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We've all been in that situation where everyone shows up for their oversold flight. How does the airline decide in what order to start kicking people off? I always thought it was either the last person to check in or the one who paid the lowest rate. Which is why I always check in the day before online and never at the gate anymore.
The airlines do everything they can in order to avoid an involuntary denied boarding situation since it gets them in trouble with the feds in the USA and can cost them a lot of real money (not just vouchers) if the flight involves EU soil.
If there is a IDB situation, elite flyers are generally well-protected as are people who need the flight to make an international connection and unaccompanied minors. So passengers who present logistic challenges. People traveling as part of a larger group on the same passenger name record (PNR) are probably less likely to get bumped because it's harder for the airline to reroute the group on another plane. Fare class (different from ticket purchase price) is probably a deal-breaker in a lot of cases. Time of check in not so much until you get into a situation where the gate agent is getting ready to board the flight and it's easier to just start noting those not checked in because if they don't check in by the time cut off, they can get reported as no-shows rather than IDBs.
I've never seen them kick people off. They ask for volunteers, offering cash plus a seat on the next flight. If that doesn't work, they up the offer and keep upping it until someone accepts and gives up their seat.
The best I ever saw it get was 2 free flights, round trip, to anywhere that the airline flew. Unfortunately, I could not miss my flight, but someone got a nice prize for waiting a couple of hours.
I've never seen them kick people off. They ask for volunteers, offering cash plus a seat on the next flight. If that doesn't work, they up the offer and keep upping it until someone accepts and gives up their seat.
The best I ever saw it get was 2 free flights, round trip, to anywhere that the airline flew. Unfortunately, I could not miss my flight, but someone got a nice prize for waiting a couple of hours.
Yeah, the $200 voucher isn't really worth much, it if you can wait them out (and the suckers don't bite at the low ball offers of "compensation"), you can get some sweet deals.
"Airlines set their own "boarding priorities" -- the order in which they will bump different categories of passengers in an oversale situation. When a flight is oversold and there are not enough volunteers, some airlines bump passengers with the lowest fares first. Others bump the last passengers to check in. Once you have purchased your ticket, the most effective way to reduce the risk of being bumped is to get to the airport early. For passengers in the same fare class the last passengers to check in are usually the first to be bumped, even if they have met the check-in deadline. Allow extra time; assume that the roads are backed up, the parking lot is full, and there is a long line at the check-in counter."
Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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We took a bump. Gave us 50$ each for a meal plus a first class seat on a later flight. We were flying home and in not that much of a hurry to get home.
No you are not, no one "gets bumped". The last person does not have a boarding pass. If the plane holds 100 seats and the airline sells 102 seats at some point someone will not be able to check in. At that point the airline asks for Volunteers. If no one volunteers than the last people that have no boarding pass will be denied boarding and compensated if no volunteers volunteer.
There are those rare times when the last person that checked in has to be bumped, but that is a whole other situation.
They will ask if anyone is willing to give up their seat for a reward(like 200 dollars) and fly next flight.
There are always plenty of passengers willing to be the volunteer.
That is NOT true.
I have been on two flights where an airline has been oversold by eight to twelve passengers. In BOTH cases, the flights were Friday afternoon ones that served business travelers and I was the ONLY volunteer.
Also, I would NEVER give up a seat for anything less than a round trip flight on the airline.
Southwest tends to bump more passengers BUT they get more volunteers as they serve more pleasure travelers than the legacy airlines.
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We took a bump. Gave us 50$ each for a meal plus a first class seat on a later flight. We were flying home and in not that much of a hurry to get home.
