<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by flyrights:
The Contract of Carriage you refer to, I believe includes verbiage from the 1920's "Warsaw Convention", which might be due for another update, (I think the last update was in the mid 50's). It NEVER addressed pecking order to reaccomodate distressed passengers. Also, I know of no airlines whose contract of carriage states anything close to "We reserve the right to reaccomodate in the pecking order we determine". The language just isn't there. Regarding "force majeure" events, that verbiage ALSO doesn't address pecking order to reaccomodate. I'm aware that airlines have very little obligation to do much... but they STILL DON'T address the issue of the pecking order, or of DISCLOSING the pecking order. All of these legal subjects/documents are SILENT on pecking order. Also, "you will be rerouted on the next available flight" STILL doesn't address the pecking order. So the airlines are free to make it up as they go along. I suppose it can vary from gate to gate, airline to airline. There is NO uniform policy, no LAWS regulating or even requiring disclosure. This is what is wrong.
Jim</font>
1920 Warsaw convention, huh. Funny that I didn't see anything about Warsaw convention in the entire Condition of Carriage.
In any case, the plain english of "available seats" seem to be too confusing for you.
Have you heard of this thing called "fare class"? Just because there's an empty seat on an airplane doesn't make it available to you if your ticket is in the wrong fare class.
A frequent traveler such as yourself should understand such basics, unless you're simply putting on blinders in an effort to provoke a response.
[This message has been edited by Plato90s (edited 07-11-2002).]