In the event of an oversale, compensation is mandated by the DOT on domestic trips when ticketed passengers must be bumped from a flight. By protocol, the airline will look for volunteers first. If there are not enough volunteers, the airline carrier will then begin to bump some of its passengers.
On average, roughly 2.5 million passengers fly into and out of U.S. airports daily, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. With that many people trying to venture across the skies on any given day, does a ticket really guarantee your passage? According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, overbooking is considered legal, and most airlines do this to make up for any possible no-shows.
So how many people don’t make it to their destination? To answer this question, Stratos Jet Charters looked at passenger and flight data of major airlines from the first quarter of 2016 through the fourth quarter of 2017 to determine just how often people are bumped from flights or asked to change seats they’ve already paid for. We also looked at which airlines paid the most to displaced passengers.
Does It Pay to Be Bumped?
While overbooking is considered legal, passengers are not always entitled to compensation by the airline if bumped from their flight.
In the event of an oversale, compensation is mandated by the DOT on domestic trips when ticketed passengers must be bumped from a flight. By protocol, the airline will look for volunteers first. If there are not enough volunteers, the airline carrier will then begin to bump some of its passengers.
An involuntarily bumped passenger is a ticketed customer who is unwillingly removed from a flight. Passengers bumped against their will are entitled to compensation, minus a few exceptions. Those exceptions include missed check-in deadlines (which can vary by airline and flight) – if the flight is full, you could lose your reservation and your right to compensation. If you are bumped from a flight you were on time for, the airline is not mandated to compensate you as long as they arrange substitute transportation that is scheduled to get you to your final destination within one hour of your original arrival time.
Which airlines pay the most to these bumpees, though? Bumped customers were most generously compensated by Alaska Airlines and Virgin America, with average payouts of $1,222 and $968 respectively (the two airlines have since merged).
Compensation for Bumped Passengers Is on the Rise
In 2008, United Airlines had the highest average compensation to bumped passengers at $350. In 2017, JetBlue Airways had the highest, with a whopping average of $854.
Of the five most-boarded airlines (American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, and United), Delta Air Lines seems most reliable for above-average payouts to its bumped passengers. As of 2017, Delta was the top-paying carrier, and its compensation remained almost always above the majority since 2010.
JetBlue Airways peaked with a highest average compensation in 2015 at about $990. However, in just a year’s time, this amount plummeted by nearly $700 and then climbed back to $854 in 2017.
All five carriers offered greater compensation than in 2016 and now look to be steadily rising again. For most of these airlines, it may be one of the best times for compensation in the case of being bumped.
Passengers Are Getting Fewer Upgrades
Considering the same most-boarded airlines – excluding Southwest due to offering only one seating class – the likelihood of being upgraded on a flight was fairly low in the first half of 2017: less than 25 passengers per 10,000 boardings.
The peak for upgrades occurred in 2009 when United Airlines bumped up more than 200 customers per 10,000 boardings. Over the same period, JetBlue offered the lowest number of both upgrades and downgrades to its passengers.
In 2017, passengers were more likely to be downgraded as opposed to upgraded on Delta. The airline upgraded 69,990 passengers overall and downgraded another 126,710.
Over the past decade, a peak in downgrades was also reported by United Airlines. In 2011, the carrier downgraded nearly 36 passengers per 10,000 boardings. In 2017, Delta Air Lines had its highest number of downgrades, with more than 38 per 10,000 boardings.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
