Continental Air picked the wrong guy to bump: an aviation lawyer who SUED

[pnwmom]

them and won.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/2005/11/22/when-an-aviation-lawyer-gets-bumped-the-airline-pays/3dfbab29-e0b0-4f42-a934-1fac95510429/?utm_term=.d5b43672ba4a

Thatcher A. Stone is the kind of passenger no airline wants to tick off.

After Continental Airlines bumped Stone and his daughter from a flight last Christmas, Stone sued and took the airline to small claims court in New York.

He sent Continental two complaint letters, hoping to get some financial compensation. But he was rebuffed. So Stone sued, saying the airline had breached its contract with him and committed fraud. On Nov. 10, the court sided with Stone and awarded $3,100 in damages.

"They were betting that Thatcher Stone was some ignorant [jerk] who didn't know how to get money out of Continental," he said. "They picked the wrong guy."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/11/opinions/i-got-bumped-from-a-flight-then-i-sued-opinion-stone/

Americans have been consumed with the story of the United Airlines passenger dragged off a flight after he was bumped -- and refused to leave. It's always a mistake to ignore the instructions of the flight crew. But United needs to rethink the way it handled this case.

As an aviation lawyer, I have a professional interest in the issue of bumping passengers off flights. But I also have a personal one.
When my then 13-year-old daughter and I, heading to Colorado for a ski trip, were bumped by an airline in 2004, we sued.

The airline had failed to pay us the right amount of money and had not given us written instructions. We lost our hotel deposit and we didn't get our luggage back for four days. We won the case -- and $3,100 from Continental Airlines -- and I was on every major TV network.

Then, as now, people were just fed up with the airlines, but if you misbehave, the airlines are fed up with you.

[KT2000]

1. United's policy

for bumping is mostly based on how much money a person spends on airlines. Why is it not based on the inconvenience posed to the customer? The person bumped may lose a lot of money - such as a doctor in private practice who would have to reschedule about 20 patients, reschedule some of their tests and possibly surgeries, close the office for a day and staff would lose pay, etc.

When most people screw up in their business they have to take the hit - but not the airlines. They apparently are going to insist their customers take the loss instead of them.