Delta will offer up to $9,950 to flyers who give up seats, United changes its policy

Delta Air Lines is letting employees offer customers almost $10,000 US incompensation to give up seats on overbooked flights, hoping to avoidan uproar like the one that erupted at United after a passenger wasdragged off a jet.

United is taking steps too. It will require employees seeking aseat on a plane to book it at least an hour before departure, apolicy that might have prevented last Sunday's confrontation.

Those and other changes show airlines are scrambling to respondto a public relations nightmare the video showing airport officersviolently yanking and dragging 69-year-old David Dao from his seaton a sold-out United Express flight.

Dao and three others were ordered off the plane after fourairline employees showed up at the last minute and demanded seats sothey could be in place to operate a flight the next day inLouisville, Kentucky.

On Friday, a United spokespersonsaid the airline changed itspolicy to require travelling employees to book a flight at least 60minutes before departure. Had the rule been in place last Sunday,United Express Flight 3411 still would have been overbooked by fourseats, but United employees could have dealt with the situation inthe gate area instead of on the plane.

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Delta is moving to make it easier to find customerswilling to give up their seats. In an internal memo obtained Fridayby The Associated Press, Delta said gate agents can offer up to$2,000, up from a previous maximum of $800, and supervisors canoffer up to $9,950, up from $1,350.

United said it is reviewing its compensation policies. Theairline would not disclose its current payment limit.

Other airlines said they were examining their policies. AmericanAirlines updated its rules to say that no passenger who has boardedthe plane will be removed to give the seat to someone else.

None would describe their limits on paying passengers.

Overbooking questioned

When there aren't enough seats, airlines usually ask forvolunteers by offering travel vouchers, gift cards or cash.

Last year Delta got more passengers to give up their seats thanany other U.S. airline, partly by paying more than most of theothers.

As a result, it had the lowest rate among the largest U.S.airlines of bumping people off flights against their will something that is legal but alienates customers and requires theairline to pay compensation of up to $1,350 per person.

Overselling flights is a fact of life in the airline business.Industry officials say that it is necessary because some passengersdon't show up, and that overbooking keeps fares down by reducing thenumber of empty seats.

The practice has been questioned, however, since video of theUnited Express incident went viral. United Continental CEO OscarMunoz's initial attempts to apologize were roundly criticized. OnFriday, company chairman Robert Milton said the board supportedMunoz.

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"We need to use this regrettable event as a defining moment andpivot off it to craft friendly policies," Milton said in a note toemployees.

The dragging has turned into a public relations nightmare for the entireindustry, not just United, and led to calls from politicians andconsumer advocates to suspend or ban overbooking.

Pre-empt 'PR problems'

Ben Schlappig, a travel blogger who first wrote about the Deltacompensation increase, said it shows Delta is trying to reduceforced bumping. He said he couldn't imagine many situations in whichpeople wouldn't jump at nearly $10,000.

Delta no doubt hopes that gate agents and their supervisors won'tneed to make maximum offers, and the financial cost to the airlineis likely to be limited. If Delta paid $9,950 to every person itbumped involuntarily last year, that would total $12 million. Deltaearned nearly $4.4 billion.

Raising the limits "lets them solve some PR problems" and mighthead off U.S. Transportation Department regulations to curboverbooking, said another travel blogger, Gary Leff. "They can say,'Look, we're already solving the problem."'

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An Associated Press analysis of government data shows that in2015 and 2016, Delta paid an average of $1,118 in compensation forevery passenger that it denied a seat. Southwest Airlines paid $758,United $565and American Airlines $554.

After the incident in Chicago, critics questioned why Uniteddidn't offer more when no passengers accepted the airline's $800offer for volunteers to give up their seats.

"If you offer enough money, even the guy going to a funeral willsell his seat," said Ross Aimer, a retired United pilot.