An angry passenger–who happens to be a lawyer as well–has recently gone viral following a video of him refusing to leave a plane on which he had a double-booked reservation. The incident happened following an Avianca flight from Los Angeles, USA, to Bogotá, Colombia.
"Don't be disrespectful. Is my money worthless?" the unnamed flyer stated during the hour-long standoff with airline representatives.
The passenger said, "Don't give me bad options; I must get there. I'm a lawyer; you should respect me."
"The Flight Was Oversold"
According to reports by Colombian media (via the New York Post), the passenger claimed to have purchased his ticket three months in advance, but flight attendants told him the trip was oversold.
Moreover, the flight attendants claimed no seats left, so they instructed him to get off the plane, but the lawyer-passenger refused. In one of the videos, the passenger is increasingly agitated over his perceived unfair treatment.
"I paid for it, and they deducted it from my card. You haven't given me anything; it wasn't a favour! It seems disrespectful to me that you would sell something you don't have," the passenger said.
Despite the employees' threats to contact the police, the passenger stood his ground and hoped that a representative from the local prosecutor's office would pay a visit so that he could file a report.
"You can't be playing with people's plans," the passenger later stated before leaving the plane of his own volition and considering it with other passengers. He received a round of applause from the flight's passengers afterwards.
While the passenger left the flight later on his own, the airline ought to have provided the affected passenger with a different means of getting to their destination on the same day and by the same route.
What To Do When A Flight Is Oversold?
Generally speaking, when you are denied boarding a flight due to overbooking done by an airline, there is a higher chance that you will get a refund.
The United States Department of Transportation notes that when oversells result in a passenger being denied boarding without their consent, they are entitled to compensation based on the cost of their ticket, the time it takes them to reach their destination after being denied boarding, and whether or not their flight is domestic or international.
In the US, passengers who experience brief delays due to being bumped off a flight are compensated with twice the one-way cost of the original ticket. However, airlines have the right to cap this amount at $775, with a maximum cap of $1,550. On the other hand, passengers who face extended delays are entitled to four times the one-way value of the ticket they were bumped from.
Meanwhile, passengers who experience extended flight delays will be compensated four times the one-way value of the ticket from which they are bumped.
Meanwhile, In Europe, passengers are entitled to flight compensation of up to £520 per passenger in the event of denied boarding due to oversales by the airlines. By Regulation EC 261/2004, passengers can be entitled to flight compensation if they were denied boarding due to overbooking.
It's important to note that the European flight compensation of up to £ 520 per passenger applies if the flight was operated by a European airline, departing from Europe, and the passenger was offered a replacement flight that arrived more than 2 hours later at the destination. These conditions must be met for a passenger to be entitled to flight compensation under Regulation EC 261/2004.
