Passenger Rights on a Bumped Flight; Up to $1300 in Compensation

Last week a new rule was passed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, which outlines major improvements for airline passengers. Bloomberg featured a quick story on the rule changes. The major game changer I see is the compensation passengers are supposed to be given upon being bumped from a domestic flight.

– $1,300 ($800 previously) per passenger if you arrive at your departure greater than 2 hours late
– $650 ($400 previously) per passenger in you arrive within 2 hours

I bring this up because this is excellent information to have in the back of your head when traveling. Looking back on our trip last Thanksgiving, we were notified by the airline the night before that they wanted to bump us to another flight. We agreed and both my wife and I accepted $200 vouchers. The reason at the time that I did not try to get more vouchers was because we arrived and departed at the same days and times, but directly to Orlando (MCO) airport, whereas we were previously going to have to fly into Tampa and drive to Orlando. I felt it was a win-win situation for both of us.

If I had this information handy though, maybe I could have easily received $400 each at the time, especially considering it was a busy holiday weekend. Oh well, lesson learned. Maybe I need to start looking into buying some overbooked flights just for the opportunity to get bumped.