More air passengers getting bumped

More air passengers getting bumped

El Castor...

Andy, this "nonsense" has been going on as long as there were airlines
and passengers who booked seats and didn't show up. How would you like
to book a flight from San Francisco to London, get stuck in traffic,
miss the flight, and have to pay for it -- every last penny -- and
then pick up the tab for an identical flight two hours later?

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into."
Jonathan Swift

Airline passengers in the USA are getting bumped off flights more frequently
than at any time in the last six years, the government reported Thursday.
Best and worst airlines for bumping ---

El Castor...

A few years ago I was changing planes in Denver on the way to Orlando.
United asked for volunteers. In exchange for volunteering I was
delayed three or four hours, which in my case didn't really matter. In
exchange I was given two free round trips to anywhere United flew in
the Continental US, and was upgraded to First Class for the last leg
to Orlando. Could have been worse.
***************************************

California Poppy...

I took a voluntary bump in Reno one time. We had a two hour delay and
then two free tickets for another flight. It was a good deal, IMO.

Here's the truth behind bumping, explained by an ex-airline employee.

"I worked for a major airline for a number of years and there's few
things that people always seem to misunderstand. First of all,
especially over the summer, flights are running at an *average* of 90%
load factors which means that there is very little room for rebooking.
As far as the comment about "no other business running this way" - if
you miss your baseball game or music concert does ticketmaster give
you a refund or let you rebook another venue for free? Definitely not.
The "flat tire rule" allows for standby travel only, not a confirmed
booking on a later flight. You can usually go standby on the next
flight without a charge but if you wish to be confirmed that's when
you're going to pay.Think of it from the airline's perspective - they
sold you a seat on the 4pm flight, guaranteed your reservation and the
plane was ready and waiting for you. Now, because you missed it, the
airline could book you on the 7pm flight which is probably also full
but in booking you a seat "for free" the airline foregoes the
opportunity to sell that seat to someone else. What often happens,
especially in a place like DFW, is the earlier flights in the day have
long standby lists of people trying to get places or flights that are
oversold that take volunteers - when someone who misses their flight
gets rebooked on the next one "for free," that's one less seat to use
for a volunteer from an earlier oversold flight or for someone who
would be willing to pay full price. The lesson? Plan ahead - you may
have been stuck in the traffic jam but if you're the only one (or
maybe 2 or 3) that missed the flight out of 190 passengers that got to
the airport and boarded the plane on time, why is that the airline's
fault? Last of all, consumers operate under the false assumption that
because they bought a round trip ticket it doesn't matter if they go
one way - "I own a DFW-RIC flight and a RIC-DFW flight and I can use
it as I see fit." What people need to realize is they're buying a
product - a round trip ticket - and if they're going to try using that
product against its intended purpose (i.e. flying one-way on it) then
they should be prepared to pay for the actual product used if caught
(in this case, 1-way tickets were apparently running $400 each way).
Sure the agent probably had some leeway, but I wonder what the
demeanor of the customer was? Was he friendly or screaming? Was he
calm and reasonable or was he calling the agent every name in the
book? Don't forget - an airline is a business, not a charity so why
should they forego a revenue opportunity because someone was caught in
circumstances beyond the airline's control?"

"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into."
Jonathan Swift

Some 16,300 passengers were bumped against their wishes in the April-June
quarter, a rate of 1.12 passengers per 10,000. That rate is one-third higher
than a year earlier. The airlines' rate of what the Department of
Transportation calls "involuntary denied boardings" was the highest since
the same quarter in 2000.

In all, the DOT said, airlines bumped about 185,000 passengers during the
last quarter, also up from the year-ago quarter. Most volunteered to give up
their seats.

The worsening problem with bumping reflects the intensifying push by
airlines to fill a greater percentage of seats. Grappling with soaring
travel demand, continuing financial problems and record high fuel prices,
airlines are filling planes fuller to maximize ticket revenue while holding
down operating costs. No. 1 American Airlines filled a record 87% of its
seats last month, while Delta and Continental filled 85% of seats during
July. That means many flights were sold out or oversold.

Southwest Airlines bumped nearly 32,000 passengers voluntarily or
involuntarily in the quarter, more than any other airline. But the
Dallas-based discount giant also carried more passengers than any of the 19
airlines covered in the DOT report.

According to the DOT report, the percentage of delayed and canceled flights
also increased from a year earlier. More than 25% of all domestic flights in
June arrived late, defined as 15 minutes or more off schedule.

Summer 2006 is shaping up as the most troublesome for airline passengers in
years, in part because of unexpected problems. During the week of July 16,
New York City suffered a power outage, and Tropical Storm Beryl fouled up
flights from New York to New England. On July 26 and July 27, a Northwest
Airlines computer glitch delayed 562 flights.

This summer, Chicagoan Tony Hiller, a frequent traveler, has found that
persistence pays. He spent two days trying to fly from Chicago to the
Washington, D.C., area to visit his grandmother.

When American canceled his flight from Chicago O'Hare to Washington Reagan
National Airport on July 20, a day when many flights were canceled, the
airline told him it couldn't assure him another seat for four days.

"I was stunned," he says, "but some of the other passengers went completely
ballistic."

American told passengers the airport would provide cots for an overnight
stay if necessary. Instead, Hiller went home, and the next day caught a
Southwest evening flight from Chicago Midway to Baltimore-Washington
International.

Passengers denied boarding by U.S. airlines