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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 8 / Wednesday, January 13, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Office of the Secretary 14 CFR Parts 250 and 254
Docket DOTOST20200251
RIN 2105AE81

Implementing Certain Provisions of the TICKETS Act and Revisions to Denied Boarding Compensation and Domestic Baggage Liability Limits Office of the Secretary OST, Department of Transportation DOT.
ACTION: Final rule.
AGENCY:

This final rule amends the U.S. Department of Transportations or the Departments oversales rule by clarifying that the maximum amount of Denied Boarding Compensation DBC
that a carrier may provide to a passenger denied boarding involuntarily is not limited, and by prohibiting airlines from involuntarily denying boarding to a passenger after the passengers boarding pass has been collected or scanned and the passenger has boarded, subject to safety and security exceptions. Further, pursuant to existing regulations, this final rule raises the liability limits for denied boarding compensation that U.S.
and foreign air carriers may impose from the current figures of $675 and $1,350 to $775 and $1,550. Also, in accordance with existing regulations, this final rule raises the liability limit U.S. carriers may impose for mishandled baggage in domestic air transportation, adjusting the limit of liability from the current amount of $3,500 to $3,800.
DATES: This rule is effective on April 13, 2021.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Clereece Kroha, Senior Attorney, Office of the General Counsel, Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Ave.
SE, Washington, DC 20590; 202366
9041, clereece.kroha@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
SUMMARY:

I. Clarifying That the Departments Oversales Rule Does Not Limit the Maximum Amount of DBC Carriers May Offer to Passengers Denied Boarding Involuntarily, and Related Provisions Section 425e of the FAA
Reauthorization Act of 2018 Pub. L.
115254, October 5, 2018, which includes the Transparency Improvements and Compensation to Keep Every Ticketholder Safe Act of 2018 TICKETS Act, requires the Department to complete a rulemaking to clarify that 1 there is no maximum
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level of compensation an air carrier or foreign air carrier may pay to a passenger who is involuntarily denied boarding as the result of an oversold flight, and 2 the DBC compensation levels set forth in the regulation are the minimum levels of compensation an air carrier or foreign air carrier must pay to a passenger who is involuntarily denied boarding as the result of an oversold flight. Maximum DBC amount and DBC limit are terms found in various provisions of the Departments oversales rule in 14 CFR part 250. The concept of maximum DBC amount that a carrier is required to pay and a limit imposed on DBC calculation results were intended to 1 ensure passengers involuntarily denied boarding receive, at a minimum, a DBC amount required by the regulation when the DBC
calculation resulted in a higher amount;
and 2 allow carriers to impose a limit on the amount that they are liable for compensating eligible passengers in the event of involuntary denied boarding, if carriers choose to do so. Part 250 was never intended to prohibit carriers from voluntarily paying an amount of DBC
that is higher than the maximum DBC
amounts or DBC limits set forth in part 250.
Although during the many decades since the promulgation of the oversales rule, the Department has seen no evidence of industry confusion about the meaning of these terms, by passing the TICKETS Act, Congress is requiring DOT to revise the rule for clarity to avoid any potential public confusion about whether carriers may choose to pay a higher amount of DBC.
Accordingly, in this final rule, the Department is making some editorial changes to the regulatory text in part 250 to make this point clear.
Specifically, this final rule eliminates words and phrases such as maximum or no more than from 250.5 to clarify that carriers are permitted to pay more than the amounts set by the regulations. Instead of using these terms, the amended part 250 states that carriers are required to provide to eligible passengers at least the lower amount of: 1 200% of the passengers one-way fare or $775 for delays of more than one hour but less than two hours for domestic flights and delays of more than one hour but less than four hours for international flights, and 2 400% of the passengers one-way fare or $1550
for delays of more than two hours for domestic flights and delays of more than four hours for international flights.
Further, the Department is replacing the term maximum denied boarding compensation and denied boarding
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compensation limits with the term denied boarding compensation liability limits or DBC liability limits. The new terms make clear that the monetary amounts prescribed by the rule are intended to allow carriers to limit the amount they are required to compensate passengers that are involuntarily denied boarding if the carriers choose to do so, and that the terms are not intended to impose a ceiling for the amount of compensation a carrier may offer and a passenger may receive. Further, by this final rule, the Department is adding paragraph g in 250.5 to state that nothing in the rule prohibits carriers from offering denied boarding compensation in an amount more than the amount calculated according to part 250, or the denied boarding compensation liability limits provided by part 250. Similar amendments are made for the written denied boarding notice prescribed in 250.9.
Like the denied boarding compensation liability limit, the domestic baggage liability limit provided in 14 CFR part 254 is intended to permit carriers to adopt a ceiling that caps their liability for delayed, lost, or damaged bags in domestic air transportation, and it is not intended to prohibit them from offering a compensation that is a higher amount than the adopted ceiling amount. As such, the Department is also removing the terms minimum limit of baggage liability and minimum liability amount used in 14 CFR 254.6, and replacing them with the term domestic baggage liability limit.
The TICKETS Act also requires the Department to complete a rulemaking to ensure that carriers must proactively offer to pay compensation to a passenger who is voluntarily or involuntarily denied boarding on an oversold flight, rather than waiting until the passenger requests the compensation. The Department has carefully reviewed the existing rule text and its enforcement records, and believes that the Departments oversales rule already imposes such requirements on carriers.
Specifically, with respect to passengers denied boarding voluntarily, 250.2b provides that, in the event of an oversold flight, carriers shall request volunteers for denied boarding before using any other boarding priority. The rule further defines a volunteer as a person who responds to the carriers request for volunteers and who willingly accepts the carriers offer of compensation, at any amount, in exchange for relinquishing the confirmed reserved space emphasis added. In other words, for a carrier to fulfill its obligation of soliciting for
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