Celeste

My daughter and I are flying from Orlando to Frankfurt on April 26th, and then returning from Athens to Orlando on May 13. I have been rewarded with several Delta vouchers lately due to voluntary bumps but this time it's a special trip and want to get there! Delta has already admitted to me that all four of our flights are overbooked. What rights do we have (Rule of ? that the airlines use?) if we are involuntarily booked? I printed out a list of all other flights going to Frankfurt from Orlando at the same time or later, and there are quite a few. I insisted on paper tickets, but can someone please tell me my actual RIGHTS, what I should reasonably expect? Thanks!

Art

Celeste, the best way to insure your seat(s) is to get there early. The late arrivals are the ones that get bumped. <BR>

Tim

You should be okay. You mentioned that you often volunteer to get bumped--I'm sure there will be many people on your flights willing to do the same. The only time an airline involuntarily bumps passengers is if they do not have enough volunteers. I've been on flights where they've upped the offers until enough people volunteer to go on the next flight.

kkam

The last time we were "offered" a voluntary bumping it was business class to Paris from SF with an arrival about 6 hours later than our original flight. It was very tempting, but we had a connection to Toulouse and friends waiting for us. I'm sure there will be lots of volunteers for bumping on these flights as well as the "no shows" which cause the airlines to overbook. Wouldn't be too concerned, but yes, do get there early--two hours ahead to be safe.

Christina

Do you have seat assignments? I just wondered how this overbooking works if you have seat assignments as I didn't think they could assign two people the same seat, but perhaps I'm wrong (I thought you were safe if you had a seat assignment). I know if you buy a ticket too late they sometimes won't assign you a seat, telling you you will get it at the airport and I assume those are the people getting bumped? I don't know, but I think your rights are they bump by priority, so if you check-in early, you should be fairly safe. First, they have to ask for volunteers and then if they don't have enough, they bump by class/checkin time (ie, a first-class passenger can bump the last checked-in coach, I think). I think they are only required to confirm you on the next flight with space available (even if that space is a higher class), and I think there are dollar payments if that flight is a certain lengthy time after your original schedule, but I don't know details. I also think they may be required to confirm you on another carrier's flight if there is one earlier than they offer you, but they may not volunteer that info (ie, if they offer you a confirmed seat on their next flight 8 hours later and another carrier has an empty seat only 3 hours later, I think you have the right for them to transfer you to that carrier, but I'm not real sure). I think different airlines have their own rules about how they treat people without purchased tickets (ie, frequent flyers, vouchers, etc) and they may not have the right to be transferred to another carrier, I'm not sure. You can probably find your specific rights on the Delta web site, I would hope so, but I've never looked.

Mari

Re the assigning two people the same seat - I don't think it is supposed to happen, and I can't see how it should be able to happen - but it did happen to me last summer, on a flight from Montreal to Paris (Air Canada, not Delta). Not only were we both assigned the same seat when we booked our flights, but they also issued boarding passes for each of us for the same seat. This was detected only at the gate, during boarding - the man "sharing my seat" was right in front of me in line, oddly enough, which meant that the staff immediately noticed the problem when I handed them my boarding pass. Luckily, although the flight was almost full, it was not completely full and the man who had the boarding pass for the same seat as mine - which was next to my husband - was assigned another seat which he graciously accepted. Although the incident worked out fine, the experience gave me the heebie-jeebies, because I am a neurotic flier and am extremely particular about where I sit (I will only sit in a window seat, with my husband seated next to me, and have been known to book a different flight, even if it is less convenient or more expensive, in order to book seats in this configuration).