Other Airlines Must Honor Tickets of Stranded Passengers

Passengers stranded when a bankrupt airline cancels flights are entitled to fly standby on other carriers for no more than $25 each way, the U.S. Department of Transportation has ruled.

The Aug. 8 notice was issued after the department received complaints about the treatment of passengers stranded when Vanguard Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and stopped flying July 30. The ruling noted that some carriers provided standby or confirmed reservations free to Vanguard passengers, but others charged up to $100.

After the DOT ruling, Delta Air Lines--which offered Vanguard passengers the choice of an “administrative service fee” of $100 to exchange their Vanguard tickets for standby Delta tickets or buying confirmed seats at a discount--said it would refund the difference between the $100 fee and the new allowable charge of $25 each way. “If they [customers] can produce the paperwork ... they will be eligible for the difference,” Delta spokesman Anthony Black said last week.

The DOT ruling was designed to clarify a law passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The law required that scheduled airlines honor tickets of passengers stranded by an airline bankruptcy “to the extent practicable” but did not define “practicable.” The Aug. 8 ruling says such passengers must be accommodated “on a space-available basis on the date of travel shown on the ticket or other documentation ... without significant additional charges.” It does not require airlines to provide confirmed reservations for such passengers or limit fees to do so.