fliers to volunteer to give up their seats. "We give the gate agents leeway on how much they can award a voluntarily bumped passenger because we’re looking for people whose schedules aren’t etched in stone," said Delta spokesman Russ Williams. He won’t give details of the airline’s guidelines.
Some travelers say it’s easy to play the game if they want to get bumped.
"Anyone who is the least bit travel savvy knows that gate agents are empowered to do whatever is necessary to get the plane off the ground," said Michael Hallmann, a college counselor at Green Fields Country Day School in Tucson.
"Certainly, many travelers want to get bumped and have made it into a game, but for the people who cannot miss their flights, it is not fair," Trippler said.
In addition to raising compensation, McCain’s bill would order the DOT to clarify the rules on treating bumped passengers. This part states that airlines will not use "any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage" or "unjust or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage" in determining rules setting the priorities by which passengers are to be bumped.
Some airlines base decisions on whom to bump on when a passenger checks in, while others base it on how much the passenger has paid or the passenger’s frequent-flier status.
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