This should help prevent the unseemly scenes on a United Airlines flight last weekend.
Customers on Delta Airlines flights will be entitled to up to a little under $10,000 in compensation for giving up seats on overbooked flights after a change in policy following the controversy caused by the removal of a passenger from a United Airlines flight last weekend.
United attracted a barrage of criticism after footage of 69-year old doctor David Dao being aggressively removed from a United plane in Chicago surfaced on social media last week.
United CEO Oscar Munoz subsequently issued a public apology for the incident, while Dao, who suffered a number of injuries while being removed from the plane, has filed court papers.
https://twitter.com/Tyler_Bridges/status/851214160042106880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.joe.ie%2Fnews%2Funited-airlines-584789
Dao’s removal from the United plane came about after attempts to find a fourth passenger to voluntarily remove themselves from the plane in exchange for compensation (a figure of $800 was reported by passengers) proved unsuccessful.
According to CNBC, in response to the episode, Delta Airlines company customer service agents are now authorised to offer up to $2,000 (up from $800) for voluntary denied boardings (VDB), although the compensation figure can rise to a maximum of $9,950 (approximately £7946) in some cases.
A payout of that figure would require authorisation from Delta superiors amongst a number of other rules, but it is a significant increase on the maximum compensation figure of $1,350 (approximately £1078) that had been in place until Friday.
"To reinforce our commitment to our agents and their ability to care for our customers, we will be increasing the maximum allowable compensations limit for voluntary denied boardings (VDBs) systemwide," Delta said in a bulletin to staff.
