How about this -- Delta ( or any other airlines ) starts paying us for flight delayed due to any other reason that weather !
I guess IF they have right to charge fees when we miss our flights by say few seconds ; However, they return us the favor ?
Sounds funny but I think this how we can fix these fees.

This is not a DL specific topic and therefore I am moving it over to TravelBuzz.

RSSrsvp - Moderator

I am sorry, but if you are going to fly you have to accept delays as part of the system. Now to be clear, I am not talking about keeping 47 people trapped on an RJ overnight or other such horrific situations.

Air delays are just as common place as traffic delays on the roads. If the delay is due to something within the airlines's control (mechnical, crew availaiblity) they owe you certain compensation. If the delays is sufficient enough but do not require being stuck overnight, gate personnel should hand out food vouchers. If they don't, ask for one.

Even so, the CO incident to which you refer was a weather-related delay, and would be exempted under the OP's proposal.

The airlines will fight tooth and nail against such an arrangement being enshrined as a legal right and even then many of them would still do what they could to evade their obligations in this regard.

The thing to realize about compensation or free blankets or free scotch or anything else is this: There isn't some great pot of money lying around at an airline that they can use for stuff like this.

If an airline had to compensate passengers there would be only one way they could fund it: By raising fares - And that would impact you and me.

What I would much prefer would be a clear mechanism whereby passengers could buy insurance options at the time of ticket purchase that would cover them for the duration of their itinerary. The insurance would provide compensation due to delay or would get you on another carrier (if available) if you're delayed more than X hours or whatever.

Such compensation DOES already in fact exist within the european union, and some airlines here in the states, (B6 comes to mind) are starting to adopt such policies. You can view Jetblue's generous customer bill of rights/reimbursement information at the following link: http://www.jetblue.com/about/ourcomp...ise/index.html

supposedly, there's provisions within the DOT for compensation if flights are delayed for more than 4 hours and an ancient rule which i will not elaborate on.

That rules forces airlines to put you on next available flight on any airline but the younger employees may not be aware of. Many legacy carriers do honour that rule.

I don't believe that airfares will rise for such incidents as airlines already calculate such provisions into flights and thats why flights intra-usa are often oversold by huge amounts and inflight offerings and lounge amenities are often lacking in US. I am aware that the airlines like to use weather to circumvent DOT rules sometimes on compensation. The DOT rules are there to ensure airlines fulfil their obligations.

As a TSA agent tells me once: "This is not xxxx, this is the USA and we do things the way we deem fit."