Are Airlines Intentionally Overbooking Their Flights? (popularmechanics.com)

"if you sell one seat to two different people, and only one of them shows up, you get extra money," explains an article in Popular Mechanics shared by schwit1. Citing a recent TED-Ed video, they argue that the airlines' strategy for booking flights "makes perfect sense, just not for you." The most frustrating part? This math could be tuned to ensure the maximum number of tickets sold with a near zero percent chance too many people show up. Instead, the most profitable solutions often involve a decent chance a few passengers getting screwed, because the extra ticket sales outweigh having to put someone up in a hotel now and then.

Comments

Yes

[Dutch Gun]

Yes, of course they do. I thought this was common knowledge. From what I've seen, airlines typically deal with over-booking by offering passengers free first-class upgrades on a later flight, or other perks to induce people to voluntarily give up their seats.

I wouldn't be surprised if they *don't* overbook flights at the busiest time of the year, since that's almost a guaranteed money-loser for them, but I have no evidence either way. Has anyone ever experienced overbooked flights at busy holidays, etc? I suppose it's also airline-specific.

Uh... Yeah?

[chaboud]

This has been standard practice for years. In fact, if you have status on some airlines, you can *always* bump someone else off of any flight with the right ticket type.

I flew a few times on a United IAD->SFO route, and of four trips, I got involuntarily deferred twice. The second time, I noted to the gate agent that there's always an equipment change that screws up the flight, and she said, I shit you not, "they do it every night so we can give vouchers instead of cutting checks, even though the change is for fewer seats than the flight was overbooked. It sucks every night."

So, yeah, I gave those vouchers away, because fuck if I'm going to fly United again, even for free.

Re: Uh... Yeah?

[chaboud]

That's right.

If they purely overbook a flight and too many people show up, people getting bumped is known as an involuntary deferment. They used to have to cut you a check for the price of your ticket, up to $400. (And still get you there). Now that's been bumped up by the FAA ($800 or something).

If they have an equipment change that reduces seat count, they don't have to pay out cash. They can instead "compensate" you with credit on their airline that A) may not be spent at all and B) may require that you put more cash in later for an actual purchase. All the while, they get to hang onto the cash that you paid in the first place.

So the scam is that they schedule your flight (last of the day, for instance) on a plane that they *know* needs mechanical work. They don't do the work, and they "swap" planes at the last minute (to the plane that was *always* going to make that flight). Boom. Instant loophole.

I actually had these particulars explained to me by a United employee at the gate. She must have been having a shit day.

Re: YES

[thinkwaitfast]

I had a friend in college who was doing this 30 years ago. He would buy the most expensive ticket from Phoenix to San Diego for Friday afternoon. Every Friday he would go to the airport and give up his ticket in exchange for a refund and a free ticket to anywhere in the country. Since they were all but guaranteed to be at least five people wanting to get on the flight, it was a no brain scam. I remember at one time over Christmas vacation he showed me a stack of 35 tickets that he had gotten. He used a few, but mostly resold them. Life was a lot easier then. It paid for his college.

Re: YES

[Anonymous Coward]

That's strange. That doesn't make any sense. Why were they repeatedly overbooking flights by such a huge amount when someone at an information disadvantage was able to notice a pattern and exploit it for such a huge profit? Seems like someone wasn't doing their job.

Is this April Fools?

[mattwarden]

This is not an open question and the answer is not news. Of course they overbook their flights, and you should be happy they do. Unused seats are inefficient and result in higher ticket prices. If x% don't show up to a given route, then the airline should oversell up to x% depending on the VDB cost (e.g. "500 Delta dollars") and the cost of the fare.

Most passengers have their tickets heavily subsidized by price insensitive passengers (e.g. Business travelers). If you're reading an article claiming that your average passenger is "getting screwed", you can be sure the author has no idea what he or she is talking about.

How !!

[invictusvoyd]

is it legal to sell one thing to two different people?

Nobody gets bumped from their flight

[Sun]

That is pure misinformation. What does happen is that 50,000 passengers a year get an offer to fly at a later flight for compensation, and they accept that offer!

The number of people who don't fly on a flight for which they have a confirmed ticket without their consent is near zero.

Shachar

Re: YES

[jdgoulden]

My thesis adviser and his wife did much the same thing; book all of their travel at peak times, then take the bump and the free ticket / bonus miles / whatever and the free hotel room and fly out the next day. They flew mostly for free for the entire time I knew him.

Re:Yes, all airlines have been doing this forever

[swb]

Many people love to volunteer to take a later flight in exchange for compensation.

I get why airlines overbook from an operational standpoint, but this volunteering to take a later flight part is what mystifies me. Vacations are only so long, hotel rooms are paid for, activities with inflexible schedules are planned, someone's changed their plans to provide destination end transport, and so on.

While I'm pretty sure this is mostly my biases, I can't even begin to imagine sitting at the airport thinking "No problem, I'd love to get to my destination 8-24 hours later, because I'm not looking down a stack of nested contingencies that require me to get someplace as scheduled for them to work. And of course I want that voucher which is totally flexible, provided I want to fly from TUL to FAR on a Tuesday in January."

Re:Unconscionable terms.

[guruevi]

The FAA has rules around that. If you get bumped from your flight you are eligible for 4x the ticket price of the entire trip and they have to accommodate alternative travel or housing. You may have to take them to small claims to get it, they often only give vouchers up to 2x the ticket price.