Has anyone been refused boarding on a flight they had been checked in for due to overbooking?

Brendan Burgess

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I am not interested in cases where people showed up late or without their passport, just due to overbooking.

The Irish Times has an horrific story about a Ryanair customer

‘Be very afraid’: What I learned from my 26-hour Ryanair delay

Overbooking is not uncommon and can cause airport misery for customers. Here’s how to maximise your chances of actually getting the flight you paid for - and what to know if you don’t
www.irishtimes.com

But how common is it?

Can you avoid it by booking a particular seat at check-in?


Brendan
 
 
Hi ClubMan

That ties in with Ryanair's statement that it had to replace the planned plane with a smaller plane.

I have not heard any airline asking for volunteers not to fly. I have a vague memory of it happening about 30 years ago on a flight from New York to Dublin.

Brendan
 
If it's so rare, Ryanair should have gone out of their way to look after these three passengers.

It's not just about legal rights. I would not have felt happy with €250 compensation for a 26 hour delay. A student might well be delighted.

Brendan
 
I would have thought that overbooking is not uncommon. But overbooking leading to bumping passengers strikes me as uncommon.

I was surprised when Ryanair said that they don't do it. But they have probably figured out that the cost of compensation is very high compared to the cost of the flight. Doing it for an expensive transatlantic flight might make sense for the airline.

Why airlines overbook flights and your rights if you can’t get a seat

WHETHER you’re heading out to begin your holiday or trying to get home after enjoying one, it’s safe to say that turning up at the airport to find that your flight has been overbooked i…
www.thesun.ie
 
I thought the actions of Portuguese policy as outlined in the report were outrageous. The passengers were denied boarding at the gate for seats they had paid for. When they were talking to the gate agent the police ‘kettled’ then (whatever that means) then escorted them out from the airside.
If you have a commercial dispute you should have a right to complain (loudly) on the spot.
 
You should not be allowed to disrupt the flight plans of other passengers and you should not be allowed to be a security risk.

It's not like a row between you and a shopkeeper where you are upsetting no one else.

Brendan
 
ClubMan said:
If the Irish Times is going to assert that "overbooking is not uncommon" then they really should cite some evidence to back that up.
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I don’t think it’s at all common in Europe.

I’ve flown maybe 300 times in my lifetime and at least half with Ryanair. I’ve never had a cancellation with them at all and only once a >3 hr delay.

I fully believe Ryanair in this instance when they say they had to use a smaller aircraft at short notice and overbooking is not a policy.

The whole article is hyperbolic and doesn’t prove very much.
 
I thought it was common with Ryanair about 20 years ago. At the time, they would ask volunteers. I experienced it on a couple of flights. However since then, I have never seen it.
 
Premos said:
I thought it was common with Ryanair about 20 years ago. At the time, they would ask volunteers. I experienced it on a couple of flights. However since then, I have never seen it.
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Happened once on a return flight with aer lingus flight from Amsterdam to Dublin...was compensated €150 plus given food vouchers for the airport and was booked on the next flight that evening... 15 or so travellers were impacted..
 
I did a lot of business travel in the 90s and overbooking was common. It was a regular occurance on all airlines as a lot more tickets were flexible with late changes allowed so all airlines knew the average number of no shows and overbooked but would get it wrong sometimes

Has totally changed with the number of non flexible tickets bought
 
It's standard practice for airlines to overbook, I've heard a figure of 8% overbooking for airlines in the US. For Ryanair, it's likely they had to replace a planned 737-max flight with a smaller 737-800, leaving some passengers without a seat.
 
Ryanair operate as a point to point airline, so there would be an expectation that almost all their booked passengers would show up for a flight. For other airlines, they would have experience of passengers from connecting flights not arriving, and would base their overbooking rate on that experience.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
You should not be allowed to disrupt the flight plans of other passengers and you should not be allowed to be a security risk.

It's not like a row between you and a shopkeeper where you are upsetting no one else.

Brendan
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Maybe I misunderstood but I thought it was Ryanair who were disrupting passengers flight plans.

I have no idea where you are getting a suggestion of security risk.
 
cremeegg said:
Maybe I misunderstood but I thought it was Ryanair who were disrupting passengers flight plans.

I have no idea where you are getting a suggestion of security risk.
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Of course, you are right.

They call security to people who are polite and mannerly.

Ryanair deliberately provoked these people by sabotaging one of their own planes and brought in a slightly smaller plane.

Brendan
 
cremeegg said:
Maybe I misunderstood but I thought it was Ryanair who were disrupting passengers flight plans.

I have no idea where you are getting a suggestion of security risk.
Click to expand...

And you have no idea (neither have I) what whoever contacted the Portuguese Police may have told them, which, presumably, would have influenced their attitude to the complaining 'bumped' passengers.
And, more significantly, neither has The Guardian's former money editor (who wrote that report for the Guardian) which the Irish Times copied.

So unless we hear the Portuguese Police's version of what happens, we don't really know who is to blame.
 
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I have seen overbooking once but it was over 20 years ago and 9/11 related. In circumstances where an air hostess got ill, I once agreed to take a later flight back from Faro, and it was to do with ratios of passengers to air crew. Overbooking is not a thing, and it certainly isn’t with Ryanair. How can it in any event with boarding passes generated quite far in advance and lots of people buying seats?
 
Dr Strangelove said:
If Ryanair had a standard policy of overbooking I think we’d have heard about it long before now.
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I doubt that overbooking forms part of their business model. It seems pretty clear from the report that the problem arose because Ryanair had to switch planes, and the replacement hadn't sufficient capacity to fit everyone booked onto the original aircraft.

That said, the way that their local representatives handled the problem in Porto was pretty shabby.
 
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