Who gets the Compensation payment?
 

This isn't strictly BA-related, so if any Mods want to move it, please feel free to move it.

If a passenger is bumped or downgraded, then compensation is payable. However, does the compensation get paid to the passenger, or the person paying for the ticket. eg, if my company bought my tickets through an agent, does the compensation get paid to me?

The reason I'm asking is because some friends were re-locating over Christmas and their plane went tech, it was substituted for a smaller aircraft and they were encouraged (but refused) to fly in economy. They took the next day's flight, travelling in business. If they got $2,000 for the inconvenience, then they might have been more willing to travel in Y, but if the company got the $2,000 then they probably did the "right" thing.

Comp would be given directly to pax.

Was this on BA?

No it wasn't (which is partly why I was so reticent about posting here). It was on an American *A carrier.

I've taken the compensation as it was given directly to me. I justify this to mysellf since I'm the one being inconvenienced and it hasn't cost my company anymore than they were willing to pay had there not been a problem. Some people's moral compass may point in a different direction.

If you get the miles, you get the compensation voucher.

Does it not revolve around whether the company incurs additional expenses because of the delay? If it does then surely the compensation belongs to them?

Once while abroad I took a short flight at the weekend to see another city for my own pleasure. The return flight was delayed by fog and I missed my return flight back to the UK. Although it was my 'fault' I expected the company to meet all the additional hotel, subsistence and travel expenses as I was abroad on work business. They did and that was fine, but had I received cash compensation that would have belonged to the employer, not me.

Any fare difference goes to whoever paid for the ticket. Compensation goes to the passenger.

Perhaps yes. (hence my justification included the company not being out of pocket) The 3 times I remember something like this happening I was the one inconvenienced and there was no additional cost incurred.

In one case I did feel a little guilty though ;-) Going BOS-LHR my wife (same flight, different PNR) was offered $500 compensation to fly the next day. I volunteered too (because of status I hadn't been offered it) so we got $1,000 to stay in our apartment an extra night before going back to the UK for a holiday.

Moved from BA Forum as the question appears to be about general compensation for delay/downgrade.

(Temporarily at MilesBuzz due to my error: apologies for this, this will be moved to an appropriate from by the MilesBuzz moderators.

LTN Phobia
Moderator: BA Forum)

This sounds correct, it was the passanger inconvienced. ^

This isn't a question of what "ought" to be and cannot be answered for all situations. The issue is not who physically receives the compensation, because that is almost always the pax, not the payor (most usually the employer), but who is to receive it ultimately.

Some forms of compensation such as a hotel room or meal vouchers, are a net zero to the employer which would have had to pay for its employee's additional expenses. But, the bigger issue is what happens to IDB / VDB compensation when it delays the employee and there may be additional direct or indirect costs to the employer.

This is a matter of employer's policy. Most leave it alone, figuring that it's neither frequent not very fair given that it's generally an annoyance and inconvenience suffered by the employee. But, the answer would all depend on what the policy is, if there is one.

The bigger question is whether cash compensation as in an IDB is taxable income. Now that it maxes out at $1,300, this is not chump change and for a person who is IDB a couple of times in a year, this can amount to a serious cash deposit.

The compensation will be given to the passenger.

The company travel policy however may require it be returned to them, so check and see if it's an issue there or not. Just because the airline hands you the money doesn't mean your company still won't want it back.

My employer's policy is that each employee's manager decides on a case-by-case basis, although I have never once seen a manager request the employee turn over the compensation. I believe this was done more to ferret out those who try to churn IDB/VDB to the point that it interferes with work duties. I do know a couple guys who've been booked to fly home Thursday midday and spent the entire day and all of Friday riding the VDB train, basically missing a whole day's work but still on the company clock, and once they knew the boss is watching, they cut it out. Whenever our itinerary changes, the corp travel desk emails the manager, and while it sounds very big-brotherish, it usually works in my favor: once my manager called me when I was stuck in DEN on my 3rd or 4th weather cancellation, asked if I was OK, and when I told him that the only hotel the travel desk could find was $800, he told me to take a lot of pictures of the room to share, because our employees don't sleep in airports (his words). Since I was still a newbie, I never would have had the courage to ask him to approve that charge so it was very good that he called.

This is an interesting question. Let's say my flight was canceled, so they offer to bump me to first class on the next, later flight. I would have no qualms with this and may not even TELL my employer (not because I'm being sneaky, but because it just might not occur to me). But what if they offer $1000, which (let's say) was the fare difference between Y and F? In both cases the airline is 'compensating' me for my inconvenience. I still don't think I'd be bothered taking the cash, because it's my inconvenience (the company wasn't camping out at the airport waiting for a flight).

But if I was originally booked in F (through the company) and then got canceled/bumped into Y, in that case I would not "keep" the fare difference. If I have to change flights, my company pays any fare increase, so they should benefit if there is any decrease as well. But I think fare changes are different from compensation, which is essentially offered by the airline as an inducement.

IN a sense this is not much different from the 'who owns miles?' questions that crop up from time to time.

All discussed elsewhere and I think that it's clear that in the case of an employer-paid ticket, the miles, compensation and everything else are the employer's if the employer wants them.

The new twist is that with the new IDB rules, there may be substantial value to compensation and that may be, if retained by the employee on an employer-paid ticket, be taxable income in the USA.