NPR: This Segment May Be Bumped Without Warning

This Segment May Be Bumped Without Warning

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Listen to Luke tell Matt and Dan about his air travel travails.

Yesterday we promised a Make Me Care segment about the World Bank, but that story has been bumped. In fact, bumping is all the rage these days, as evidenced by the experience of our own Luke Burbank, who's been bumped from his seat on two different flights in the past week, despite being at the airport and checked in before boarding began both times. As it turns out, Luke is not alone, as an article in Wednesday's New York Times shows. The article states that "the number of fliers bumped against their will is expected to reach a high for the decade this year," all because of the common airline practice of overbooking flights. The practice has led to a revolt by airport gate agents, the people forced to deliver the bad news, who are using their computers to fill up flights with phantom passengers like "Mickey Mouse." This prevents the airlines from overbooking, and saves the gate agents the hours of verbal abuse they usually receive when they have to tell people a flight is overbooked. So how will the Bryant Park Project tackle this hard-hitting issue, you ask? Well, we promised you a more conversational show, so rather than conducting a formal interview, we just piled into the studio and turned on the mics. Let us know what you think, and feel free to share any airline bumping horror stories of your own.

Dan Pashman

10:31 AM ET | 05-31-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

You bumped the World Bank story for people not getting their flights on airlines?

I was really looking forward to that World Bank Make Me Care.

I hope this "bump" doesn't turn into a "disappear."

Sent by Jesse Bufton | 9:39 PM ET | 06-02-2007

Hey Jesse -- Our decision to not do a Make Me Care about the World Bank came about because a few of us felt that too many Make Me Cares in a short amount of time would be overkill. Perhaps we were wrong. Regardless, I -- personally -- still think that a Make Me Care on the World Bank prez is in order. Stay tuned, perhaps we'll do that next week. Thanks for listening/watching/reading.

Sent by Matt Martinez | 10:55 AM ET | 06-03-2007

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