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

Brendan Burgess

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

www.irishtimes.com

‘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 www.irishtimes.com

But how common is it?

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


Brendan
 
DENIED BOARDING

Ryanair, as a policy, does not overbook its flights. However, in the unlikely event that a seat is not available for a passenger with a confirmed reservation, we will seek volunteers to surrender their seats in exchange for benefits that we and the volunteer may agree upon before involuntarily denying boarding to other passengers. If there are insufficient volunteers and we deny you boarding involuntarily, you are entitled to the rights set out below.
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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.

www.thesun.ie

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 www.thesun.ie
 
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.
 
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..
 
Brendan Burgess said:
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
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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.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
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.

www.thesun.ie

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 www.thesun.ie
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
 
DannyBoyD said:
I have, several times in the US. There's usually vouchers / air miles /hotel or other sweeteners thrown in.
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You should have a look at the flight from Frankfurt to Dublin with Lufthansa. It happens there from time to time but they always look for volunteers to be fair.

Best,

Opus2018
 
Opus2018 said:
You should have a look at the flight from Frankfurt to Dublin with Lufthansa. It happens there from time to time but they always look for volunteers to be fair.

Best,

Opus2018
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I spoke to a friend of mine who makes multiple flights a year on Lufthansa between Frankfurt and Dublin and has never experienced it.

Brendan
 
I got asked one night in London City if I'd "step aside" as the plane was overbooked. I was told I'd be put up in a hotel for the night etc. I refused as I was just there for the day for work but I presume they found someone else.
 
Dr Strangelove said:
I suspect Ryanair prioritised older people and those with young kids which was indeed the right thing to do.
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I doubt it.

When people buy a ticket, they are given the option of choosing a seat.

If you have chosen a seat which no longer exists, I suspect you go on the "to be allocated list".

The first inkling of our impending misery was at breakfast time in Porto, when we checked in for our 4.35pm flight. Our boarding pass gave us seat numbers “00” and stated that our seats would be “assigned at gate”.

If you are ever given a “00” seat on Ryanair, be very afraid.
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So he checked in that morning for a 16.45 flight that afternoon. I suspect that he did not buy a seat and then checked in quite late.

So, if you are worried about this happening to you, either buy a seat when buying the ticket, or check in early - he could have checked in at 16.45 the previous day.

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
I spoke to a friend of mine who makes multiple flights a year on Lufthansa between Frankfurt and Dublin and has never experienced it.

Brendan
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Hi Brendan,

I’ve seen it a few times - most recently a few weeks ago. (On a Sunday morning flight)

Not that uncommon for the last flight out of Dublin of an evening….

Best, Opus2018
 
Very interesting

"Unlike other airlines, Ryanair does not overbook flights," a spokesman told The Irish Times. When he was referring to other airlines, he might have had Aer Lingus in mind because it does allow for overbooking although a spokeswoman assured us that it was "rare".

“As with all other airlines our flights can be overbooked from time to time,” she said. “This can result from operational disruption where a lower capacity aircraft is substituted for the one originally planned or sometimes, where a particular route has a high level of no-shows, bookings may exceed the number of seats available.”
 
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