Denied Boarding and Downgrading Sample Clauses

Denied Boarding and Downgrading. With respect to denied boarding,44 EU Regulation 261/2004 provides that, when an operating carrier reasonably expects to deny boarding to a passenger, it will first call for volunteers to surrender their reservation in exchange for commonly agreed benefits, and at least a right to reimburse- ment or rerouting. If none or an insufficient number of passengers surren- ders, the operating carrier may then deny boarding to passengers against their will. In this situation, EU Regulation 261/2004 provides that the air carrier will have to compensate the concerned passengers according to the chart set out in Article 7, which sets a fixed compensation between EUR 250 and EUR 600, depending on the destination. The air carriers will also be required to offer reimbursement or rerouting to the passengers denied boarding, and to provide them with assistance, which may include food, hotel accommoda- tion and communication tools such as calls. Passengers denied boarding are obviously those who are denied the right to board the aircraft against their will, but to fall within the definition of EU Regulation 261/2004, they should have a confirmed reservation on the flight and have presented them- selves for check-in at the agreed time or, if no time was agreed, at least 45 minutes before the published departure time.45 Passengers without valid travel documentation or other related reasons exemplified in EU Regulation 261/2004 may be denied boarding without any rights to compensation.46 44 In the United States, certain Courts have considered denied boarding as a form of delay. See, Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxx, Bumping – Denied Boarding – And Article 19 of the 1999 Montreal Convention, 32 Air & Space Law 231-232 (2007). Contra, Supreme Court of the Philippines, Philippine Airlines, Inc. v. Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxx, 579 Xxxx 344 (2008). 45 The CJEU held that the concept of ‘denied boarding’ included a situation where, in the context of a single contract of carriage involving a number of reservations on immedi- ately connecting flights and a single check-in, an air carrier denied boarding to some passengers on the grounds that the first flight included in their reservation was subject to a delay attributable to that carrier and that the latter mistakenly expected those passengers not to arrive in time to board the second flight. See, CJEU, 4 October 2012, Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxx and Xxxxx de los Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx-Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxx-Xxxxxxxx