What You Should Get If You Are Involuntarily Bumped Off Your Flight

The travel industry isn't going to advocate on your behalf when things go wrong during a trip, so it's incumbent upon you to learn the ins and outs and know your rights.  We're not always aware of what we are entitled to, so we often lose out.

For example what happens when you get bumped from a flight involuntarily?  One couple who wrote to travel ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine,  Christopher Elliott, were complaining about a problem they were having with Southwest Airlines.  Apparently, they were on their trip home from Fort Myers to Milwaukee when they were informed at the gate that the flight was overbooked. 

They had two options:

"take the next available flight" two days later, or "accept a refund of the cost of their return flight."
The family opted for the refund check in the amount of $1,387.20.  Problem is, the agent made a mistake in the amount written, and their bank refused the check because of the discrepancy.  For almost a year they have been trying to recoup the amount, to no avail.  They even contacted the Department of Transportation, but still did not receive the money owed. They finally contacted Elliott to troubleshoot on their behalf. So the family is out the $1,387.20 plus the amount they had to pay for four one-way tickets back to Milwaukee.

Elliott had some interesting information for all travelers, including the Milwaukee family of four: The Department of Transportation requires that airlines compensate travelers for involuntarily being bumped.  It's a federal regulation that passengers receive compensation for the value of the portion of the ticket in question. In fact, last year those amounts were increased:

The new rules also double the amount of money passengers are eligible to be compensated for in the event they are involuntarily bumped from an oversold flight. Previously, bumped passengers were entitled to cash compensation equal to the one-way value of their tickets, up to $400, if the airline was able to get them to their destination within a short period of time (within 1 to 2 hours of their originally scheduled arrival time for domestic flights and 1 to 4 hours for international flights). If they were delayed for a lengthy period of time (more than two hours after their originally scheduled arrival time for domestic flights and 4 hours for international flights), they were entitled to double the one-way price of their tickets, up to $800. Under the new rule, bumped passengers subject to short delays will receive compensation equal to double the one-way price of their tickets, up to $650, while those subject to longer delays would receive payments of four times the one-way value of their tickets, up to $1,300. Inflation adjustments will be made to those compensation limits every two years.

Elliott, managed to get Southwest to overnight the family their check for the $1,387.20 plus a $500.00 travel voucher.