Originally Posted by
Often1
This thread is full of terrible advice. And the conclusions are simply wrong.
The flight was served by a CRJ-200 with 50 passenger seats. DOT IDB rules exempt flights served by aircraft with less than 60 seats. Thus, while OP was likely involuntarily denied boarding, he is due $0 compensation.
OP should nonetheless file a short & sweet complaint with UA noting that he was at the gate with a valid BP at T-21 and that he was denied boarding. Let UA sort it out. UA will explain why the flight is exempt, but will likely toss some miles as a customer service gesture.
The DOT complaint is, of course, a waste, because there was no DOT violation.
Are you certain that there is a blanket IDB exemption for all aircraft with less than 60 seats? I thought that exemption only applied to W&B issues, which would not apply here as the flight did in fact fly full.
Even if this is the case, then I personally think a DOT complaint is warranted to show why such a blanket exemption needs to be reconsidered, especially given the shift toward smaller aircraft among the majors.