Another way in which Airlines are Evil
So, I got around to reading Delta's contract of carriage today. In case you were not aware, the airlines have a ridiculous amount of control over their passengers. If you read through the fine print and make it to page 48, there is some interesting information in here.
Commercial flights are extra full these days. The past two weeks, I've been on 8 flights that were 100% booked. This holiday season will probably be the worst since 2000. So it's in your best interest to read through this junk for whatever airline you're flying to see all the rights you don't have. There is one key right you do have, that most people don't even know about.
When a flight is overbooked, don't be so fast to "volunteer" to give up your seat for an "airline voucher" good for future travel. These vouchers are full of fine print and often difficult to redeem. If the airline doesn't get any volunteers though, and they have to "involuntarily deny boarding" to passengers, those passengers get CASH, in addition to getting put on the next flight. In the case of Delta, they'll pay you cash equal to the value of your remaining flight segments, and in some cases they'll pay you twice that much. Again, this is all spelled out in the contract of carriage that each airline maintains.
Of course, the airlines ask for volunteers first because they don't like to pay out cash, and the average voucher redemption rate is around 10%.
Commercial flights are extra full these days. The past two weeks, I've been on 8 flights that were 100% booked. This holiday season will probably be the worst since 2000. So it's in your best interest to read through this junk for whatever airline you're flying to see all the rights you don't have. There is one key right you do have, that most people don't even know about.
When a flight is overbooked, don't be so fast to "volunteer" to give up your seat for an "airline voucher" good for future travel. These vouchers are full of fine print and often difficult to redeem. If the airline doesn't get any volunteers though, and they have to "involuntarily deny boarding" to passengers, those passengers get CASH, in addition to getting put on the next flight. In the case of Delta, they'll pay you cash equal to the value of your remaining flight segments, and in some cases they'll pay you twice that much. Again, this is all spelled out in the contract of carriage that each airline maintains.
Of course, the airlines ask for volunteers first because they don't like to pay out cash, and the average voucher redemption rate is around 10%.
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