How You Can Collect in Airline Antitrust Case

Virtually anyone who travels between major domestic airports could qualify to collect part of what’s been described as the largest class-action settlement in history.

But if you’re expecting a windfall, forget it. If anything, this settlement underscores just how poorly individuals make out in massive antitrust cases.

Four of the nation’s biggest domestic airlines--American, Delta, United and USAir--recently agreed to settle a price-fixing suit for about $368 million. Two other airlines--Northwest and Trans World--previously agreed to a $37.5-million settlement in the case.

If an Atlanta judge approves the deal, administrators and attorneys will get the only cash distributed as a part of the settlement--about $44 million. Consumer payments will be made in vouchers for discounted travel. Somewhere between 10 million and 50 million individual and corporate victims are expected to share the booty.

But consider what amounts to the fine print. How much you get is unrelated to how much--or whether--you were overcharged. That’s because the class includes everyone who flew during the period in question, between the places involved, regardless of what they paid. Instead, payments will depend on how many claimants there are. Estimates of the average payout range from $5 to $25 per claimant.

There’s one more catch. These payments are essentially in the form of coupons for future air travel on carriers that were allegedly overcharging their customers and conspiring to set prices.

The carriers were alleged to have telegraphed changes in air fares to one another through a computerized databank shared by the airlines, which allowed them to set prices. But the airlines, which maintain their innocence despite the record settlement, can continue to use the databank just as before. So you may be getting discounts on flights that continue to be over-priced.

Still, a discount on a possibly overpriced flight is better than no discount at all. How do you determine whether you’re due a voucher? You’re eligible if, between January of 1988 and June 30, 1992, you flew between any of these 34 airports:

Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago (O’Hare and Midway), Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Dayton, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville, Newark, New York (LaGuardia and Kennedy), Orlando, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Jose, St. Louis, Syracuse and Washington, D.C. (Dulles and National).

How do you file a claim? First, write to: Airline Antitrust Litigation, P.O. Box 209, Philadelphia, Pa. 19107. Just ask them to put you on their mailing list.

After that, the process is likely to vary depending on whether you flew a lot or a little.

Formal procedures have not been established, but those who claim credits for no more than four trips worth less than $2,500 will probably be allowed to submit a claim by filling out a brief declaration, signing it and returning it to the court, said Renee Kastanakis, a partner at Carr, Tabb & Pope in Atlanta, representing the class-action plaintiffs. The declaration would ask for the name of the airline, dates and times traveled and the cost of the ticket. Further documentation would probably be unnecessary, she said.

Those who claim that they’re due vouchers for five flights or more will likely need more proof--possibly ticket stubs, receipts or frequent-flier statements. Kastanakis believes that this group of claimants will largely be made up of corporate travel departments, since they’re the only ones likely to have kept documentation that long.

If it seems surprising that a huge settlement could result in such modest payments to consumers, it shouldn’t. Consumers who have spent hours digging up ancient receipts to qualify for class-action settlements say they often get refund checks that don’t seem worth the postage. To wit:

* Last year, Nintendo settled a price-fixing case over the cost of its consoles. Plaintiffs said Nintendo set the price at $99.95 and stopped dealers from selling the sets for less. Nintendo denied wrongdoing, but agreed to settle by giving out $5 gift certificates good on purchases of games.

* Wells Fargo Bank lost a class-action suit that alleged that it charged too much for late and over-limit fees on its credit cards. As a result of the $5.2-million court award, some of the company’s customers got refunds averaging $4.50.

* A 1978 class-action suit against Levi Strauss & Co. generated consumer refunds ranging from $2 down to 39 cents.

Still, some attorneys say that compensating consumers isn’t necessarily the point. “These suits are meant to deter these actions, not necessarily to compensate people,” said Kastanakis. “The major result should be to stop companies from doing it again.”