Innovative way to solve overbooking?
I was booked on AB 8047 from CPH to DUS yesterday evening. Shortly after checking in my baggage I received two text messages from AB saying that a) my flight has been canceled and b) it is delayed.
Somehow confusing - went to the local handling agent who confirmed the cancelation and booked me on AB 8041 next morning (plus hotel plus food).
Frustrating enough, I checked AB 8047 on the Internet later that evening. Guess what, it DID depart from CPH, but they changed equipment from A320 to DH8D.
As this aircraft has significantly less seats, I assume the change of equipment resulted in overbookings. I am further getting the impression that instead of forking out money to find volunteers who are willing to step back from their flight, AB randomly picked (me) and made me belive the flight was canceled.
Questions:
1) has anyone experienced a similar situation with AB? (they seem to change equipment quite frequently on that route)
2) what is the usual compensation for voluntarily stepping back from the flight on similar routes? I guess it's more that the € 250 that I will be entitled to anyway