Overbooking

[Melburnian1]

There have been previous threads such as this closed one on overbooking of flights by airlines:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....omestic-overbooking-in-australia-22159-3.html

An airline employee said to me that overbooking ex Australia was typically about 10 per cent of the total economy class seating capacity. This assumes that there was good demand in the first place for the international flight.

She said that overbooking made her job hardest on days when there were hardly any passengers travelling for business, as she claimed leisure travellers were more likely to 'all' turn up.

Do all international airlines operating ex Australia overbook when they can? What about our domestic airlines?

Has anyone had an unpleasant experience (such as involuntary denied boarding for a flight that's less than daily, and where the compensation on offer was not the point, but the 'missed' flight was)?

Has anyone conversely had a most generous compo offer and taken it when offered?

 

[MrHyde]

My understanding is overbooking is common across all airlines all over the world. An airline that does not overbook is likely bankrupt and has already shut down.

My only experience with overbooking was both good and bad. I was flying MEL-SYD-AUH-BAH and return. On arriving at SYD airport, I was last one to the check in counter and was denied boarding. They did not give me a boarding pass in MEL as I think at that time QF could not issue EY boarding passes. In return, I was upgraded to business class, given $500 cash and put on another flight later in the day. At the last minute, a passenger went missing and all was taken away and I was given a boarding pass and a middle seat for the next 12 odd hours. However, on the return trip, I was upgraded to business for all sectors to make up for the incovenience caused.

Oh.. I was told that every single EY flight was overbooked in that period and for some passengers, they were not able to put them on another flight till a 3-4 days later as they had no seats. Now, that would be really inconvenient.

 

[mrfreeze]

Never had any issue except an offer for the kids to fly next day on one occasion.

Kids were booked to fly to Sydney to meet there mother who was travelling up from Canberra that day.
Got a phone call on the way to airport saying flight was over booked and if they could fly next day.
They offered without prompting a voucher for $380 each if they would do so.

Thought it was a great offer but as it was arranged for them to be in Sydney that day had to say no and the reason why.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

There have been previous threads such as this closed one on overbooking of flights by airlines:

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....omestic-overbooking-in-australia-22159-3.html

An airline employee said to me that overbooking ex Australia was typically about 10 per cent of the total economy class seating capacity. This assumes that there was good demand in the first place for the international flight.

She said that overbooking made her job hardest on days when there were hardly any passengers travelling for business, as she claimed leisure travellers were more likely to 'all' turn up.

Do all international airlines operating ex Australia overbook when they can? What about our domestic airlines?

Has anyone had an unpleasant experience (such as involuntary denied boarding for a flight that's less than daily, and where the compensation on offer was not the point, but the 'missed' flight was)?

Has anyone conversely had a most generous compo offer and taken it when offered?

Airlines have pretty good historical data to indicate the likely number of no shows on each flight.

At peak travel periods I would doubt the total number of seats sold would be very much greater than the total number of seats available on the aircraft. They might overbook a flight in economy but upgrade to an empty business class cabin (quite common for those travelling in the next three weeks or so).

From both a PR and legal perspective I don't think there can be a standard overbooking percentage for all flights across the year. There must be a valid reason, on a per flight basis for overbooking.

To do otherwise would potentially render an airline ticket, as a contract, void for uncertainty, and would be bad for business (imagine an airline's reputation if word got out that on a regular basis 37 people on an A380 were denied boarding even though they had arrived at the airport in plenty of time and were otherwise ok to fly).

 

[Milboo]

Not AU but was in Toronto a couple of weeks ago and because of cancellation of earlier flight and overbooking there were not enough seats to go around.

They called for volunteers to go on a later flight. Offer was $200 and later flight was 30 mins later to La Guardia instead of our destination of Newark.

I was more than happy to take it but they wanted people without checked luggage.

 

[ermen]

I was on the QF127 in Y and knew that it was an overbooked situation way in advance from expert flyer.
Sure enough, got a call a few days prior and they offered to upgrade to J if take the flight on the next day. Unfortunately had to decline as wife needed to be back for work. And was disappointed that I did not get an opup at the airport!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Always pre-allocate a seat at the time of booking if you can as a lot of people don't bother to do this & leave things until they arrive at the airport.

OLCI is another good idea because with overbooked flights in can be a bit like musical chairs so whoever is last to checkin gets bumped. Even if you haven't arrived at the airport to drop off your luggage you're still checked in.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Always pre-allocate a seat at the time of booking if you can as a lot of people don't bother to do this & leave things until they arrive at the airport.

OLCI is another good idea because with overbooked flights in can be a bit like musical chairs so whoever is last to checkin gets bumped. Even if you haven't arrived at the airport to drop off your luggage you're still checked in.

Very, very good advice.

Around this time domestically I wouldn't expect there to be too much overbooking, the biggest worry is downgrades eg if an A330 goes u/s and is subbed with a 737, the airline has a pretty big problem on its hands to solve...