Overbooking by air carriers

[sengsational]

We've all seen the disclaimers and heard the plea for people to rebook on the next flight and be rewarded with some compensation. And that works if the flight isn't too oversold.

But is there a way to tell, in advance, which flights and carriers take it too far, and force bump people to later flights?

Aer Lingus has just dumped 20% of one conveniently scheduled trans-Atlantic flight onto a much later horrifically scheduled flight. It would be nice to know how often this happens when shopping for flights.

I figure a specific carrier has an asset logistics puzzle, along with airport fees and such, so propose a schedule that should make money, but the good flight sells out, and some other carrier has something better than their bad flight, so doesn't sell out. Instead of letting that revenue walk, they overbook the good flight by enough to fill up the bad flight.

Of course we all want to avoid carriers who employ such a practice. Maybe the practice is even against the rules, but if so, is still happening.

Is the defense just word of mouth and public shaming?

 

[Teacher Terry]

I will not fly that airline because in the past year they have canceled a ton of flights.

 

[Koolau]

I would think there must be a travel site which addresses these issues (who has the most over-books, who has best service, cleanest equipment, best on-time, etc., etc.)

 

[sengsational]

^ You would think. I think on time performance is available, and maybe cancellations? But bumping rates...I haven't seen that.

I've since learned that the EU has rules that require carriers to pay passengers and cover expenses in some cases. Maybe the EU is tracking that stuff over there. In the US, I've seen many cases where cancellations and 8 hour delays were just shrugged off without so much as an apology. And other cases where they gave at least a bit of compensation, although it's likely to be credit for a future flight on their crappy airline that you don't want.

 

[flyingaway]

Two weeks ago, we were at the Atlanta Airport for our Delta flight to San Salvador. The gate agent announced that they needed 20 volunteers to give up seats for $500, $1,000, then $2,000. We volunteered to give up our seats, but it turned out that none of those 20 volunteered was needed. We were very disappointed.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Last year I was in Ireland and Aer Lingus was canceling the majority of their flights. I decided then never to fly them.

 

[brett]

We always check in on line, usually at the 24 hr mark. So far we have never been bumped because of overbooking.


Once or twice because the flight was cancelled. This is why we pay close attention to our fare code. This usually determines the order in which replacement flights are assigned. A higher priority fare code and carry on only bags enabled us to escape a snowstorm in Dulles (and an overnight hotel stay) and grab the last two seats on a United flight to the west coast while traveling home from Puerto Rico.

The other thing we do is understand how many flights the airline has and what are our options might be in case of delay.

We bought inexpensive one way BA consolidator fares from Toronto to Istanbul. We knew that there were two more direct flights to LHR from Toronto that day. And there were three more BA connections from LHR to IST. We had carry on only so our bags would never get separated from us. So that consolidator fare was good for us. We knew that if one flight went pear shaped we would have alternatives.

We would not have purchased the tickets if there had only been on flight per day or only one flight per day on three days of the week.

We did have a 7 hour delay coming home from Faro, Portugal last year. Put in a claim and had a cheque each from the airline for 600 euro within 45 days of our claim submission.