Peter recently chatted with George Hobica, founder of AirfareWatchdog.com, about the proposed Department of Transportation rule that would increase the payment for bumped passengers.
Is the DOT coming to the rescue, or are we still facing a summer of air travel nightmares?
Peter Greenberg: This summer, every single plane you get on is going to be full, which means a lot of people are going to be bumped.
If you’re a passenger, the bad news is you’re going to be stuck in the center seat between two sumo wrestlers. You’re also going to be paying a much higher fare than before because there will be fewer planes, fewer flights and fewer available seats. The airlines have figured out the only way to make money is to shrink capacity and hope that the law of supply and demand kicks in, regardless of where fuel prices go. But that means the airlines will be bumping more passengers. Does that mean the DOT is coming to the rescue?
George Hobica: They’re definitely trying to by increasing the cash compensation due to passengers who are bumped. But so what if they double it? Your vacation is still ruined. You’re not likely to get on another plane that day, so I think people really need to think about travel insurance. There are ways to prevent getting bumped: for example, show up at the airport really early. We’re talking three, even four hours early. If your flight is canceled or oversold, they may be able to put you on an earlier flight.
PG: That’s good advice. The all-time advice is to fly the first flight of the day.
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GH: That’s right. It’s not usually going to be delayed because of the cascade effect. Another tip is that if JetBlue flies to your destination, fly with them because they have a policy of not overbooking flights. I don’t know how they get away with it and other airlines can’t …
PG: Airlines that traditionally book business travelers love to overbook because business travelers love to multiple book. They claim that airlines with business travelers deal with a 20 percent no-show factor, so they overbook by 30 percent and roll the dice. JetBlue doesn’t do that. But you know who does a lot of overbooking and is one of the biggest culprits? Southwest.
GH: Maybe we should penalize business travelers who book multiple tickets. Why not penalize those passengers instead of the ones who follow the rules and get bumped?
PG: Some airlines like American Airlines have computer programs that can detect multiple bookings if any flight matches—not just all the itineraries—but if just one flight on the itinerary, and they’ll automatically cancel one of them.
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GH: That’s a good idea, but last year, one in every 763 passengers was bumped, which seems like pretty bad odds.
PG: I’ll share this: If you’re on a plane or at the gate and they ask for volunteers to give up their seats, don’t get up. The original offer will be a low offer. If nobody stands up, they’ll up the ante. If still no one stands up, they’ll up the ante again. I was on a flight where the offer went from a $300 to a $1,600 ticket voucher. By the time I tried to stand up, I got trampled. If you’ve got some flexibility, you want to jump on that. The bottom line is, the airlines are going to take at least three years to recover from the worst recession in six decades. In the last 10 years, the airline industry has lost $50 billion. That’s the bad news for the airline industry; the bad news for us is this is the summer when they’re going to try to play catch up in the biggest way.
Got bumped? What to Do When Things Go Wrong When Traveling.
GH: The passengers are going to suffer. The problem is even if you get paid $1,200 for being bumped, you still may not get out that day, or even that week, because the planes are so full. And the important thing to remember is if the airline tries to give you a voucher, don’t do that; take the cash.
By Peter Greenberg for Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio.
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