Being bumped when on a reward ticket.

Question....

Do you stand a higher chance of being bumped off an over booked flight if you are on a miles ticket? If it ends up an involuntary bump what comensation would you receive?

Regards

John

(Who's VS200 on Sat is currently full....[:?])

John,
I believe you get the same compansation as any bumped pax ie 50K miles or a Select voucher

If you check in early its doubtful you'll be bumped, however its a free flight if you dont mind missing a day.

Don't all airlines ask for volunteers who are prepared to travel later / the following day [with suitable cash / voucher / free ticket] incentive before bumping people off the flight? A few years ago I was on a very overbooked American Airlines flight out of Orlando to Chicago on a miles aware ticket & did not get bumped - maybe enough people took them up on their offer of $150, hotel, meals + fly the following morning.

Of course, there is also the argument that if you are flying on a reward ticket [particularly if all / the majority of the miles were earned on that airlines flights] that you are a good customer who spends a fair bit of money with the airline. I am guessing that once a reward ticket is issued, there is no way they can look back & see how the miles were earnt though.

You are much LESS likely to be bumped off a flight whilst travelling on a non-revenue ticket. I have volunteered before only to be refused for being on a reward ticket. Although I was accepted once when the overbooking was particularly large and all volunteers were needed.

I'd be more than happy to delay the outbound by 24 hours for 50k miles!

Let's see what happens!

Er...sorry, John, a little clarification required, please. When you refer to a 'miles ticket' do you mean: a) a miles-earning ticket b) a ticket paid for using miles or 3) a money plus miles ticket ??

The ticket I have is a return Upper Class "purchased" using 100k miles.


Regards

John

Thanks. Then my earlier post applies.

Originally posted by Kraken
Don't all airlines ask for volunteers who are prepared to travel later / the following day [with suitable cash / voucher / free ticket] incentive before bumping people off the flight? A few years ago I was on a very overbooked American Airlines flight out of Orlando to Chicago on a miles aware ticket & did not get bumped - maybe enough people took them up on their offer of $150, hotel, meals + fly the following morning.

Of course, there is also the argument that if you are flying on a reward ticket [particularly if all / the majority of the miles were earned on that airlines flights] that you are a good customer who spends a fair bit of money with the airline. I am guessing that once a reward ticket is issued, there is no way they can look back & see how the miles were earnt though.

$150 is pretty stingy - unless it was a good few years ago, of course! About 18 months ago my good lady and I volunteered to give up our economy seats on a Continental EWR-EDI flight (started journey from ATL), and received $1,000 in travel vouchers, meal vouchers and a hotel room for the night. It paid for a return trip from EDI-ATL last April [8D]

Originally posted by GDE1966

Originally posted by Kraken
Don't all airlines ask for volunteers who are prepared to travel later / the following day [with suitable cash / voucher / free ticket] incentive before bumping people off the flight? A few years ago I was on a very overbooked American Airlines flight out of Orlando to Chicago on a miles aware ticket & did not get bumped - maybe enough people took them up on their offer of $150, hotel, meals + fly the following morning.

Of course, there is also the argument that if you are flying on a reward ticket [particularly if all / the majority of the miles were earned on that airlines flights] that you are a good customer who spends a fair bit of money with the airline. I am guessing that once a reward ticket is issued, there is no way they can look back & see how the miles were earnt though.

$150 is pretty stingy - unless it was a good few years ago, of course! About 18 months ago my good lady and I volunteered to give up our economy seats on a Continental EWR-EDI flight (started journey from ATL), and received $1,000 in travel vouchers, meal vouchers and a hotel room for the night. It paid for a return trip from EDI-ATL last April [8D]

Even flying from Orlando-Newark one Saturday morning around 11am they were offering $450, dinner and first class seats later that day (although the flight was via somewhere else rather than direct),

Sometimes the offers increase the more desperate they become as the above did start off lower and there wasn't much uptake for the 15? people they wanted to be bumped initially.

Originally posted by JAT74L
Question....

Do you stand a higher chance of being bumped off an over booked flight if you are on a miles ticket? If it ends up an involuntary bump what comensation would you receive?

Regards

John

(Who's VS200 on Sat is currently full....[:?])

With VS involuntary downgrades and 'bumped' packages are worse than if you had volunteered. This is because the involuntary packages follow the EU rules where as the vonluntary package is something VS has put together so obivously a lot better.

If in Upper or Premium, you wouldn't be bumped off, you'd be downgraded, and TBH yes, a rewards ticket is better to downgrade than a full fare paying pax.

If you're in economy and the flight was overbooked, it wouldn't matter what class of ticket you hold.

If in Upper or Premium, you wouldn't be bumped off, you'd be downgraded, and TBH yes, a rewards ticket is better to downgrade than a full fare paying pax.

Why would a PE/UC pax be happy to downgrade?
Surely they would want to be bumped to another flight rather than fly in a class they didn't origonally want!

I'd be happy to downgrade from PE to Y but not from UC to PE if the compendation is the same 50k miles.

Why would a PE/UC pax be happy to downgrade?
Surely they would want to be bumped to another flight rather than fly in a class they didn't origonally want!

My thoughts entirely. I won't be at all pleased if faced with this scenario and would rather wait till the next flight.

John

Originally posted by Jonathan

If in Upper or Premium, you wouldn't be bumped off, you'd be downgraded, and TBH yes, a rewards ticket is better to downgrade than a full fare paying pax.

Why would a PE/UC pax be happy to downgrade?
Surely they would want to be bumped to another flight rather than fly in a class they didn't origonally want!

You'll find airlines have the stance that they'll just get you from A - B, with no promise of what class of travel it's in.

If flights are oversold in J & W for the next few days, they are under no obligation to put you on another flight, or with another carrier in the same class of travel.

Whilst you may have the flexibility to wait a few days, some people do not and they HAVE to get on that flight for meetings or whatever the reason.

It's not good practise but if you're last to check in on an oversold flight in J or W the airlines have you over a barrel - basically you downgrade or you don't get on that flight.

The only class of travel that is offered to be bumped is economy as the airline would rather keep it's W & J pax with them.

I

I think its worth pointing out, having worked for several airlines and knowing a fair amount about how these airlines revenue management and overbooking policy works (BA being one!)... I've been REALLY impressed with the 'Capacity vs Total Seats' figures for VS Flights.

Obviously this is confidential, and varies from route to route (the Gatwick flights have alot less 'no-shows' than Heathrow due to the heavy Leisure mix, etc) but currently with VAA it is very rare that Overbooking ever causes problems at check-in.

It really not something to worry too much about, especially in Upper or Premium, but making sure you're checked-in in decent time (or online!) will certainly help.

^ Yeah whilst it's not an ever day occurance, it is certainly not rare by any means!!!

I've often wanted to invite the boys from rev accounts team down to the airport to see what happens when they get it wrong and the abuse the ground staff get for their decisions!!!!

Originally posted by Lipstick
^ Yeah whilst it's not an ever day occurance, it is certainly not rare by any means!!!

I've often wanted to invite the boys from rev accounts team down to the airport to see what happens when they get it wrong and the abuse the ground staff get for their decisions!!!!

Perhaps it would have been clearer if I'd said that it happened ALOT less than on the previous airlines I've worked for... I've seen a Business cabin of 55 seats overbooked to 79 on an other airline (on one of the routes VAA serve) will a full load in First and 30 over in Economy! And that wasn't rare on this route...

However on VAA flights on this route when I've checked the number of oversales available to book this is considerably less.

Oh and the airline in question above often found itself bumping the pax over to VAA.

[RichardMannion]

Lipstick is right about the difference between VDB and IDB - I have written quite a lengthy chapter on the various situations for the upcoming V-Book as there are now Green and Red Select vouchers - so depending on the delay to your VS destination it may not be 50k miles.

Thanks,
Richard

Richard,
When's the next version out?