Here's how to make money off an overbooked flight
Travel is quickly rebounding which means there’s a greater likelihood your next flight will not only be full, but oversold.
Confidence from vaccinations and a desire to travel has caused air travel traffic to rebound from 2020, but traveler throughput still isn’t consistently back up to 2019 levels. Only on July 1 and 2, 2021 did more people fly compared with the same days two years prior. In a bid to recoup from a down year and accommodate the growing number of passengers, oversell situations are becoming more common.
It isn’t an accident or computer system glitch that your flight is oversold, Scott Keyes, founder and chief flight expert at Scott’s Cheap Flights, explained. Some airlines bank on a percentage of passengers who will miss their flights for various reasons — a missed connection or accidentally sleeping through an alarm — so they sell more seats than the aircraft can accommodate, and it’s perfectly legal. Most of the time, the issue is a non-starter and rectifies itself, and sometimes airlines are so desperate to unload passengers that they resort to bribery to bump passengers at the gate.
If you’re not in a hurry to get to your destination, and looking to make a little cash off of the situation, Keyes offered his guidance on how to make the most out of an oversold flight.
What you’re entitled to
It might be tempting to jump at the desk agent’s first offer, especially if you’re not accustomed to gambling or negotiating, but you risk undervaluing the concession you’re making for the airline. It also helps to know when you’re being lowballed and when you should hold out for a sweeter deal.
The Department of Transportation outlines what passengers are entitled to, based on the delay length of their original flight or the flight they were bumped from.
For domestic flights:
0 - 1 hour delay, no compensation
1 - 2 hours delay, two-times the one-way fare (up to $775)
2+ hours delay, four-times the one-way fare (up to $1,550)
For international flights:
0 - 1 hour delay, no compensation
1 - 4 hours delay, two-times the one-way fare (up to $775)
4+ hours delay, four-times the one-way fare (up to $1,550)
How to get the most compensation
Before you engage in negotiations with the gate agent, mentally draw up your terms and identify your walk-away price or range.
Once the airline announces the call for multiple volunteers to surrender their seats, politely ask that your compensation amount be the same as the final volunteer’s, Keyes suggested. You don’t want to be burned for volunteering and taking the bait at $300 if someone else gets $1,000.
Also, if the airline is holding out on cash incentives, know that other perks are available. Airline agents are coached on how to drive a hard bargain so don’t expect a ton of transparency when it comes to off-menu items. Depending on your wait time for the next flight out, consider asking for valuable non-cash perks and upgrades like meal or hotel vouchers, hotel-to-airport transportation, access to lounges, better routing on your replacement flight, or even a first- or business-class seat upgrade.
“Desperate airlines take desperate measures to find volunteers, especially when they need more than a few,” Keyes said.
Stephanie is a reporter for Yahoo Money and Cashay, a new personal finance website. Follow her on Twitter @SJAsymkos.
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