Overbooking is a business strategy which consists in selling more services than can be provided (in the case of flights, more tickets than available seats on the plane)in the knowledge that some buyers will be forced to give up, due to some impediment. Airlines calculate, based on statistics, how many more tickets they can sell on each route. However, it can happen that the calculations are not exact and that on some flights there are more people than seats. In this case, the airlines are forced to leave some passengers stranded. However, this is a remote possibility and there are some “tricks” to make it even less likely.
What is overbooking and what does it mean?
Overbooking, which can be translated as overbooking, is a strategy of Revenue Management applied especially by airlines, which in frequent cases sell more tickets than seats available on a plane, in the knowledge that some passengers will not be able to show up at the gate due to some impediment. Suppose a company operates a flight with a 200-seat plane. The company does not sell 200 tickets, but 210, because it assumes that at least ten people, despite having purchased the ticket, will not depart. In this way, it will collect a higher amount, having sold ten more tickets, and will not suffer any consequences: if at least ten passengers do not show up for boarding, no one will notice the overbooking. This is what usually happens.
Overbooking, after all, is legal or, at least, it is not expressly prohibited by law. It is regularly used by a large number of airlines. To a lesser extent, it is also used by hotels, travel agencies and companies in other sectors.
What Happens When Passengers Are Denied Boarding
It may happen that all those who have purchased the ticket show up for boarding or that the number of passengers is in any case greater than the number of seats. For example, if 205 passengers show up for the hypothetical flight with 200 seats and 210 tickets, five will be left without a seat.
What happens in these cases? First, the company asks if there are any “volunteers” willing, in exchange for a financial compensation or other benefits, to give up boarding. If a sufficient number of volunteers are found, the problem is solved. If, however, no volunteers are found or their number is insufficient, the situation becomes more complicated because, for safety reasons, under no circumstances can more passengers travel on a plane than there are seats available. Consequently, the company must leave some people on the groundusually by choosing them through algorithms that take into account various variables (price paid, check-in date, etc.). People who are denied boarding are entitled to treatment provided for by the Passenger Rights Charter: boarding on the first available flight, assistance while waiting for the new departure, including the provision of meals and possibly hotel accommodation, financial compensation.
The denial of boarding, however, Yes occurs rarely. There are no global statistics, but we know, for example, that in the United States in 2016 only 0.09% of passengers were victims. And even in other cases the average does not differ much from this figure. In fact, companies are able to “regulate” overbooking because, using algorithms and statistical data, they calculate on which routes and in which periods there is a greater possibility that passengers will not show up at the gate.
The 2017 United Airlines Flight Case
For airlines, of course, denying boarding to one or more people is bad publicity and it can also happen that some incident reaches the newspaper headlines. One of the most well-known episodes occurred in the United States on April 9th 2017 on a United Airlines flight, departing from Chicago and bound for Louisville. When the passengers had already boarded the plane, the company realized that four people had to get offto make room for four crew members who needed to reach Louisville to board another flight.
The company could not find volunteers and selected “from above” the four passengers who had to get off, but one of them, David Daorefused to do so, claiming that he was a doctor and had scheduled visits to Louisville. Dao was then forcibly removed from the plane by airport security personnel. The incident caused a stir, also because it was recorded by other passengers in a video that quickly went viral, and it caused serious damage to United’s image, to the point of forcing it to review its overbooking policy. However, it was a very peculiar incident, because the passengers were not only denied boarding, but were forced to get off the plane once they were already on the plane.
How to protect yourself from overbooking
So how do you protect yourself from overbooking? There is no 100% effective strategy. Generally, those who join a program are less likely to be denied boarding. frequent flyerbecause sometimes members are excluded from the selection. It can also be useful to do the check in in advance. In any case – we reiterate – the denial of boarding is a remote eventuality and it is almost impossible that you will be forced to disembark after having boarded.
