On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 16:37, JC Dill <jcdill.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
When you have a confirmed reservation, airlines in the US and EU are required to pay "delayed boarding compensation" when you are involuntarily bumped, unless the reason is something completely outside their control (such as the weather or when planes are ordered grounded as happened after 9/11), or they are flying smaller jets (special exceptions because of weight-and-balance safety rules). This is in addition to allowing you to use your ticket on the next available flight. If you elect to make alternate travel arrangements US airlines also have to refund your ticket, even when it's a "non-refundable" ticket.
But that doesn't really equate to network traffic (IMHO). If your upstream has an outage, it is more akin to a delayed departure rather than an airline bump or flight cancellation. You reach your destination later than planned (latency) and you may have to take a different route, but your packet^Wbutt gets through. Neither of those situations involve cash compensation, or penalties paid, by major airlines. At most you might get a few loyalty points. Now if your upstream network provider disconnected you and/or was unable to route your packets to their final destination.... -Jim P.