A Democratic senator wants to remove the limits on what airlines can offer passengers to bump them from a plane once seated and make it illegal for customers to be kicked off a flight after they’ve been seated, unless there’s a public safety threat.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said on CNN Thursday it’s wrong for customers to get on a plane, get seated and think they’re good to go only to be kicked off the flight because it is overbooked or an airline employee needs a seat. The latter example is what happened to a Louisville-area doctor this week on a United Airlines flight, ginning up a public relations nightmare for the company.
“Airlines, even after you’re boarded and got in your seat and are ready to go, have the legal right to forcibly take you off the airplane if they’ve overbooked or something else,” he said.
“My view is once you’re on the airplane they don’t have a legal right to forcibly take you off.”
Van Hollen announced he would introduce the Customers, Not Cargo Act in order to encode those changes into law.
The bill would remove limits on how much airlines can offer a passenger to give up their seat once they’re already on the plane. Right now, that amount is capped at $1,350.
Van Hollen said if those limits are removed, then the market will win out and eventually someone will give up their seat in order to take the money.
“There is a price at which you’re going to get people to volunteer to come off that airplane, and that’s what they should do,” he said.
