How to Avoid a Collision With a Flight
What’s worse than confusing security lines, busy airports and three-hour delays? Finding – after all this – that you still can’t board the flight because you got hit.
In airline jargon, being bumped is the code “This flight is overbooked and we need to move someone now.” And while you can get some cash in exchange for the inconvenience, sometimes a later flight isn’t worth it.
The Points Guy tweeted this week about one family’s hell of a journey where they got kicked out of their original flight, eventually canceled and rerouted with not one, but two connections. 26 hours later (and after a night on the floor at the airport), the family miraculously made it home; but if you want to avoid a scenario like this, sometimes it’s as easy as registering early and booking a seat whenever possible.
Fly with a different airline
Here’s one fact to comfort you: Accidental blows are pretty rare these days for the most part. Following the incident with United Airlines in October 2017, when an airline executive pulled a passenger off a flight to accommodate crew members, a number of airlines responded with fewer passengers than ever. (Between January and September 2017, the number of United employees increased to 2,067, up from 70 in the same period in 2018.)
However, it does happen, and some airlines are worse than others. According to TPG , in the period from October to December 2018, American Airlines carried just over 1,500 passengers. Meanwhile, Delta has lost zero. How does this even happen? Well, it’s worth discussing the difference between involuntary and voluntary strikes. Have you ever heard of flight attendants at the gate asking passengers to take cash in exchange for a later flight? This is considered a voluntary collision because passengers prefer to take money.
Between July and September 2018, airlines such as Frontier, Alaska, and Southwest denied boarding to a larger percentage of their passengers, according to the Department of Transportation’s statistics bureau (Delta, JetBlue, United, and Hawaiian denied the lowest percentage, but offered a heck of a lot of voluntary deals.) to compensate for this.)
You could take a Delta, JetBlue or United flight if you want to ensure you’re on the route you actually booked (or at least more likely to get a great deal out of it if you don’t). …
And if you really want to improve your chances of succeeding, try booking a flight that also leaves outside office hours. As AirHelp notes, you are more likely to fly in the morning than in the evening: “ As the day goes on, delays and cancellations snowball, increasing the likelihood that flights will be filled or booked in excess, which in turn increases the chances of being canceled. in landing “.
Make sure you have a reserved seat and register early
Seating in advance is the only guarantee that you will actually take off on your flight, writes TPG . After all, if the flight is full and all seats are reserved, it is logical that those who do not choose them will be the first to collide.
Once you book your flight, try to book your seat online or by phone; If you’re ready to splurge, you can also spend a little extra money on a premium seat (often an exit row seat or one with extra legroom) to better guarantee yourself a seat as well.
If you are waiting for a better seat to open 24 hours before departure, it is also very helpful to check in as early as possible while you are there. Those passengers who checked in last are more likely to be denied boarding.
Don’t buy the cheapest plan
Cheap seats are cheap for a reason; you are given a seat on the flight to ensure that the airline is making a profit and not risking an empty seat – while giving you as few benefits as possible.
But if you want to avoid the bumps, it’s in your best interest to reconsider buying this basic economy fare, as wonderful (or relatively) cheap as it is. As it is written in the contracts of carriage of some airlines (a fancy term for their rules), economy class passengers are more likely to be denied boarding. Plus, with some basic tickets, you are sometimes not even given the option to reserve a seat, only increasing the chances of you watching your flight depart without you.
For the same reasons, yes, having a first or business class seat will likely increase the chances of you not being pushed out like any elite status. We are not all created equal, at least in the eyes of airlines, and having any status (or booking with someone with a status) will help.
Ask for cash if bumped into you
So, you were confused! Hopefully you are not forced to sleep on the airport floor, but if you have to, there are a few things you should be aware of, besides the fact that there are a lot of Purell around.
First, you are given certain rights if you fly on a later flight, according to the Department of Transport website ; this includes cash, depending on the total delay, as we wrote earlier :
- If a new flight is arranged within an hour of the arrival of your original flight, the airlines do not require compensation.
- If the new arrival time is one to two hours late (one to four hours on international flights), you are entitled to 200 percent of the one-way fare, up to a maximum of $ 675.
- If the new arrival time is more than two hours late (or more than four hours on international flights), you are eligible for a 400 percent one-way fare, up to a maximum of $ 1,350.
- You should also receive a refund for additional services such as checking your bag or choosing a seat.
While most airlines’ contracts of carriage may not be specific about how much they owe you, you should know that you are eligible for compensation. (JetBlue, on the other hand, has an extensive list of passenger rights . They will reimburse you up to $ 1,350 per collision.)
Also, try to ask for cash when you receive your refund, because vouchers can have annoying expiration dates, plus it’s money you can spend elsewhere (if you’ve run into an airline, I doubt you’d be thrilled from being able to fly with them again, even if you have a voucher).
And if the expected delay is very long, bargain to get compensation for the hotel, food, or any transportation you need. “On one flight from Helsinki, I missed a connection at JFK airport and there were no more flights with open seats that night,” saidSeth Kaplan , an airline expert who also writes for TPG. “But I asked the airline (in this case, the American one) to book me with LaGuardia and give me a taxi voucher to get from JFK to LaGuardia.”
So take whatever you can from the airline if you get hit. Flying is tricky, but a little extra money can make it easier.