A little concerned about my Ryanair flight

tennis12

So during the week, work booked me flights to Stanstead. They forewarderd on to me the check in details and im checked in. Out of curosity today i went to check the price of the flight, but it had vanished. I dont know why, but im a little concerned. I wouldnt get a email if the flight was cancelled as I didnt book it. Mabey it's full and thats why you cant now book onto it?

Mr Benevolent

It's fully booked.

tennis12

Okay that's grand.
Meant to put this in the first post, but ive heard airlines are allowed overbook flights? Should I show up a little early incase too many people are there and some have to wait for the next flight?

MIRMIR82

tennis12 wrote: »

Okay that's grand.
Meant to put this in the first post, but ive heard airlines are allowed overbook flights? Should I show up a little early incase too many people are there and some have to wait for the next flight?

Have you never flown before OP? You sound unnecessarily worried!
Don't worry about it, show up at the time they say or 10 mins before that if you are nervous

Lapin

tennis12 wrote: »

Okay that's grand.
Meant to put this in the first post, but ive heard airlines are allowed overbook flights? Should I show up a little early incase too many people are there and some have to wait for the next flight?

That won't happen.

Ryanair don't overbook flights.

Turn up an hour before the flight and you'll be grand.

tennis12

Lapin wrote: »

That won't happen.

Ryanair don't overbook flights.

Turn up an hour before the flight and you'll be grand.

Nah I fly a good bit, and nearly always with Ryanair. I dunno why I'm so worried to be honest. But thanks for clearing it up guys

Locker10a

Lapin wrote: »

.

Ryanair don't overbook flights.

Really? I thought they did! I thought it was common practice in all airlines, especially Low cost ones!

Simon Gruber Says

The only time I've even been on a flight that was overbooked was in the US. Never happened to me in Europe

Locker10a

Simon Gruber Says wrote: »

The only time I've even been on a flight that was overbooked was in the US. Never happened to me in Europe

I know for sure some* European Airlines do it! It makes sense I suppose! And it doesn't cause any disruption the majority of times it happens, but its not just an American thing, it happens in Europe too, I don't know if its policy ar aer lingus or Ryanair but I cant see why they wouldn't do it!

Lapin

Not Ryanair. They claim to be the only airline in Europe not to engage in the practice, but that is debatable.

Overbooking is common practice among many airlines on flights where there is a good chance of no shows.

Its particularly common on Friday evening flights out of Heathrow and London City Airport where business passengers often take later flights home for the weekend than the one they initially booked.

The airlines are quite skillful at predicting the numbers who won't show up for flights and overbook to accommodate passengers who do.

Most of the time they get it spot on but on occasions when a flight is full they ask some passengers if they will volunteer to take a later flight or one to a different destination and complete the journey on land. They will compensate the passenger if they agree.

It happened me a couple of times. On one occasion I was booked on a British Midland flight from Heathrow to Dublin the day before Christmas Eve. The airline asked me if I would be willing to fly to Belfast instead on a flight leaving straight away. They paid for my taxi from Aldergrove into Belfast and train to Dublin and gave me 150 quid in cash for my trouble. I was in Dublin City centre less than 2 hours later than I would have been had I stuck with my original flight. It suited me fine !

Ryanair have a policy of not overbooking any of their flights.
If you miss a flight with them they will not put you on the next one unless you are willing to pay the full cost for it. Nor will they refund the cost of your missed flight. So they have no reason to overbook. And there is no way a cost conscious outfit like Ryanair would offer passengers alternative flights and compensate them for doing so unless they really have to.


See section 9.

L1011

Overbooking screws with yield management and is next to impossible with prebooked seats too. It's dwindlingly common now.

Most reports of overbooking are downgauges or merges due to planes going tech

A320

lufthansa definitely overbook

Locker10a

A320 wrote: »

lufthansa definitely overbook

I'm lead to believe BA do as well, or did anyway!

IRLConor

MYOB wrote: »

It's dwindlingly common now.

In the US it seems to be extremely common, at least from my own personal experience. Pretty much every connecting flight I've been on has had a call for volunteers to be rebooked.

Locker10a wrote: »

I'm lead to believe BA do as well, or did anyway!

My understanding is that BA may overbook some classes, but don't deliberately book more passengers than the plane has seats for.

For example, if they have 185 economy, 30 premium economy, 70 business class and 14 first class seats they might sell 190 economy seats knowing that they probably won't fill business or first classes. Then on the day they offer paid last-minute upgrades to move some people up the plane (and make some extra money!) and as a last resort will bump people for free.

That's my understanding anyway, they may be doing something else entirely.

andy_g

Moved to Travel for more information.

castie

Lapin wrote: »

Not Ryanair. They claim to be the only airline in Europe not to engage in the practice, but that is debatable.

Overbooking is common practice among many airlines on flights where there is a good chance of no shows.

Its particularly common on Friday evening flights out of Heathrow and London City Airport where business passengers often take later flights home for the weekend than the one they initially booked.

The airlines are quite skillful at predicting the numbers who won't show up for flights and overbook to accommodate passengers who do.

Most of the time they get it spot on but on occasions when a flight is full they ask some passengers if they will volunteer to take a later flight or one to a different destination and complete the journey on land. They will compensate the passenger if they agree.

It happened me a couple of times. On one occasion I was booked on a British Midland flight from Heathrow to Dublin the day before Christmas Eve. The airline asked me if I would be willing to fly to Belfast instead on a flight leaving straight away. They paid for my taxi from Aldergrove into Belfast and train to Dublin and gave me 150 quid in cash for my trouble. I was in Dublin City centre less than 2 hours later than I would have been had I stuck with my original flight. It suited me fine !

Ryanair have a policy of not overbooking any of their flights.
If you miss a flight with them they will not put you on the next one unless you are willing to pay the full cost for it. Nor will they refund the cost of your missed flight. So they have no reason to overbook. And there is no way a cost conscious outfit like Ryanair would offer passengers alternative flights and compensate them for doing so unless they really have to.


See section 9.

After working as a PSA in cork for a bit I can 100% tell you they at least used to do it all the time while claiming they did not.

Routinely saw over 189 booked on flights to the UK.
However in saying that I never once had to refuse someone boarding for the flight being full.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Locker10a

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

"Due to weight and balance issues we cannot accept all passengers for this flight" :P They would have to refund you first off, and then book you onto another available flight, same as snow disruption etc. But I doubt this happens very often, I would imagine FR have their system of booking, over booking and yield management down to a fine art!

ProudDUB

I'm surprised that Ryanair don't do it to be honest. US based airlines do it all the time. They wouldn't do it if they couldn't get away with it, and make money out of it. Two concepts that Ryanair are not exactly adverse to ! ;)

Then again, Ryanair usually only have a couple of flights a day to most of their destinations, don't they? So if they overbook a flight, they may be looking at having to pay passengers hotel/food bills, as well as having issues with what to do if the next flight is full. It is much easier to over juggle overbooking passengers & make it work, if you are an airline with flight once an hour from London to Paris, or from Boston to New York.