Getting bumped off a flight

malky800

Tue, Jul 20 2010, 6:41 pm

I was checking into my flight (Delta), and there's a message , 'due to overbooking, please check with out staff at the gate if you would like to be bumped. ' (in their loshon).

A . Anyone know if they'll only tell you at the gate, or can I ask them beforehand. I'm not travelling all the way to the airport to find out and turn back home if they'll accept us.

B. Do they only accept individuals, or would they take a family of 4 seats?

C. Are they going to get me on the next available flight? what happens if those are also booked solid in the summer, when can I expect to get a flight out?

de_goldy

Tue, Jul 20 2010, 7:17 pm

Usually at the gate they offer people incentives to give up their seat if the flight is overbooked. (eg. free round tickets to anywhere in the US and a flight to your destination later that day)

Marion

Tue, Jul 20 2010, 7:59 pm

If they're really overbooked they'll take whoever they can get! I was [almost] bumped off a TLV-YYZ (Toronto) flight several years ago. They couldn't offer me enough (I had an appointment booked for 2 hours after I landed that there was no way to change), but several families took them up on the offer.

Mrs Bissli

Wed, Jul 21 2010, 7:02 am

I presume you're considering voluntarily being bumped to get compensation? Instead of waiting till you get to the boarding gate, you can definitely ask at the check-in gate. I don't think you can do that on internet/phone, as it's usually the ground agent & gate agent that can monitor the actual passenger/seat counts. Also, there may be no/less need for asking for volunteers if there's a delay of another connecting flight.

There shouldn't be an issue of an individual passenger vs family group. But it depends on how many seats the airline needs to free up--they may not take a family of 4 if they only need 2-3 seats.

YOU NEED TO NEGOTIATE THAT YOU'LL GET PREFERENTIAL BOOKING IF THE NEXT FLIGHT IS ALSO LIKELY TO BE OVERBOOKED. There's no statutory rights to prefer the bumped passengers from the previous flights.

Compensation varies greatly, basically the degree of inconveniences (distances and how long you have to wait till the next flight). Be wary if they only give you discount vouchers redeemable for the next flights--these vouchers get lots of restrictions (black out periods, only on full fares) I never got to use.

MiracleMama

Thu, Jul 22 2010, 11:12 pm

Before we had kids and we didn't mind a delay, we'd volunteer to get bumped all the time. Collected lots of vouchers and flew free for quite a while. Now with kids forget it. Anyhow, in my personal experiences, this was always done at the gate very close to boarding time. Nobody would discuss it with me any earlier, or in any other location, and definitely not on the phone. But it's been a while so maybe things have changed.