Plane Passenger ‘Shaken’ By 2-Day Ordeal at Airport: ‘Lesson Learned’

A mother traveling with her family says she was left “shaken” after the flight was oversold, splitting her from her husband, children and mother during a chaotic, two-day effort to get home.

The traveler and original poster (OP), user kidolmeca, recounted the incident on Reddit, explaining that she and her husband, who holds Gold status with American Airlines, purchased five main economy tickets from Huatulco, Mexico, to San Francisco via Dallas.

Despite repeated assurances from the airline that the flight was not oversold, the family was told at the airport that four of their five seats were gone.

“I am still shaking from this incident and my confidence in American Airlines has been completely shattered,” she wrote.

According to her account, the family was unable to select seats online for the first leg from Huatulco to Dallas and was told to check in at the airport.

But when they arrived three hours before departure, a gate agent informed them that all but one of their seats had been oversold.

The family was then told no compensation or rebooking could be arranged until 10 minutes before departure.

As they waited at the gate, the OP said she heard agents offering passengers $200, then $550, to give up seats voluntarily.

Eventually, four seats were found for her husband, children and mother. She chose to remain behind so the rest of her family could return home.

She said she was initially told the next available American Airlines flight was five days away and that she could not be placed on another carrier.

After further waiting, she was given paperwork for a three-leg Aeromexico itinerary the following day and escorted through customs with what she described as a passenger itinerary but not a confirmed ticket.

She also received a $550 American Airlines voucher.

Is Overselling Flights Illegal?

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) states that bumping, or “denied boarding,” occurs when “there are more passengers scheduled to fly on an airplane than available seats,” and that the practice of overselling flights “is not illegal.”

The agency adds, “Those travelers who don’t get to fly are frequently entitled to denied boarding compensation in the form of a check or cash.”

Erika Kullberg, a U.S.-based attorney and personal finance expert, told Newsweek that passengers should be paid promptly in eligible cases.

Compensation

“Airlines need to pay you compensation at the airport on the same day,” she said. “If the airline books you on another flight so you [have to] leave the airport before you can get paid, then the airline needs to pay you within 24 hours from the time they bumped you.”

Under DOT rules, passengers departing from a foreign location on an international flight to the United States are not always entitled to the same compensation protections as those leaving a U.S. airport.

‘Lesson learned’

In an update, the OP revealed that she made it back to San Francisco after flying Aeromexico for two legs and then purchasing a separate Southwest ticket for the final segment after another oversold flight.

“Lesson learned not to fly American again, their gold status is not worth much,” she wrote, adding that she plans to file a complaint with the DOT.

Newsweek has reached out to kidolmeca and American Airlines for comment via Reddit. We could not verify the details of the case.

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