Your rights if you were bumped
If an airline involuntarily denies you boarding on an oversold flight, federal rules set a minimum cash payment based on how late the airline gets you to your destination. It is a payment you are owed, not a gesture, and a travel voucher is only permitted instead of cash if the airline discloses the terms.
The ceiling is $2,150. Most passengers do not reach it, because the amount is calculated from your fare and the length of the delay.
What the regulation actually says
“Compensation shall be at least 200 percent of the fare … or $1,075, whichever is lower … Compensation shall be at least 400 percent of the fare … or $2,150, whichever is lower”
In plain terms. For a domestic flight: nothing if the airline gets you there within an hour of your original arrival. The lower of double your fare or $1,075 if it is one to two hours late. The lower of four times your fare or $2,150 beyond two hours. For international departures from a US airport the middle tier stretches to four hours.
Read 14 CFR 250.5 in fullWhen 14 CFR 250.5 changed
Rights are not fixed. Each entry below is an amendment recorded in the regulation’s own source note, oldest first.
- Apr. 25, 2011 76 FR 23162The current denied-boarding compensation rule takes effect.
- May 27, 2015 80 FR 30147
- Nov. 3, 2016 81 FR 76827
- Jan. 13, 2021 86 FR 2538
- Aug. 2, 2021 86 FR 41381
- Oct. 24, 2024 89 FR 84818The most recent inflation adjustment. This is the amendment that set the current $1,075 and $2,150 ceilings.
Dates and Federal Register citations come from the source note published with the regulation. Where an entry carries no description, the source note records the amendment without summarising it, and we do not guess at what changed.
How often this actually happens
The rule tells you what you are owed. Federal performance data tells you how often the situation arises, and on which airlines. These figures are ours, computed from the sources listed at the foot of the page.
In 2021, Frontier involuntarily denied boarding to 1,176 passengers, a rate of 0.733 per 10,000 boarded.
Complete DOT-reported population, so there is no sampling error. Rates are per 10,000 passengers boarded, which is the DOT’s own denominator.
Every figure here is validated against its source row before this page can publish. The rules behind that check are on our editorial guidelines page.
What this does not cover
- This applies to involuntary denied boarding. If you volunteer to give up your seat, whatever you negotiate is the deal, and the rule’s minimums do not apply.
- The payment is calculated from your fare, so a cheap ticket means a smaller payment. The $2,150 figure is a ceiling, not an expectation.
- Compensation for denied boarding is separate from a refund. If you do not fly, the fare is also refundable.
How courts have read it
We are building a case library from federal opinions on denied boarding, tarmac delays, refunds and deceptive-practice claims, sourced from CourtListener and attributed to the Free Law Project. It is not published yet, and rather than summarise holdings we have not verified line by line, this section stays empty until it is.
Row30 provides data journalism and education, not legal advice. We are not a law firm and do not represent passengers in legal proceedings. For advice about your own situation, consult an attorney.
Source: U.S. DOT Air Travel Consumer Report denied boarding data; analysis by Row30.