New forum (?): Rights, responsibility and dispute resolution

[flyaway101]

I have been a fan of FlyerTalk for a few years. I have enjoyed (and
benefited from) the community resources that it provides through its
various forums. A big chunk of the FlyerTalk forums deals with flying and
related issues, and I propose creating a new forum, on passenger/airline rights, responsibility and dispute resolution mehchanisms, whose scope is likely to span a number of airlines and relevant to (non US) flyers as well.

Topics of interest for the new forum include:
DOTs rules on strengthening/clarifying flier's rights; Montreal
convention, EU 261/2004, FlightRights Canada(?), and others; Compensation
rules and regulations - delay, cancellation, baggage etc; IATA's spin of
airline industry and how it helps/hurts passengers; Customer tips on how
to go after airlines for service deficiencies - filing a case against
airline W of country X in country Y under rule Z; court cases won and
lost; (federal/state/country) (preferred) venue for court action if many
options exist. I suspect 'airline specific' rules on customer service,
compensation etc may not be candidates for this forum, unless they can be
generalized to many airlines and/or have legal basis.

Why a new forum, and will there be audience? Don't have a crystal ball,
but as another poster said, "if you build it, they will come" argument is
not a good reason to create a new one. While there may be some truth to
the argument that US regulations on these issues are 'less prescriptive'
than European or other countries, I don't think these are non issues or
trivial by any means. Baggage delay/loss, flight reroutes and
bump/cancel/delay issues are real. If any of it happens, I - and
hopefully, other FT readers -- turn to FT for insight. (For example, do I
know what regulation 14 C.F.R. 254.4 is? What if airline bumps me
involuntarily w/o asking for volunteers first?) Hence this idea.

I used the search tool to see if this idea was floated around before or
can be accommodated in other forums. Either I could not find much in one
forum or it's found in (airline) forum X, but the issue has relevance to
airline Y's forum too. Hopefully, it can help reduce cross-posting and streamline FT traffic.

Enough said, it's time to bury the idea or brainstorm. Thanks

[bhatnasx]

I know that TravelBuzz accomodates most of the things you're talking about - and it may be better to have a sticky thread or maybe create a reference thread in TravelBuzz before starting a new forum for this idea.

I see how there could be a use for it, and as it's a very specialized forum idea, I'm not initially opposed to it - but it could end up being one a forum where people just complain about their experiences when those compliants should belong in the respective airline/hotel/car fora.

Not opposed, just need more development & support, I think...

[Jasper2009]

While I´m personally pretty interested in the topics you mentioned and would argue I know quite a bit about some of the mentioned topics, I see some potential problems:

1) there´s likely to be a huge imbalance between posters seeking help and FTers being able to help

2) I´mnot sure whether it would be a good idea having posters come to FT to seek legal advice and receiving answers/advice from other FTers who aren´t lawyers (I doubt there are more than a dozen lawyers on FT who specialize in passenger rights / compensation etc., compared to 200k FTers in total I think we´d be creating a forum where noone is an expert; unlike some airline forums where some FTers know more than many travel agents/airline employees)

I´m not sure whether any legal restrictions apply to FT, but there are some countries where giving legal advive without being a lawyer is illegal, so this may be another consideration.

3) In most cases it would be the best idea to post in the respective airline forum for two reasons:
a) more traffic
b) the airline´s policies on compensation / other FTer´s experience is much more relevant than the int´l conventions, regulations which may exist, but are most often ignored / interpreted differently by each airline

For instance, there are several threads in the LH forum with regards to EU reg. 261/2004 and - despite the LH having a pretty large number of experienced/knowlegdable FTers - there´s a lot of misinformation, off-topic discussion etc. in those threads. IMO the biggest problem is that there is no definite answer to most questions regarding compensation.

[jackal]

I think Jasper2009 has made some good points.

Perhaps if you can identify some lawyers on FT who specialize in this area and get them to agree to make a concerted effort to provide some (limited) assistance in the forum, maybe there would be a place for it. Otherwise, I don't know that there would be enough traffic to make it a self-sustaining thing, and the current problems with this kind of thing in the LH forum that Jasper2009 outlines would just be transferred to the new forum.

That said, I am, like bhatnasx, not entirely opposed to the idea.

[flyaway101]

FT resources are certainly not a subsitute for well reasoned legal opinion on one's specific situation; just like anything else, standard disclaimers should kick in for all opinions here.

The apparent disconnect b/w the underlying regulations and airline policies is what prompted me to propose the instant forum. Some FTers have explored such disconnects in providing persuasive compensation arguments that other FTers can learn from. I am with Jasper2009 that there may not be a definite answer to most questions on compensation, but some - for example, EU 261 are more well settled than others. I am sure there are other examples.

The LH type discussion that Jasper2009/jackal note is (, in my view,) replicated in other airline forums too, BA, UA, US etc. One way to reduce the multiple instances of similar discussions is to consolidate them somewhere (in the proposed forum?), and moderators may use their magic wand to direct traffic should such discussions pop up elsewhere. As bhatnasx notes, a sticky thread will be a good start - and am betting sticky can help reduce unwanted clutter.

[skywalkerLAX]

I dont need to see the point of real legal advise here. There are way too many lawyers in this world already, most of the time it is more than enough to send a registered letter to the airline, complain to the DOT (even online) and in rare cases use services like the small claims court. In 95% of these cases they will budge with yourself having only a minimum of effort and expense.

I like the idea of such a forum, be it just that some people get an impression of what arguments to include in such letters.

~s