Even Aer Lingus are at it.

quadrifoglio verde

I'd gladly accept.
Worse that happens is I'd have to ring work and explain my flight was overbooked and they bumped me onto the next one.

Locker10a

Tabnabs wrote: »

ScouseMouse wrote: »

Couple of years ago, my family and I with some friends were going Dublin to Tenerife with Aer Lingus.  3 days before the flight got a call from EI asking me to volunteer to fly to madrid then they buy us tickets from Madrid to Tenerife NORTH.  Then a bus down.

Hummed and haaa'd a bit as it turned the 4 hour flight in to 10 hours.  Then they mentioned compensation.  400 euro each by cheque plus they would make all arrangements.   Couldn't accept it fast enough and also volunteered my friends who were on a separate booking.

Came home and said to the wife, "hey honey, guess what I did today!  Gave away our flights!"    When the roaring stopped and I explained,  she smiled.

Have to say, sitting in Madrid airport drinking San Miguel with our friends was such a horrible experience.........

As opposed to sitting by the pool drinking San Miguels if you hadn't agreed to the extra 6 hour journey

A group of say 5 people who all receive 400 quid cash!! Thats 2000 quid, I'l give that one beer by the pool a miss thank you very much. Thats the price of a whole extra holiday, it could pay the mortgage for a family for a month, or could pay the cost of car / home insurance for a year! You may choose the beer by the pool, and thats fine, but i know what my choice would be!!!!

él statutorio

Has happened me a few times in the US, mainly with internal flights.

With United a few years back myself and the wife were flying from JFK to LAX, united requested volunteers at the gate. We stepped up, got an overnight in Vegas, Business class seats to Vegas and then a connection to LAX the next day, also Business calls. Plus we got about $400 each.

With Delta from Austin > JFK > Dub about 3 years ago, myself, wifey and Kid #1 stepped up and got rerouted, bumped to economy plus and got $800 (Delta dollars) each, plus $800 for my daughter who was on our laps and didn't even have a seat. I think they sent us to dublin via Dallas and Paris, don't quite recall the route. The $2,400 in Delta dollars got a few trips!

goingnowhere

EI had a few issues in years gone when it had A319 in the fleet so could be caught out if an aircraft was out of place, same if a A321 was planned. There is overbooking and then there is operational issues where the wrong plane turns up or even weather conditions which limit the takeoff weight.

For LHR DUB I have been routinely moved to an earlier flight free of charge, given the number of connecting passengers, its a game to make room later in the day for those delayed, similar issues in AMS.

In 200+ flights with EI never been asked or even observed a search for volunteers. In comparison every time I use the self service check in in the US, Delta, United I get prompted for do you want to take a later flight and take the cash for doing so

billy few mates

I was transiting through Brussels a couple of weeks ago on Brussels Airlines and I could hear the gate agent on the gate next door calling for volunteers on the tannoy to take a flight which was four hours later (14:00 instead of 10:00) for €300 cash which must have been pretty tempting to some.

I travel a lot for business and I quite often change plans or flights at the last minute so quite often my seat would go unused if airlines didn't take the chance and overbook certain routes at certain times so I know why they do it.

Conversely I've been booked on a late evening flight and turned up at the airport and asked if it's possible to change to the earlier flight and the airline asked me for €250+ to do this, which I declined saying I was not in that much of a rush but if it were to help the airline with overbooking or a full load on the later flight I'd be glad to help out. The gate agent thought about it for a minute or two as she looked at the screen and replied ok, I could have the earlier seat as they were looking pretty full on the later flight and me going early would at least ease the congestion.

Van.Bosch

Ryanair only typically do it on routes with multiple flights a day where hotel accommodation won't be an issue.

Not only airlines that do it, hotels too. They will try get you a room elsewhere.

adam88

Never been bumped off a flight bit used to do a lot of flying with ba economy and at least three times got bumped up to business class to make room for the common folk lol

LoonyLovegood

Got asked to take a flight the next morning going from SFO to LAX last month. Thought about it for a few minutes, but at that stage I'd been out of the house for around 20 hours and just wanted to make it to my accommodation. They ended up getting a couple of people to leave, so it worked out I suppose.

ScouseMouse

Tabnabs wrote: »

As opposed to sitting by the pool drinking San Miguels if you hadn't agreed to the extra 6 hour journey

It turned into free flights. The amount we got pretty much paid for the flights. For a family with young kids, it was great.

Mebuntu

Since we're on the subject of overbooking I did a search for Aer Lingus denied boarding conditions:
https://www.aerlingus.com/media/pdfs/LEGALDENIEDBOARDING.pdf

Also Ryanair's
https://www.ryanair.com/content/dam/ryanair/help-centre-pdfs/eu261-version13/EU261%20for%20Ireland%20-%20EN.pdf

Straightforward enough tbf.

Mister R

There have been times I've hoped my flight would be overbooked just to bag a few of the perks that go along with giving up your seat.

markpb

Korvanica wrote:

But now it seems to be a huge deal to some people because of how United handled it. Most people will accept the money offered, and most airlines will not get that heavy handed. Non issue.

It's not a huge deal for me that airlines do it and I appreciate that it may suit some people. What bothers me is the situation where enough people don't accept it and the airline decide who flies and who gets bumped. If you volunteer to be bumped, that's fair enough. If you arrive at the gate and are told that you've be volunteered, that's another matter completely. If you've paid for your seat and the airline can't accommodate you because of their own overbooking, that's not acceptable.

jackinthemix94

markpb wrote: »

It's not a huge deal for me that airlines do it and I appreciate that it may suit some people. What bothers me is the situation where enough people don't accept it and the airline decide who flies and who gets bumped. If you volunteer to be bumped, that's fair enough. If you arrive at the gate and are told that you've be volunteered, that's another matter completely. If you've paid for your seat and the airline can't accommodate you because of their own overbooking, that's not acceptable.

Well, legally, it is acceptable. It's just not acceptable according to you. Airline T&Cs allows them to reserve the right to bump you if necessary.

Locker10a

markpb wrote: »

Korvanica wrote:

But now it seems to be a huge deal to some people because of how United handled it. Most people will accept the money offered, and most airlines will not get that heavy handed. Non issue.

It's not a huge deal for me that airlines do it and I appreciate that it may suit some people. What bothers me is the situation where enough people don't accept it and the airline decide who flies and who gets bumped. If you volunteer to be bumped, that's fair enough. If you arrive at the gate and are told that you've be volunteered, that's another matter completely. If you've paid for your seat and the airline can't accommodate you because of their own overbooking, that's not acceptable.

If its something you're concerned about then for peace of mind always check in early, and perhaps book yourself priority boarding, if people do need to be bumped due to lack of Volunteers(extremely rare) then these are usually the last to board. The United situation was extremely unusual as this is normally dealt with at the gate before or during boarding. If you're early to check in and board, then you're safe, and I highly doubt we will see an ejection similar to United for a very very long time for obvious reasons.

TheDriver

Its also an issue when the person picked out by the airline needs to be where they are going. Or the person Is settled into their seat ready as opposed to checking in. Its bad enough settled into the seat and wondering why pushback is taking so long, never mind being told/dragged off the flight.

Locker10a

TheDriver wrote: »

Its also an issue when the person picked out by the airline needs to be where they are going. Or the person Is settled into their seat ready as opposed to checking in. Its bad enough settled into the seat and wondering why pushback is taking so long, never mind being told/dragged off the flight.

This is not how it's done, the United situation was a badly managed, last minute decision, anytime I've seen overbookings it's been done by sourcing volunteers, failing this it's done on the last to check in.
And all of this is sorted out BEFORE boarding the aircraft. As mentioned in above comments overbookings are often dealt with Days beforehand. And as a last resort, at the gate, before boarding. It should never be dealt with onboard. And it's safe to say airlines will be doing anything to avoid another United!!!

Danbo!

I've never personally experienced it, but my sister was offered DUB-YYZ business class and a night in a hotel if she'd fly the next day. She was going to live in Canada for 3 months so one day was nothing really and, well, business class.

I was baffled by overbooking when I first heard of it years ago, I mean who would buy a ticket and not show up? But in my last job I travelled almost weekly, all over the place. There were a serious amount of flights I didnt make, even some very long/expensive flights. Often flights would be booked pre-emptively, before meetings were set, but it didnt work out. Was never a big deal to the company to write them off.

Locker10a

Danbo! wrote: »

I've never personally experienced it, but my sister was offered DUB-YYZ business class and a night in a hotel if she'd fly the next day. She was going to live in Canada for 3 months so one day was nothing really and, well, business class.

I was baffled by overbooking when I first heard of it years ago, I mean who would buy a ticket and not show up? But in my last job I travelled almost weekly, all over the place. There were a serious amount of flights I didnt make, even some very long/expensive flights. Often flights would be booked pre-emptively, before meetings were set, but it didnt work out. Was never a big deal to the company to write them off.

This is exactly why Airlines do it ! If you think about it, it makes perfect business sense.
And it's not just common for business travellers but also for passengers getting connecting flights, one delayed leg of that journey and you may miss your connection. Then there is the low cost travel generation, Ryanair and all airlines really have huge sales, offering one way tickets for €10/€20, people jump at these opportunities, but because the ticket is soo cheap they book it before truly confirming all other arrangements . The airlines know this! So you've a situation where people have booked weekends away, group trips, holidays etc. But without actually knowing the costs of accommodation, or if they even have that time off work! Many of these trips don't happen and flight seats would go empty. Again from experience airlines know this and thus they know the can sell a percentage of those seats twice etc.

Danbo!

I think the very fact that it's gone on for years and the majority of people don't even know about it just proves it works perfectly. If bumping happened on every flight on every airline then there would be an issue.

Peregrinus

Danbo! wrote: »

I think the very fact that it's gone on for years and the majority of people don't even know about it just proves it works perfectly. If bumping happened on every flight on every airline then there would be an issue.

It's not unusual in the US to hear an announcement offering a voucher plus a guaranteed seat on the next flight to passengers who will give up their seats. Most often there's a rush to the front of the plane from people eager to accept.

It's not always the result of deliberate overbooking. If an incoming flight has been significantly delayed, you can have an awful lot of passengers who have missed their connecting flights and need to be rerouted. Offering incentives to other passengers to give up their seats may be a much cheaper way of dealing with the problem, and may suit the delayed passengers better, than putting them up in a hotel until you can place them on a previously unsold seat.

KyussBeeshop

Let me guess, these airlines don't offer any cancellation refund for the ticketholders that don't show up?

If that's the case, then it should be made illegal to overbook airline seats, unless passengers are given a 100% refund upon cancellation - the extra money the airlines get in profit from all of this, doesn't just come from nowhere...

Locker10a

KyussBeeshop wrote: »

Let me guess, these airlines don't offer any cancellation refund for the ticketholders that don't show up?

If that's the case, then it should be made illegal to overbook airline seats, unless passengers are given a 100% refund upon cancellation - the extra money the airlines get in profit from all of this, doesn't just come from nowhere...

Thats the whole point, thats how they make profit, non-refundable tickets, that are pure profit as they go unused, thats why airline tickets are so cheap these days. No airline makes profit on a 30 quid one way ticket, however if they sell it twice and only carry one passengers then $$$
If overbooking is made illegal (which it won't be) then you will see a rise in ticket prices, as airlines will have to squeeze the full profit they require to a lower or limited number of tickets.

Graham

KyussBeeshop wrote: »

Let me guess, these airlines don't offer any cancellation refund for the ticketholders that don't show up?

That depends on the class of ticket you've purchased. The more expensive fares may offer the ability to cancel/amend/refund without penalty, the level below may allow for a partial refund, the cheapest tickets are usually use-it-or-lose-it.

CoisFharraige

I got quite excited one morning at the EI check-in in 2016 on an LAX flight. The desk staff notified the 50 pax (Very low LF) that they were being changed to fly with Ethiopian and that there was one passenger who would have to be put on the next JFK flight the following morning with an upgrade to the new business class! I let an old lady skip me in the queue as she asked, didn't see any problem. When I reached the check-in desk (after waiting in the queue for 30 minutes) the old lady in front of me said she'd LOVE to take the business upgrade :eek:

Anyway, my point being that overbooking can also lead to all pax being changed to another airline, it's usually cheaper for an airline to do a deal with another airline to offload their pax (if there's a low LF) to them and avoid the fees and overnight costs for keeping everyone in the area. Usually goes well, but yes every airline has their own way of juggling passengers when they get caught out.

LiamaDelta

CoisFharraige wrote: »

When I reached the check-in desk (after waiting in the queue for 30 minutes) the old lady in front of me said she'd LOVE to take the business upgrade :eek:

Anyway, my point being that overbooking can also lead to all pax being changed to another airline

Ah come on....your real point is NEVER be nice to old ladies :D

IQO

CoisFharraige wrote: »

Anyway, my point being that overbooking can also lead to all pax being changed to another airline, it's usually cheaper for an airline to do a deal with another airline to offload their pax (if there's a low LF) to them and avoid the fees and overnight costs for keeping everyone in the area. Usually goes well, but yes every airline has their own way of juggling passengers when they get caught out.

Happened to me as well more than once, mostly with US based airlines though. Most recently with Delta from Dublin to New York/JFK, which was overbooked. The alternative was to be rerouted on an Aer Lingus flight that would be departing in 45 minutes to LHR, and from there onwards with Delta to JFK. In the end I arrived around the same time at JFK (I was already early at Dublin airport because of the US pre-clearance), plus a voucher of $500 in my pocket. Only downside was I had to join the immigration queues from all international flights arriving at JFK, which is a real benefit of flying from Dublin straight into the US.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

IQO

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

To be used on Delta or SkyTeam partners within the next 12 months.

MayoSalmon

I am amazed people never knew of this to be honest been happening the best part of 20 years now. Only flights that have exceptional Load Factors like Christmas flights etc won't have much overbooking nearly everything else will. **** happens to people all the time where they cant make flights

Fred Swanson

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