Released: September 21, 2006

Crowded flights—know your rights if you’re bumped

Source: By Michelle Singletary, Washington Post (Free Registration)

If you’ve flown this past spring and summer, you’ve probably noticed fuller flights. Hate to tell you this, but with Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching, you can expect more of the same.

Fuller flights mean more than just getting stuck with the dreaded middle seat. For airline passengers, it means a greater chance of getting involuntarily bumped from a flight, continuing an already worrisome trend. From January to June, the latest period available, 33,513 passengers were forced to give up their seats.

That’s up 34 percent from the 25,041 bumped during the same period a year ago, according to the Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report. “The worsening problem with bumping reflects the intensifying push by airlines to fill a greater percentage of seats,” says E. Christopher Murray, an attorney with the New York law firm of Reisman, Peirez & Reisman, who knows what it’s like to be bumped from a flight.

A lot of bumping happens because airlines overbook, counting on some folks not making their flight. But when everyone does show up, it can be a turbulent time for passengers and airline personnel. Often the situation is resolved by people who voluntarily give up their seats in exchange for such incentives as a free ticket on a future flight.

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