Show Him the Money
Continental chose the wrong guy to bump last year from a Christmas flight out of New Jersey. When the airline told Thatcher A. Stone - an aviation lawyer, no less - to take a hike and that they were keeping his luggage on the plane, well, you can probably guess what happened next.
But you know what impresses me about Stone? He didn't sue for an obscene amount of money, nor did he try milking the airline on behalf of his daughter, who was traveling with him and surely "suffered" much of the same inconvenience.
The fun fact of the week arrives at the end of the Associated Press story: In her 13-page decision, (the judge) cited a 2004 law review article and analysis stating that since 1990, an average of 900,000 domestic passengers a year are bumped. The U.S. Department of Transportation says 96% of those passengers accept the airlines' compensation offers, leaving about 36,000 bumped passengers who may be entitled to sue.