Advice for airlines
Posted by Kristi Casey Sanders on September 4, 2007 at 12:40 pm
As airlines continue to overbook flights, more and more ticketed passengers are getting bumped; part of the problem may lie in the lack of stiff penalties for bumping. In fact, there are no penalties for bumping a passenger who buys a ticket through a third-party, such as Orbitz, or who is traveling on a 60-seat or smaller plane.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) is seeking public commentary on whether the penalties for bumping passengers, which haven’t been changed since 1978, should be amended. There are five penalty options you can comment on until Sept. 10; go to DOT’s Web site link, scroll down to “Open Dockets,” and then scroll down to read and comment on docket entry OST-2001-9325.
September 5, 2007 at 11:03 am
Until airlines stop under-performing ever more modest customer expectations, this industry will continue to go down the toilet.
If DOT won’t act on the basis of its charge to cite carriers not meeting the terms of their permits (”public concenveience and necessity”), then Congress should act in their stead.