If you’ve purchased or flown with a major airliner in the last seven years, you could be receiving information about a class action lawsuit regarding overcharging fares.
According to court documents, a class action lawsuit was filed against four U.S. commercial carriers: American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines.
The lawsuit alleges that the commercial airliners conspired together to increase fares by limiting capacity on domestic flights.
Southwest and American deny that they did anything wrong, but have settled to avoid the considerable cost, burden, and distraction of this litigation, according to court documents.
American agreed to pay $45 million and Southwest has agreed to pay $15 million.
Travelers could receive compensation, but since so many people have flown with the airlines, it most likely won’t be a lot of money and will depend on multiple factors like how many tickets a traveler bought, attorney fees, and how much Delta and United will eventually settle for as reported in MSN.
To be eligible for compensation, travelers would have had to flown between July 1, 2011 and Dec. 20, 2017 for the Southwest settlement, and between July 1, 2011 and June 14, 2018 for the American settlement.
The lawsuits are continuing against Delta and United.
To receive a payment, you will need to file a valid claim form before the claims period ends. A notice about the claims process, including the beginning and end of the claim period, will be made at a later date as ordered by the Court and more information can be found on the Domestic Air Class website.
“We continue to deny, without qualification, that American participated in any such agreement, and the settlement does not include any admission of wrongdoing,” American said in a statement, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The facts show that American dramatically increased domestic capacity during the period covered by the complaint while taking delivery of hundreds of new aircraft, giving it the youngest fleet of the U.S. network carriers.”
