This morning I saw a link to a Flyertalk thread about a family of 3 who were involuntarily denied boarding on a flight from Memphis to Houston. Â The whole thread is worth reading (though long), but tells the story from the original incident last year (October 2015) up to its conclusion last month (September 2016)
Reading through the story, here are the highlights
September 2015:Â Flyertalk user jljones000 and his wife and lap child are trying to fly from Memphis (MEM) to Houston (IAH). Â They have confirmation emails with seat assignments, but when they show up at ticketing, they were not given seat assignments and eventually were told that they were not allowed to board (IDB). Â They were put on another flight a few hours later but then IDB’d on THAT flight too! Â After several hours waiting in the airport, United offers compensation of $370 which they do not accept
October 2015:Â Jljones000 posts his story on Flyertalk and as various community members go through the story, it appears that he should be entitled to anywhere from $1100 to $5200, depending on how his claim is interpreted. Â Jljones000 files a complaint with United as well as with the DOT, and a few months later receives a compensation offer for $1100 from United
IANAL but…. Lots of advice in the thread starting with IANAL (I am not a Lawyer) but it turns out that Jljones000 IS a commercial litigation attorney, so he files suit in Shelby County Tennessee small claims court.
September 2016: The case is finally heard in small claims court and jljones000 wins but United takes the position that there was only ONE IDB.  He’s awarded a judgment for 400% of the fare from Memphis to Houston for both him and his wife.  In discussions with United’s attorneys, he says that he will appeal the judgment, and they end up settling for a little less than double the original amount of compensation offered (he doesn’t say, but probably in the $2000-$3000 range)
Quite the crazy situation and I am glad that they were able to get things worked out. Â Helps to be a lawyer I suppose :-). Â Reminds me of the saga I’ve had trying to get British Airways and Aer Lingus to refund my miles and points for a canceled business class flight from Boston to Dublin
- The saga of trying to get British Airways to refund my Avios
- 4 (!) months later, I’m still fighting on my EU 261 Aer Lingus claim
- Why Aer Lingus is paying me $1306
- 8 months later, I’ve almost got my 25,000 Avios refunded
- British Airways finally paid me 25,000 Avios
You can find the entire Flyertalk thread here – have you ever been in a situation where you were voluntarily or involuntarily denied boarding?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
So the question here is can is little guys do the same thing and get the same result or would we be stuck with 1100?
Well obviously anybody CAN sue in small claims court…. but I’m sure it helps if you’re already a lawyer 🙂
Its easy to sue in small claims court and win. The odds are stacked against the company. I’ve sued Ally Financial twice over mistakes they made with auto leases. Settled once, won once. Got paid twice.
I wish more people would use small claims to sue airlines when the airlines have violated the contract of carriage. It will make the airlines pay attention and honor their responsibilities.
I have to admit that I have no great love of litigators in general, but I love this story. This time, the airlines screwed with the wrong person. Maybe if things like this happen enough times, the domestic airline industry will figure that it’s worthwhile to act in a civil manner again. Hey, hope springs eternal.