What we’re reading: Canada says ‘large’ passengers get extra free seat, passenger wins overbilling fight, baggage theft claim time limits

Canadian’s make it a law that the medically overweight and the disabled who need a caregiver get an extra seat for free. Chicago woman fights overbilling of Irish rental car and wins. Some baggage theft reporting timeline rules seem awfully strict.

Oversized passengers in Canada get free 2nd seat if size is a medical issue
After an 11 year fight through the Canadian courts, oversized airline passengers in Canada must be given a second seat for free. This ruling allows disabled passengers who need assistance to get a second seat for their helper for free and provides an extra seat for XXXL passengers whose obesity is caused by a medical condition.

This ruling is estimated to “add about 77 cents to each ticket sold by Air Canada and 44 cents to every WestJet fare.”

Air Canada and WestJet failed in their pitch to quash a decision from the Canadian Transportation Agency, which gave them one year to bring in a policy known as “one person, one fare” to allow disabled passengers a second seat for a travelling companion. Obese people can also qualify if they are too large to fit in a single seat.

Air Canada and WestJet said Thursday they intend to fully comply with the federal order, although the carriers aren’t sure what kind of screening process will be used to assess who is eligible for an extra ticket.

Canada is so far the only country in the world to require its airlines to follow such a policy, said WestJet spokesman Richard Bartrem. “The big work for us now is understanding what sort of guidelines to put in place that are fair and consistent,” he said.

Traveler wins overbilling battle through persistence

A Chicago woman discovered an overbilling error after a trip to Irland. She went through all of the proper channels to no avail. Finally, she threatened the company with bad publicity through a local newspaper travel advocate that the rental car company budged.

But at the counter, the customer service agent told her the online insurance was unacceptable — she would have to purchase the company’s on-site insurance at a higher rate. Stuck in an Irish airport with limited options, Behnke agreed to buy the additional insurance.

When she returned to Chicago in April and checked her credit card statement, she realized she had been overcharged. The statement showed she owed 464 euros, which converted to $628.50 at the time. She calculated the charges and came up with a lower number, 341 euros.

Amid the confusion over the insurance, the rental company had overcharged her by roughly $170.

Airline baggage theft claims often must be made only 4 hours after flight

Baggage claims for items missing from one’s luggage often must be made within four hours of claiming luggage. Southwest and JetBlue only allow four hours for passengers to determine whether anything has been pilfered and report it to the airline. Don’t delay.

Airlines point out that only TSA officers are authorized to open checked bags. But they touch only the small number flagged as possible threats by automated screening equipment, the TSA says. And then while other officers — and often security cameras — can watch.

No one knows how often stuff gets stolen. Airlines don’t disclose bag theft statistics. The TSA received an average of about 1,400 claims for missing and damaged property each month last year, down from about 1,900 from 2002 through 2005. With 650 million people flying domestically each year, the TSA says, those numbers are really small.

Airlines like you to file a claim quickly. It’s always easier to track down what happened before too much time passes. But most people don’t open bags before returning home. Unless the crook left the contents a mess, it could take a while to figure out something’s missing.

Tagged as: baggage theft, Canada, Chicago, Ireland, overbilling, oversized passengers, rental cars