Travel Wise And Cool

Scary Stories Of Being Late For Flights

WSJ's travel columnist Scott McCartney compiled a list of horrible experience from airline customers being dumped from oversold planes, being charged enormous late fees and getting terrible delayed. My family was once late to a Delta flight due to freeway accident and had to pay for new tickets over $2,000. I will never ever fly Delta gain!

Several readers raised great questions about airline overbooking practices.

David Shea: "It's interesting that American's spokesman Tim Wagner would say 'Essentially, they bought a product that has been "used," whether they were in the seat or not.' If the product has been 'used' as Mr. Wagner claims, what right does American have to cancel the return flight?"

John P. Godshall told of an inconvenient consequence of overbooking: "My flight from Charlotte to London was severely oversold, and US Airways was desperately trying to find volunteers, even after the plane was fully boarded. Two people already on the plane finally decided they would give up their seats, but this also meant that their bags had to be unloaded from underneath the plane. Finding and unloading these bags took a little over an hour. This delay caused my wife and me to miss our connection to Athens through Gatwick. We had to take the next available flight, which was six hours later, OUT OF HEATHROW! The management of the 'oversold' process could use an overhaul."

Kevin Hawkins wrote to defend air-carrier practices. "Who should absorb the cost of a seat that flies empty because the traveler was stuck in a traffic jam? It's hard to argue that the airlines can afford to take a loss on an empty seat more than the flying public can, especially in cases when the passenger doesn't show up to board the flight."