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Road life

He didn't take no for an answer

By STEVE HEUTTEL
Published December 7, 2005

When Continental Airlines bumped Thatcher A. Stone and his daughter off a flight last Christmas Day, he bumped back.

This wasn't a minor inconvenience. Their ski trip was ruined because Continental couldn't get them on another flight to Colorado for six days, Stone says, and the airline refused to compensate him for lost deposits on a ski lodge and other expenses.

So, he sued in small claims court in New York City. Last month, a judge awarded Stone $3,110 for his expenses and inconvenience.

"Continental was just trying to be jerks," said Stone, an aviation lawyer from New York. "They thought they could get away with it, but they got the wrong guy."

As any frequent flier knows, it's common for airlines to bump ticketed passengers shortly before a plane departs. Carriers routinely sell more tickets than seats on flights because so many customers don't make it to the gate on time, if at all.

Usually, they can persuade enough passengers to give up their seats by offering a reward like a free roundtrip domestic ticket and a later flight.

When that doesn't work, airlines can involuntarily deny customers a seat. That means the carrier must find the passenger another flight within two hours or pay $400 and, of course, refund the original ticket.

Passengers don't have to accept that offer. And Stone says he wasn't about to after weeks of battling with Continental.

It all started when he and his 13-year-old daughter checked their bags at Newark (N.J.) Liberty International Airport Christmas Day to start their annual weeklong ski vacation in Telluride, Colo.

At the gate, a Continental agent told Stone they'd been bumped from the oversold flight. He asked to get their luggage - containing all their winter clothes - off the plane, but the airline refused, he says. It took four days to get the bags back.

A Continental agent testified in court that Stone was offered an alternate flight "two or more days later," according to the judge's order. He insists the first flight available was on New Year's Eve - the day before their scheduled return.

Continental refunded the $2,000 tickets at the airport. But Stone wanted the airline to reimburse him $1,360 lost on prepaid costs, including ski lodge accommodations, lift tickets and his daughter's equipment rentals.

He wrote twice and sued for breach of contract when Continental refused his demands. On Nov. 10, civil court Judge Diane Lebedeff ruled that Stone was entitled to damages and awarded him $1,360 for lost travel expenses, $1,000 for his inconvenience and $750 for lost use of the baggage.

Continental declined comment on whether it will appeal. But the airline said in a statement: "We are always sorry when a customer is denied boarding involuntarily. When someone is bumped, we try to offer alternative flights, refund the ticket, help make other arrangements or offer some form of denied boarding compensation. But that is not always acceptable."

Mea culpa

In my Nov. 23 column, I misrepresented how unrestricted frequent flier award tickets work. These awards let you get any available seat on a flight without seat limitations on regular awards.

[Last modified December 7, 2005, 00:33:18]