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Is this flight overbooked and what does that mean? |
Travel Info I was thinking of taking a trip in a couple of weeks with my niece. Delta was the cheapest airline and when I went to book online at delta.com, it gave me a favorable rate but when I looked at the seats available, only one seat was available. Does this mean the flight is overbooked. How will the airline handle this? She can't fly alone as she is a minor and I really don't wanna get bumped. Should I buy the tickets? What should I do? Travel Tips It could mean that the fare is sold out for those dates, not the flight. Airlines deal on what is called a controlled capacity basis. This means that they will only sell a certain number of seats at a certain fare. Then the fare is sold out not the flight. The flight maybe available at a higher fare. You can always be somewhat flexible on your dates of time of departure and find availability in that fare. Airlines also oversell most flights. Why? Statistics tell them that there is about a 10% "no-show" factor. Rather than have empty seats, they oversell their flights to compensate for this. If this happens to you and you have a confirmed reservation and arrive at the airport check-in counter within the required advance check-in time, and you are denied boarding due to an oversold flight, they will offer you Denied Boarding Compensation. This can range from money to upgrading of your class of service. The airlines have a specific number of hours to accommodate you or they are subject to compensating you for that. Sometimes they will come on board the flight and ask for volunteers to give up their seat for a travel voucher or monetary amount. This way, they can accommodate you and the person that gives up the seat gets your denied boarding compensation. I have clients that specialize in doing just this for the free travel vouchers and cash payments. You have to be flexible but it can work out in your favor if you are. If you MUST be at your travel destination at a specific time, then be at the departing airport at least 90 minutes prior and you should not run into this problem, assuming you have a confirmed reservation. If I were in your situation, I would call the airline directly and the Reservation Agent should be able to give you seat numbers. Also remember that the airlines wait to assign some seat only upon airport check-in. Bulkhead seat and Emergency row seats often are airport check-in only. They have to determine that people seated in the Emergency rows best bet, call Delta and ask them for seat assignments directly. Right now you are after the fare not the seat. Once you get a confirmed ticket, then you can deal with Delta directly. Do not fret, they are not going to board the minor without you. I would say buy the ticket and then deal with Delta directly. Others It might mean that the flight is overbooked or it could mean that there are some seats reserved but not yet booked. One thing for sure - don't buy tickets without a seat assignment. Reason is that those are the first to get bumped if the flight does get oversold. Airlines are often overbooking by as much as 20% these days. As a result, I won't book unless I have an assigned seat. Been there, been bumped. Airlines always overbook there flights in hopes that someone will not show up for the flight. What they will do if everyone shows up for the flight - they will announce that the flight is overbooked and offer free vouchers, etc... to those passengers that are willing to take another flight later in the day. If no one offers to get bumped from the flight they will then start to bump people. Not sure how they decided who gets bumped, but usually someone will offer to take a later flight in order to get the free stuff. Hope this explains it and you don't get bumped! https://www.jets.com/private_jets.aspx... |
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