Involuntary denied boardings occur when passengers who have a confirmed seat on a specific flight cannot be accommodated on that flight and are thus “bumped”. Passengers are usually bumped due to tickets being oversold.
The Vacationer analyzed publicly available Air Travel Consumer Reports from the U.S. Department of Transportation in order to determine which airlines most frequently “bumped” passengers involuntarily and which airlines most frequently offered benefits to passengers to miss their flights voluntarily. All data currently released over the last 12 months (Q3 2019 – Q2 2020) was examined on a per 100,000 passengers basis. Q2 2020’s data was then analyzed and compared to the cumulative data in Q3 2019 – Q2 2020 to see what effect, if any, COVID-19 had on airlines’ denied boardings.
Here are the findings for Involuntary Bumpings
U.S. Airlines Most Likely To Involuntary Bump Passengers (Q3 2019 – Q2 2020)
1. Envoy Air
2. PSA Airlines
3. Republic Airways
4. Frontier Airlines
5. American Airlines
6. Mesa Airlines
7. Skywest Airlines
8. Spirit Airlines
9. Alaska Airlines
10. Southwest Airlines
11. JetBlue Airways
12. United Airlines
13. Allegiant Air
14. ExpressJet Airlines
15. Hawaiian Airlines
16. Delta Air Lines
17. Endeavor Air
Involuntary denied boardings occur when passengers who have a confirmed seat on a specific flight cannot be accommodated on that flight and are thus “bumped”. Passengers are usually bumped due to tickets being oversold.
Key Stats:
Frontier Airlines and American Airlines are more than 3x more likely to bump a passenger than all other mainline airlines. Frontier Airlines bumps 3.675 people per 100,000 passengers while American Airlines will bump 3.359 people per 100,000 passengers. Frontier is 1,225x more likely to bump a passenger than Delta and American Airlines is 1,120x more likely to bump a passenger than Delta!
Delta Air Lines is the least likely mainline airline to bump a passenger having only bumped 3 out of 107,673,778 passengers between Q3 2019 and Q2 2020. The only airline with fewer bumps than Delta during this period was Endeavor Air which Delta owns.
American Airlines and American Airlines subsidiaries (Envoy and PSA) make up 3 of the top 5 airlines most likely to bump a passenger.
U.S. Airlines Most Likely To Bump Passengers During COVID (Q2 2020)
As you can see by the chart in the article under the heading "Has COVID-19 Changed the Airlines Most Likely to Bump Passengers?", the list has changed a bit. Frontier was the No. 1 airline likely to bump passengers during Q2 2020 (COVID).
Key Stats:
Frontier Airlines is twice as likely to bump a passenger when comparing Q2 2020 to the blended aggregate data of Q3 2019 – Q2 2020. Frontier had 6.521 bumps per 100,000 passengers during Q2 2020 versus 3.675 bumps per 100,000 passengers from Q3 2019 – Q2 2020.
Delta and Allegiant still are the least likely mainline and budget airlines to bump a passenger.
American Airlines Group’s trio of airlines improved their bumps per 100,000 passengers drastically in Q2 2020 versus Q3 2019 – Q2 2020.
Voluntary Bumpings Section (Passenger Benefits)
U.S. Airlines Most Likely to Offer Passengers Benefits (voluntary bumpings) to Miss Their Flight Ranked (Q3 2019 – Q2 2020)
1. Endeavor Air
2. SkyWest Airlines
3. Republic Airways
4. ExpressJet Airlines
5. Envoy Air
6. Delta Air Lines
7. PSA Airlines
8. Spirit Airlines
9. American Airlines
10. Mesa Airlines
11. Alaska Airlines
12. United Airlines
13. Frontier Airlines
14. Southwest Airlines
15. Allegiant Air
16. JetBlue Airways
17. Hawaiian Airlines
A voluntary denied boarding occurs when a passenger chooses not to fly in exchange for some sort of airline benefits.
Key Stats:
Delta Air Lines is the major airline most likely to offer passengers benefits to miss their flight. Between Q3 2019 and Q2 2020, Delta Air Lines convinced 68,833 passengers to voluntarily give up their seats. This is 63.927 voluntary denied boardings per 100,000 passengers. The success of Delta’s competitive bidding for voluntary denied boardings is one of the reasons it has been able to almost completely eliminate involuntary denied boardings.
Spirit Airlines is the budget airline most likely to offer benefits to passengers to miss their flight. Spirit Airlines had 56.181 voluntary denied boardings between Q3 2019 – Q2 2020, which is 4x more than the next budget airliner Frontier
U.S. Airlines Most Likely to Offer Passengers Benefits (voluntary bumpings) to Miss Their Flight During COVID (Q2 2020)
As you can see by the chart in the article under the heading "Has COVID-19 Changed the Airlines Most Likely to Offer Passengers Benefits to Miss Their Flight?, the list has changed a bit.
Key Stats:
Delta Air Lines continued to offer benefits so passengers would voluntarily miss their flight at a much higher rate than all other major airlines. The only airline to offer benefits for voluntary denied boardings at a higher rate than Delta during Q2 2020 was Endeavor Air, which Delta owns.
During COVID in Q2 2020, Frontier Airlines became the budget airline most likely to offer compensation for a passenger to voluntarily miss their flight. The rate at which Frontier Airlines had voluntarily denied boardings increased from 14.017 passengers per 100,000 in Q3 2019 – Q2 2020 to 24.634 during Q2 2020.
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.
