One of the hardest things to deal with is air travel — or at least, it feels that way from time to time. If you’re trying to deal with everything that goes with traveling, then you have probably come up against every type of anxiety-inducing situation that you can imagine.
When you get denied for boarding a plane, it can be embarrassing and frustrating to try and work out. The process of getting compensated for such a thing can take a bit of time and effort, but there it is worth it. Let’s take a deeper look into denied boarding, why it happens, and how to work out the details around it.
Why Were You Denied?
Before we can start talking about declined boarding passenger rights, it’s important to consider why you were denied in the first place. There are a lot of reasons why someone may be denied the ability to get onto an airplane, so you need to take a good look at that first.
Involuntary boarding denial is defined as an air carrier refusing to put you on your flight even though the following things are true:
- You do not pose any sort of public health threat to other passengers or flight employees.
- You are not a security risk for any reason.
- You are not going to cause any sort of safety risk to other passengers or flight employees.
- You have a confirmed reservation for the flight in question.
- You have all of the documentation necessary in order to continue and complete the trip you’re taking.
- You have given yourself enough time to check-in, be checked by security, and to sort out boarding procedures.
If you were denied boarding after all of this, then it’s involuntary. Obviously, if all of the above things are not true, you will not have as many rights as you would have.
Why would you get an involuntary removal? The most common reason is because a flight was overbooked. They will ask for volunteers first (who usually get their own form of compensation for volunteering) and then, if they are still overbooked, they will involuntarily deny boarding to some individuals.
Were You Offered Another Flight?
One of the most essential declined boarding passenger rights is being offered another flight to the destination that you were going to. A re-route is a part of the standard protocol, and it allows you to get where you need to go, albeit a little later than you may have expected to in the first place.
If that other flight is not within a certain period of time, you can also request that you get a refund of the ticket in question. If it’s a layover spot, you also can request that you get a return ticket to the place that you departed from originally. In short, the airline cannot — and should not — leave you stranded at the airport you are waiting at.
What Other Compensation Should You Get?
There are a lot of different options when it comes to compensation for denied boarding, when you’re looking at what needs to happen beyond a simple airplane ticket. What other types of compensation can you look for?
In some instances, you may be able to be compensated a particular dollar amount. This is based on where you tried to board, why you were denied (as mentioned above) and how far you were traveling. While this doesn’t always apply, it can if it was a major inconvenience to you.
Other forms of compensation can include free meals, free transportation to and from the airport, complementary nights at a nearby hotel until you can get another flight, and more. In short, they should be paying for anything that you would have to pay for due to being stuck in that location.
You may have to do some legwork in order to make sure that you get that compensation as soon as possible, but it’s worth it as you could be in line to receive up to €600 or $400.
What if I Don’t Get Compensated?
The best option here is to ask experts. AirAdvisor is a good example of such a company that works directly with people in order to make sure that they get the compensation for denied boarding that they need and deserve. It can be hard to work out the details around this sort of situation, but with the right people, you can be sure that you have the best resources and can work things out properly.
Denied boarding can be a really tough situation, so you want to be certain that you do your best to get the help that you need. You deserve to be treated well, and these airlines have an obligation to you when you use their services. If you need help with getting compensation, you want to find what’s available and go from there.
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