airfarewatchdog

airfarewatchdog

Remember the days get their hands on tickets free airline is easier than finding a movie on TV?Well, brace yourself, because those days may soon be back among us.Obama administration's proposal to substantially increase compensation for passengers bumped from an airplane flight means that airlines need more incentives to persuade the passengers to leave their homes willingly.Currently, passengers who are forced to give up their seat and don't arrive at their destination within two hours (four hours for international flights) of their original scheduled time receive a $400 check. They receive $800 if they land later than that.Under the proposal, which would go into effect later this year, passengers denied boarding would receive between $650 and $1,300. A $1,300 check suddenly makes getting involuntarily bumped seem a lot more palatable. And a lot less likely to happen.During all of last year, only 762,422 passengers were bumped off overbooked flights, and as Bestfares.com founder Tom Parsons points out, about 90 percent of them willingly gave up their seats in exchange for compensation determined by the airlines. In most of those cases, volunteers receive airline vouchers good toward future travel.
"An airline would rather offer someone 500 Mickey Mouse dollars to fly their airline," Parsons explains, "than deny someone boarding and have to give .