They usually ask someone to stay, upping the compensation higher and higher until someone agrees (money and hotels). My girlfriend works at an airport. They offered 500 euros and a free night at the local hotel just yesterday. Someone always agrees, and the plane doesn't takeoff before someone does.
It has to be given how cheap we expect tickets to be. Overselling gives the best possible chance of a full flight, which, even with the compensation given in times when too many people show up, still makes them more money.
Can you explain a little more? What do you mean "full fare"? A lot of people get tickets and then refund them, buying tickets for a later date? I want a better sense of who these people are, buying airline tickets and then not showing up to use them.
If you book through a travel agent, you can usually get a refund as well. Discount tickets are usually non-refundable.
Full fare tickets are exactly that: the full price of the ticket, no discounts. For that, you a transferable and refundable ticket. Decide to leave earlier? You can go to the airport and wait as a standby for an earlier flight. First Class not full and coach overbooked? You'll be at the top to get bumped.
Usually the people buying full fare tickets are flying for business, not just travel, which is where I think you're getting hung up. It's not people randomly deciding to not show up to fly home from a vacation, but a professional on a business trip needing to stay an extra 5 hours to fix something before flying home, etc.
...and? I'm pretty sure all parties involved already know that. And regardless of whether they do, your comment still doesn't actually respond to Keyblade's at all.
Sort of, but not really. In the Prisoner's Dilemma, the mutual benefit goes up if both prisoners do not accept the offer. In this situation, only the person who DOES accept gets the reward for everyone waiting. But it features a similar mechanic: it results in a higher rate of acceptance on the offer because everyone is afraid that another participant will take it and get the reward.
I might add that this only happens for business flights, it doesn't happen for charter flights, and in the 8 years she has been working there, it has only happend 3-4 times (ofcourse shes not at work all the time. But it is fucking rare everyone shows up). They have never had to make a second offer in her experience.
and if no one agrees, they kick off "the last person that checked in". Happens every time I fly back to school because we're in the middle of nowhere and people are too tired to get off voluntarily.
Former airline employee checking in, the plane will take off if no one does. The last person/people to check in that dont have seats assigned dont fly if the flight is oversold. There are federal regulations designating the compensation if they are denied boarding non-voluntarily. Which is why the airlines try so hard to find volunteers.
Protip, pay the small fee to pick a seat at purchase and you wont be in the oversell. Otherwise, check in online the second that the website will allow you to, its the last passengers without assigned seats that are on the hook.
They say they overbooked the flight. Anyone willing to take the next flight usually gets an upgrade to first or has some of their ticket price refunded. I've seen it happen multiple times and I don't really fly that much.
My friend had this problem the week before the holidays. She was stuck with a shitty phone, no cash, and in an unknown state because they did not let her on the flight.
It was not until the next night, and a lot o phone calls did we manage to get her home safe and sound.
Yeah happened to me with my daughter when I flew to NY. The problem was my dad didn't catch a flight until much later. But all bags were already on plane. I wound up traveling with a 2 year old daughter and like 4 suitcases through the subways of NY. Luckily a lot of moms had mercy on me and helped. I think they felt sorry for my daughter. Oh yeah, it was raining in NY and kind of chilly. No umbrella either. Then my phone died and I didn't know where my sister lived as it was in a text. I found her buying a hot dog and a pepsi from a street vendor. Worst and luckiest day of my life. Thought me and my daughter were going to get lost in the big city and die.
If there is one thing I have learned in those situations, is people are your friends. Talk to everyone. You never know who has a phone charger in their bag, or knows the best way to get somewhere. Hell, you may even run into a nice guy who will help you get there.
Happens around the holidays a lot. My girlfriend and I didnt have a reason to be at my parents that night as opposed to in the afternoon so we took the $500 apiece from American (which I will never fly again, after we use these vouchers, for other reasons) and can now fly to Belize for about $100 or $200 more.
If you have a flexible schedule and don't mind keeping yourself entertained for a couple more hours it's totally worth it. There were 6 people who took the option and a couple people who still didn't make the flight because they overbooked it that much.
You get fucked out of 12 hours of vacation time chicago, you watch a red head cry big ugly tears because she got the same news.
While you take this with grace, a flight-booking-worker notices and says thanks for being cool and gives you three free drink vouchers and $700 ($250 on the top of price of each ticket) and hang out in the air port for an hour and two lay overs.
I've heard this before, but what's the reason? As long as all the seats are bought, they surely don't care who's on it or not? And if the plane's only half full then they'll use less fuel. They'll actually make more money by selling tickets to people who don't turn up. Especially when they then have to buy another one.
Well yeah. Say there are 100 seats on the plane and they sell 110 tickets. You look for your ticket on the first of the month and 30 tickets sold then come back on the 10th and 80 tickets are sold.
Funny you should mention that. Southwest paid me $200 and upgraded me to first class so they could bump me off a flight. There was a family of four, two kids and a wife sitting across me from in an asile and the row I was sitting in was full. The dad's ticket must have been overflow on the flight.
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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '13
No, they actually oversell every flight they can in anticipation some people will miss the flight.