Involuntary bumping remains fairly rare, though. “There’s not enough room, so they’re just going to take people off,” she said. She explained that airlines sometimes have to change the kind of aircraft operating a flight at the last minute, which can affect the number of seats available. “My guess of what’s disrupting air travel right now is equipment changes,” Laurel Brunvoll, owner and president of the boutique luxury travel agency Unforgettable Trips, told me. Overbooking, however, isn’t the only reason an airline may have to keep people off their flight. Tell us your story Mobility device lost or damaged by an airline? USA TODAY wants to hear about it. Executives, for their part, assured those on the call that they’re not expecting any major uptick, and insisted that more overbooking will be good for the bottom line. While Delta had only two involuntary denied boardings in 2022, it will be interesting to see if the planned change affects that metric at all. In fact, during its most recent earnings call, Delta Air Lines announced it was planning to increase its overbooking rates in the coming quarters. carriers – and their contracts of carriage, which you essentially sign whenever you purchase a ticket, give them the right to refuse your seat. Airlines are allowed to oversell flights – it’s actually a very common practice among U.S. Just to clarify: bumping can refer to an airline refusing you permission to get onto a flight, or to the auction scenario at the gate or in the app, when the carrier seeks the lowest bidder to give up their seat.Īnd yes, frustratingly to travelers, involuntary boarding denial is completely legal. Involuntary versus voluntary denied boarding Nichols said he once got $1,000 in airline credits for volunteering, but he has found compensation to be typically in the $500 to 800 range. “I never regret it because it’s just something I kind of plan for,” he said. He told me he makes it a point to arrange his travels so he can volunteer to get bumped whenever possible. Glenn Nichols, a semi-retired hotelier in South Bend, Indiana, is one of those travelers who frequently put their hands up. Get a hold of yourselves: Why air rage on airplanes is every traveler's problemĬarriers asked people to voluntarily give up their seats more frequently in 2022, too, nearly doubling that number year over year.įrontier Airlines had the most involuntary boarding denials in 2022, at a rate of 2.66 per 10,000 passengers, while Delta Air Lines got the most volunteers: more than 100,000 over the course of the year. In 2022, that stat was 0.32 denials per 10,000 passengers on average.Īirport lounges Behind the frosted glass doors of airline lounges, is it really worth it? In 2021, airlines denied boarding on average to 0.17 of every 10,000 passengers booked to travel. Part of that, surely, is explained by airlines just transporting more passengers last year than the year before, but the actual rate of bumping rose, even accounting for that. Let’s not even get to how I’d feel if I were the victim of “involuntary denied boarding.” Both scenarios can happen when airlines intentionally oversell flights and more people show up at the gate than there are seats on the plane, forcing them to keep some number of people grounded.Īccording to the Department of Transportation, voluntary and involuntary boarding denials (which, confusingly, are both referred to colloquially as “bumping”) were on the rise in 2022. Even writing this out, the thought of tossing hypothetical plans to the wind is making me anxious. The lure of airline vouchers – or maybe even cash – is appealing, but alas, I am not so carefree. Many times when I fly I see people volunteering to give up their seat, and I totally get it. Welcome to Cruising Altitude, a new column at USA TODAY focusing on travel trends.
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