What to do when the airline needs your seat

By Thomas Moore

Monday, June 12, 2017 | 2 a.m.

Recently, social media has been buzzing with dramatic videos of airline employees battling customers and security removing passengers from airplanes.

One viral video showed Chicago aviation police drag a passenger off a United Airlines flight after employees unsuccessfully asked for volunteers to give up seats. The airline needed the space for other United employees who were traveling for work.

The U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has conducted hearings to discuss the events and airline customer service issues. But the truth is passengers do not have a lot of recourse when an airline decides to give someone else the seat they’ve already paid for.

What are the rules when you are ‘bumped’ by an airline?

According to the Department of Transportation, it is perfectly legal to deny boarding to paid passengers for other, more desirable passengers. And the airlines get to decide who is denied and who isn’t, based on their own priorities, as long as they don’t involve factors such as race or ethnicity.

Those priorities are spelled out in what is called the contract of carriage. Every airline has one, and everyone who buys an airline ticket becomes a party to that contract — whether they know it or not.

If you are bumped, however, there are some DOT rules that govern how you are notified and compensated.

Airlines must:

• First ask for volunteers to give up their seats before bumping anyone. Airlines may offer passengers inducements, such as vouchers, to volunteer.

• Give written notice to bumpees describing their rights and explaining how the carrier decides who gets bumped.

• Compensate the passenger under some circumstances. According to the DOT, the compensation is based on the price of the ticket, the length of the person’s delay in getting to his or her destination, and whether the flight is domestic or international.

When you’re out of luck

In some cases, the airline is under no obligation to compensate you for being bumped.

• If you don’t follow the airline’s ticketing and check-in requirements.

• If the airline has to change the plane for safety or operation reasons and there’s not enough room on the new plane for every passenger.

• If the plane has 60 or fewer seats and has weight and/or balance restrictions for operational or safety reasons.

• If they can seat you somewhere else on the plane, even if you don’t like your new seat.

Why else might someone be bumped?

Most people understand the need to remove passengers who are drunk or belligerent. But at times there are other reasons. Hilarie Grey, spokeswoman for Las Vegas-based Allegiant Airlines, said medical issues could cause the airline to deny someone boarding or to ask them to leave the plane.

“Occasionally, there’s a medical evaluation where someone is medically not fit to fly — say, if they are vomiting, have a fever or something like that,” she said.

How to avoid being bumped

Most people have seen the sign in a business that says, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” Well, the contract of carriage is the airline industry’s version of that sign.

But in this case, it’s a long sign, written by and for lawyers, and the airlines can change it any time they want.

So aside from hiring a lawyer to interpret the airline’s legal documents the next time you make vacation plans, how can you reduce your chances of being bumped?

William J. McGee, who once worked for the airlines and is the aviation consultant for Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, suggests the following:

• securing a seat assignment in advance

• traveling with one or more other passengers

• traveling with children

• registering in the airline’s frequent-flier program

The Contract of Carriage

You may have never heard the phrase “contract of carriage” before today. But guess what? The last time you bought an airline ticket, you in essence signed one and agreed to its terms.

Each airline has a contract of carriage posted somewhere on its website. It spells out, along with many, many other things, why and how you can be bumped from a flight.

Should you read it before you book a flight? Of course, says one consumer advocate, but good luck with that.

Once upon a time, McGee says, the contracts were easier to understand.

“The language used to be much more clear, and (the contracts) were not so long,” McGee said. “The contracts would say, ‘In this situation we would do this, in this situation we’ll do that. Now what you find is the language is very vague, intentionally in some cases.”

Will airlines continue to overbook?

Allegiant Airlines does not overbook, says Hilarie Grey, spokeswoman for the Las Vegas-based company.

Typically, overbooking is a response to people not showing up for flights. It’s more common among business travelers, but Allegiant’s customers are mostly tourists, Grey said, who usually show up for their flights.

She also explained that Allegiant’s business model, offering flights from smaller airports to tourist destinations, precludes overbooking.

“The way our service works is we, in many cases, only fly a couple of times a week,” she said. “When you are looking at, say, United, they have a bank of flights so they can roll people to the next flight. And they have a lot of no-shows. However, we couldn’t easily accommodate someone on the next flight coming up, because it may not be for several days.”

Southwest also does not overbook, although it used to — right up until the recent airline controversies garnered national attention.

“As of Monday, May 8, Southwest no longer books a flight over capacity as part of the selling process,” Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King wrote in an email. “Occasionally, operational challenges will have our airport-based employees asking for volunteers, but that will happen much less frequently because overbooking to customers in advance is off the table as a consideration.”