2023-08-15 09:02:00
The misadventure has already happened to quite a few travellers. You are preparing to go on vacation, arrive at the airport but when you go to check in your luggage, you are told that there is no room for you on the plane. Disillusioned, you look at your ticket in all directions. However, you have paid for your trip well and the flight schedule corresponds to what is indicated. And that’s when you are told that you are not at fault: your company has simply sold more tickets than there are seats available on a plane.
This phenomenon is called overbooking (or overbooking or overbooking) and it is far from rare in the airline industry. Although this practice may shock travelers, it is not illegal. “On each flight, there are almost always passengers who do not show up at departure, justifies Joëlle Neeb, spokesperson for Brussels Airlines, a company which practices overbooking “quite commonly”.
Between 9 and 14 no-shows per flight
In the jargon, these people are called “no-shows” and they can represent up to 5% of passengers on a flight, ie between 9 and 14 people at Brussels Airlines, depending on the capacity of the aircraft. It should be noted that among those absent on the day of departure, there are those who never show up, without notifying the company and those who cancel or change their flight at the last minute. These statistics being relatively stable, the idea of a company is to make its operations as profitable as possible by selling more tickets than available seats.
“Unlike a pair of shoes or a T-shirt that can be put back on the shelf, a seat on an airplane is a “perishable commodity”, continues the spokesperson. Once a plane takes off, the seats on that flight can never be sold once more”. An airline must also consider the variety of ticket type choices it has sold, with flexibility options on some tickets allowing the date of travel to be changed at the very last minute. In short, “overbooking has become an important tool for the efficient management of flights by airlines”, we insist on the side of Brussels Airlines.
The skilful calculation of the airlines
In the majority of cases, passengers do not realize this overbooking – the absentees being absent as expected – but it also happens that the statistics fail. The consequences are then very unfortunate for the injured passengers and for the companies which have to open their wallets to compensate them. According to European legislation, in addition to booking another flight and any “assistance” costs (transfer, meal, hotel, etc.), the company must pay compensation ranging from 250 to 600 euros to the passenger, i.e. what the regulations provide for in the event of delays of more than 3 hours or cancellations. Frequent since the end of the Second World War in the United States, overbooking is a little less common in Europe where passenger rights are better regulated. Brussels Airlines does not apply it to its entire network.
“We have a strict ‘no overbooking’ policy on flights for which it is difficult to offer alternatives: such as typical holiday destinations such as the Canary Islands or the Greek Islands”. But for other destinations, the Belgian company does not hesitate to sell more places than those available. “Thanks to sophisticated systems, we know the historical percentage of passengers who do not show up for a given route. This allows us – with a certain degree of certainty – to overbook a flight.” Between possible compensation to be paid and excess profit on seats already reserved, the company must then make its calculations: is it financially advantageous to oversell a flight?
Planes that change at the last minute
“Overbooking was a common practice before the introduction of the European regulation on air passenger rights”, explains Maciej Jeleński, manager at Air Help, the company specializing in the recovery of air compensation allowances. Overbooking thus represented around 2.5% of all complaints received in Europe by Air Help in 2023, compared to 1% in 2022, considered “an exceptional year”, the Covid having been there. It should be noted that these figures only represent complaints: in the majority of cases, the company finds an arrangement with its injured passenger during an overbooking to prevent the latter from going that far. “We can, for example, offer a commercial gesture, such as the free extension of the holidays if it is a return flight”, explains Piet Demeyere, spokesperson for Tui. The customer has to find his way around”.
Even if Tui does not practice overbooking, he sometimes has flights… overbooked. “It’s exceptional, but you can have an aircraft that breaks down a few hours before a flight and is replaced by a smaller aircraft, develops Piet Demeyere. In this case, there is no room for everyone and we have to refuse passengers at the last minute”. Brussels Airlines is also familiar with these overbooked flights “outside its control”. “For technical reasons, an Airbus A320 with 180 seats can be replaced by an Airbus A319 with 141 seats, relates Joëlle Neeb. Sometimes seats also become defective in the cabin and no one can sit on them anymore”.
Smart little ones who take advantage of it
The strong resumption of air travel following the Covid and the delay in the delivery of planes to airlines is putting more and more pressure on their fleet. Two parameters therefore increase overbooking: the plane occupancy rate is at its highest and the increasingly recurrent change of planes at the last minute by airlines. The big question remains: which passenger is denied boarding in the event of overbooking? The last arrived, the last registered, the one who paid the cheapest ticket? “We are looking at the boarding gate – that is to say just before entering the plane – always first of all for volunteers ready to give up their place on this flight”, specifies Joëlle Neeb. If no volunteers are found, we have to designate passengers”. However, Brussels Airlines does not specify which criteria are taken for these designations.
“I think it’s the last ones who arrive who are designated, but in general, we always find volunteers”, indicates for his part Piet Demeyere of Tui. Some smart guys have even made a real business out of it. This is the case of this Frenchman living in Barcelona who has noticed that Vueling flights between the second Spanish city and Paris have been constantly overbooked since the beginning of this summer. “I take advantage of receiving compensation of 250 euros, for a flight that I paid only 50 euros originally, it is rather profitable, explains the latter to the local site Equinox. I can either catch another flight during the day or go back to my apartment in Barcelona and have the taxi reimbursed by Vueling.”
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