American Airlines Bumps Passenger Off Flight, Agent Says They “Do Not Care About DOT Rules”

Michael Trager, who runs frequent traveler and casino loyalty site TravelZork, had one of the most interesting “bump” stories I’ve heard in a long time. He was involuntarily denied boarding on an American Airlines flight last week, and airport staff refused to provide him any compensation saying that they “do not care about DOT Rules.”

When you’re confirmed on a flight – boarding pass in hand, even – and the airline tells you they don’t have a seat available for you they are ‘bumping’ you off the trip. And when they aren’t offering you enough compensation to take another flight willingly, that’s an “involuntary denied boarding.” Under federal rules, an airline owes you cash. But what happens when they just tell you to pound sand?

The interesting wrinkle here is that Trager was confirmed onto the flight after first standing by for it.

He was issued a boarding pass. He boarded the aircraft and stowed his carry on bag. But that’s when he discovered there was already someone else at his seat.

He waited in the aircraft’s back galley while American sorted out the situation. The other passenger presented “an email on his phone that said his seat was changed” and it did not match his boarding pass.

The flight attendant’s tablet “showed [his] name for the specific seat” that matched his boarding pass, but he was ‘kicked off’ the aircraft.

Michael Trager relays that the gate agent, who identified themselves as a supervisor, said “We do this all day long.” They were unwilling to discuss compensation or treat him as though he’d been denied boarding. They simply said they shouldn’t have cleared him off of standby.

He says that “they refuse[d] to discuss further, say[ing] there is no further or higher management in terminal 8 at JFK.” He reports that he was yelled and screamed at even though by their own admission it was their error (this is, after all, New York). And he was told that they “do not care” about what Department of Transportation rules may apply. When he said that left him no avenue other than filing with DOT, he reports that they told him “You do what you have to do.”

So here’s what the Department of Transportation has to say about ‘bumping’ passengers.

First, if I’m right that this is an involuntary denied boarding then the amount of compensation due is based on how long the passenger is delayed. In this case it was over 2 hours (the next flight left 3.5 hours later), which would mean the airline owes him 400% of the cost of his one-way fare, not to exceed $1,550.

There are exceptions where an airline doesn’t owe compensation when they deny you boarding. However,

• There was no aircraft change or weight and balance issue. It was not a charter flight or plane with fewer than 30 passengers.
• In this case the denial was not “due to a safety, security, or health risk, or due to a behavior that is considered obscene, disruptive, or otherwise unlawful.”

Here it appears to me that American Airlines didn’t just fail to pay compensation required under federal regulations, they may have violated three other rules along the way as well.

1. They removed him from the aircraft after the gate agent accepted his boarding pass and let him know that he could proceed to board (the David Dao rule).

2. The passenger was not given a “written statement describing their rights and explaining how the carrier decides who gets bumped.”

3. And they were not paid promptly since “airlines must offer passengers compensation at the airport on the same day” and if this is impossible because the airline gets the passenger on their way too quickly, the the airline “must pay the passenger within 24 hours of the bumping incident.”

He waited out the delay until the 11:30 a.m. flight in the Greenwich lounge, the shared American Airlines-British Airways business class lounge in New York JFK terminal 8, by virtue of his partner airline elite status.

I suggested to him that he’d likely need to file a DOT consumer complaint and let them sort it out. Doing that gets more senior eyes on the issue at the airline.

However, I also reached out to American to learn more about the situation. I understand they looked into the matter, and American will be providing involuntary denied boarding compensation. They agree that having been issued the boarding pass, which they accepted for travel, means this falls under denied boarding rules.

That’s a great outcome. While it’s certainly my read of DOT regulations that he’s entitled to compensation, American might have responded that they’d simply made a brief error which they corrected. And he ultimately traveled on his originally-booked flight. DOT could be sympathetic to an airline making a mistake and “exercise enforcement discretion” (decide to ignore the rules) and not pressure the air carrier for compensation.

Regardless, this scenario fascinated me because it’s not how denied boardings usually unfold. And the passenger is going to receive compensation without having to go to the Department of Transportation (or wait).