Anyone have experience with airline overbooking ?

HarryD

Howdy,

I fly alot with Malev, and it seems they regularily overbook their flights,
and I have often been denied boarding despite having a confirmed booking.
It seems that it's not unique to the Dublin route either, as it happened
to me going to Krakow.
I'd been warned about Malev doing this by a friend who lived here in Budapest
for a while before I came out.
The compensation is nice but normally I'd prefer to be on the flight.
I've never seen/heard of anyone been denied boarding with another
airlines although apparantly they all do it.
Anyone have any experience ?

A while back Malev used to ask everyone on an overbooked flight, if they are willing to accept compensation and fly later (or next day), but now it seems
they are back to last come last served.
Last Friday I checked in 1hr before the flight to Dublin and was told
it was overbooked and I was on standby.
Luckily there was space in business class, but not always the case.

Cheers,
Ray.

rossie1977

i have seen it, in january we were flying from las vegas to san antonio with Southwest. They were overbooked by 5 people and asked for volunteers to stay behind, after a long wait they eventually got their 5 people.

overbooking a flight is surely the stupidest thing an airline can do, greed is the only reason i can see for doing it

shrapnel222

unfortunately, every single airline does it and it's nothing new. if a flight is full, you can almost guarantee there is overbooking on it. the only way to avoid getting caught out is to show up early if you know it's likely to be full(like your malev story)

Savman

AFAIK they are allowed to do it, I remember reading something about the EU Charter on Passenger Rights. Cant recall the reason why though.

interlocked

Going to Melbourne from Heathrow three years ago with BA, arrived at the check in desk, requested a window seat and was informed that I don't think we can get you on this flight at all sir!.

About eight of us were overbooked, in fairness they gave us about €125 compensation straight away and told us that if they couldn't rebook us, they'd put us up in a hotel overnight and increase our compensation to about €250.

Great I thought, I was wrecked and was looking forward to getting some kip, bu they got us on a Quantas flight within half an hour - fortyfive minutes, that was packed too,

So, even the biggest airlines seem to chance it.

microgirl

Yeah, Air France are notorious for it. They overbook to limit the financial risk of taking off with a wodge of empty seats. There's *always* going to be people who don't turn up. Just some airlines seem to overbook a lot of extra people, and some not so much, but since there's no way of saying 2 or 5 or however many won't turn up, it's all guesswork.

My mam and I were getting an Air France flight back from Paris and they asked 9 people to stay back. We said alright because frankly, it's not the end of the world if I have to ring work and say I can't make it if it's for something like that, and my mam is retired. The compensation is also nice.

For other people missing the flight home is a big problem, so....

But yeah, definitely not just Malev, but some are worse than others. As shrapnel222 said, only thing to do is be near the top of the queue rather than the end.

Rashers72

I love those internal flights in the US when they overbook. They increase the compensation on offer the closer they get to actual departure time. You actually see people looking for more compensation if they wait for a later flight, and realise no one is volunteering.
I was on a Delta MCO-ATL-DUB flight one Saturday after Easter. Both legs were overbooked. If memory serves me right the total on offer for 3 of us was EUR800, if we went for a later flight, and they would routed us via Madrid, arriving in 4 hours later.
Was pretty tired, and not happy with Delta, hence just wanted to get home.

penexpers

I was on an overbooked flight from DUB-BCN with Iberia before. I volunteered to be re-routed. Ended up arriving only 30 minutes later than the time I would have and I got €250 for my troubles. Not bad at all.

jester77

I used to work for an airline and it was common practice. One of the perks was being able to fly on standby and I had access to the booking details through the intranet. I was always guaranteed a seat if a flight was booked 110% or less. Anymore and it was hit or miss. Don't know what % they overbooked by but there was always at least 10% that didn't turn up for flights.

HarryD

Interesting...
I'm sure new EU law stipulates that the airline were obliged to ask for volunteers, before refusing boarding to anyone.
Malev are no longer doing this...
I was talking to the malev rep in Dublin and he says
it's last come last served with him.
For a 8am flight, I don't want to be checking in 2hrs before,
and waiting around the airport when I should be sleeping.
I reckon around 30% of the time I've flown with Malev I've
seen overbooking. Thankfully I've not been denied boarding as much.

bucks73

Almost all airlines overbook flights by 10-15% as there are always no shows at the airport. Its a calculated risk by the airlines but one they figure is well worth doing.

FlutterinBantam

Airlines have special departments which manage the overbooking profile on flights.

If they didn't most flight would leave minus 10% on the booked load due to passengers not turning up.

Trends are studied,flight profiles(presence of large groups etc.)are taken into account and the numbers are crunched to try and achieve a full load without having to pay or handle overbookings.

Airlines are obliged to look for volunteers in that situation and should display notices on their desks of the compensation due.

dogmatix

Interesting thread - but why do Airlines overbook?

Surely if a person books and pays for a seat and does not turn up, the airline gets the money for the seat anyway. Why go to all the hassle if bumping people and having to pay compensation to them and still have to go to the expense of getting the bumped passengers on another flight. And annoying the hell out of the passengers (loss of goodwill).

There must be a valid conomic reason for it - i'm just interested in why an airline would do this.

jester77

dogmatix wrote:

Interesting thread - but why do Airlines overbook?

Surely if a person books and pays for a seat and does not turn up, the airline gets the money for the seat anyway. Why go to all the hassle if bumping people and having to pay compensation to them and still have to go to the expense of getting the bumped passengers on another flight. And annoying the hell out of the passengers (loss of goodwill).

There must be a valid conomic reason for it - i'm just interested in why an airline would do this.

Airlines overbook so they don't have empty seats.

If you are travelling on business it often happens that meetings overrun or finish early so you take an earlier or later flight. Business tickets are open so you can change flights at no extra cost once there is a free seat and even at the cost of some economy passenger seats depending on your ticket.

axer

dogmatix wrote:

Interesting thread - but why do Airlines overbook?

Surely if a person books and pays for a seat and does not turn up, the airline gets the money for the seat anyway. Why go to all the hassle if bumping people and having to pay compensation to them and still have to go to the expense of getting the bumped passengers on another flight. And annoying the hell out of the passengers (loss of goodwill).

There must be a valid conomic reason for it - i'm just interested in why an airline would do this.

because they are still up money in the long run even if they have to pay a few passengers compo now and again.