It could be a scene from an auction house: a Delta flight from Boston to Rome was in September 2023 so overbooked That a flight attendant asked the passengers and offered them thousands of dollars and a hotel room to give up their seats in return for a voucher and a later flight.
“Come on people, $ 3,500, can someone take one for the team?” The flight attendant said in a video recorded on Tikok. “We’ll get you a hotel if you show up for us.”
According to the account that the video published, 13 passengers received between 2,000 and 4,000 US dollars to voluntarily give up their tickets, and later end up in Rome hours later.
It is not just a few lucky ones who can use the airline’s overbooked air vouchers. From January to March, 26,879 Delta passengers voluntarily registered to “take one for the team” to find vouchers and travel advantages. Airlines that ensure the usual practice for complete flights often overbook the passengers the risk of mixing them and managing inconvenience. By rules of The Ministry of Transport (Dot) The airlines have to passengers 200% of the disposable ticket costs for a flight up to two hours and 400% for a flight more than these delay-a sum that can amount to $ 2,150. The airlines must compensate passengers on the same day as the stroke.
In the middle Fears before a waste of travel And Local shortage That delayed and canceled numerous flights that have US flight tours remained strong. When the flight industry comes Record In the heat in July, passengers require good offers – everything Pizza slices For delayed passengers too 10,000 US dollars in cash– And the secret is how airlines will protect them.
“My job as a content creator is to share hacks that people really like” Assets. “I have to listen to my audience and my audience loves everything that has to do with flight, tips, hacks.”
To become flights from flights was a blessing to Jarman in his years before they had children. To be paid for a few hours was a child’s play for him and he said Search for experiences about luxury goods– There are good candidates to take advantage of the travel advantages that can offer the booking of an oversized flight.
“Getting a bunch is almost like in my head,” compensation for money, “said Jarman.
Airlines are booked, employed and injured
Browsing from a flight, it was not always a airline. Before Social Media became a recognized educational instrument for financial competence, it was a means of documenting the nightmates of airlines. In 2017, a passenger from United Airlines was deducted from a over -booked flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky. Several passengers recorded the scene of a security officer who fought for the passenger – who had a tangled shirt and sluggish glasses when he was dragged down the plane – on cell phone cameras and published videos Twitter.
“It felt like the world had to see,” Tyler Bridges, one of the passengers who documented the scene in front of the camera. told The New York Times.
If airlines can not sweeten the pot with vouchers and advantages to attract passengers voluntarily from overbooked flights rarely I involuntarily have to hand over the passengers from complete flights, a step that was still controversial for this special flight because United was looking for additional seats for his employees, said Bridges. United spokesman Charlie Hobart replied at the time when the airline had asked the passenger several times to leave the plane politely, but rejected this.
The incident was a turning point for not just United – which apologized for the “disturbing event” and for the overbooking of the flight – but the entire industry, according to Clint Henderson, chief editor of Travel Blog and News Outlet The dot Guy.
“The airlines escalated the amount they were willing to pay passengers for a later flight,” said Henderson, “said Henderson said Henderson Assets. “They somehow had this arms race because the airlines did not want to get into a situation in which they had to force people out of the plane.”
In fact, airlines made Close mediates changesSince Delta increases its compensation for overbooked flights to almost 10,000 US dollars. American Airlines has updated its Carriage state To forbid the airline to remove a paid passenger who has already asked an oversized flight. United implemented a guideline and had to check in an hour before flight after the flight crew so as not to suppress the passengers in events of oversold flights.
Even the point intervened and strengthened its refused boarding remuneration rule in 2021 to ban airlines to refuse a on-board of a passenger, or to involuntarily encounter them if they asked for a flight before the check-in period, and to clarify that the requirements for financial remuneration are a minimum.
As a result of the changes, United “has significantly reduced the number of annual (involuntary refusal to the internship) since 2017,” said Hobart Assets.
First -class reputation
The incident of United 2017 could be a distant memory for the aviation industry that continues Weather controversyBut how airlines navigate the compensation of overbooked flights is a microcosm of the often difficult relationship between passengers and industry giants.
“It has always been a thrust and train between airlines and consumers,” said Henderson. “I think that’s a sequel to it.”
Between Shrinking of the seat sizes And spoiled foodCommercial flights have lost their shine in the eyes of travelers. While airlines try to sweeten the pot for travelers with more generous vouchers and advantages such as First -class flights with budget airlines and partnerships with popular chains Like shake shakeHenderson argued that annoying customers will still do what they can do to increase the airlines from which they believe they are tearing them off. It is an understandable feeling of passengers, but it is also not good news for the industry as a whole.
“The airlines are not always the good ones, so I don’t want to make it sound that way,” he said. “But at the same time it is not the most profitable business in the world.”
Despite the record number of records, airlines no longer have more travelers. Boeing Delays in the delivery of aircraft, inflation, shortage of workers and a number of security incidents All dented The end result of the industry. Henderson concerned the dark prospects of the industry via TikTok trends and parts of hacks, which may lead too many travelers to use the oversighting rules.
But airlines have not found this problem. The number of passengers actually refused boarding due to oversold flights, with 0.24 passengers per 10,000 being refused to the ten largest US airlines due to an overbooked flight due to an overbooked flight. This compared to 0.29 passengers per 10,000 in the same period in 2023 and 0.27 passengers per 10,000 in 2024, according to the points Air Travel Consumer Reports.
In addition, the number of passengers from the consumer or passengers who hope to make a money fluctuates due to the demand from consumers by deliberately booking an oversized flight. The number of tickets that an airline offers for an over-booked flight is based on your own predictions of how many people may not occur for a flight-and on his own need to make a profit.
Ultimately, Henderson believes that compensation for excessive flights, regardless of their frequency, is another way for passengers to give the airline economy’s scales in their favor, especially if they feel short-circuited by the industry giants.
“It will be more difficult to maximize your fight against the airline,” he said.
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A version of this story that was originally published Fortune.com on July 7, 2024.
