Eli

A few years ago I was sitting in Newark waiting for my flight back to Pittsburgh. The next gate over had a gaggle of people who had been overbooked onto a flight to Richmond. (I'm guessing that Richmond is no farther from Newark than Pittsburgh is, so we're talking about a fairly short flight.) I got to listen to a series of announcements offering incentives for people who would voluntarily wait for the next flight (in about 3 hours): first a $200 voucher, then $250, then $300, and finally $400. (The tickets probably cost a third that.) There was a lot of grumpiness coming from over there, which I would have understood if it were the last flight of the day but not for something like this. I found myself hoping that *our* flight would turn out to be overbooked; I didn't have anywhere I needed to be in a hurry. But alas, our flight turned out to be normal (full but not over-full and under an hour late).

So why is it that if they kick you off of a flight becuase of overbooking they generally compensate you, but if they kick you off because they've cancelled the flight you're SOL? The latter happened to me last year coming back from a conference in Boston, and all they gave me was a phone card. Not even a coupon for dinner while I hung out for 3 hours. (Sadly, that time I *did* have somewhere I needed to be...)