Flights with most oversell situations?
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Flights with most oversell situations?
Reading the flight availability/load thread on here, it got me thinking about which routes/flights see the most oversells. Are there any flights that stand out?
I have been upgraded 3 times because of oversold flights, twice on LAX-LHR, and once on JFK-LHR.
I have been upgraded 3 times because of oversold flights, twice on LAX-LHR, and once on JFK-LHR.
#3
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Overbooked or oversold?
The start of school holidays is always a good time for overbooked flights, which can yield a lot of op-ups.
But the apparently oversold flights that I've seen have actually been pretty random, based on when I've been offered VDB - and of course, most of the time it's quite difficult for a passenger to tell whether a flight has actually been oversold.
The start of school holidays is always a good time for overbooked flights, which can yield a lot of op-ups.
But the apparently oversold flights that I've seen have actually been pretty random, based on when I've been offered VDB - and of course, most of the time it's quite difficult for a passenger to tell whether a flight has actually been oversold.
#5
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Never been upgraded for an oversold flight before, but I certainly have been given the "would you mind waiting for the next flight and we'll give you 200 Euros" routine...
Sounds great until you realise you have to spend that entire time until the next flight in a queue, AND there's no guarantee of you getting on that one, either. 3 flights later I finally got back from CPH to LHR without my luggage and only with 100 Euros because they "told me the wrong thing at check-in".
Never again!
Sounds great until you realise you have to spend that entire time until the next flight in a queue, AND there's no guarantee of you getting on that one, either. 3 flights later I finally got back from CPH to LHR without my luggage and only with 100 Euros because they "told me the wrong thing at check-in".
Never again!
#7
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: London
Posts: 489
I guess you could argue an overbooked flight is a flight that has too many bookings leading up to the flight date, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone will turn up / cancel on the days leading up to the flight. An overbooked flight could still depart without offloading anyone
Oversold could then mean on the day, too many people turn up and someone has to be offloaded.
Oversold could then mean on the day, too many people turn up and someone has to be offloaded.
#8
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I guess you could argue an overbooked flight is a flight that has too many bookings leading up to the flight date, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone will turn up / cancel on the days leading up to the flight. An overbooked flight could still depart without offloading anyone
Oversold could then mean on the day, too many people turn up and someone has to be offloaded.
Oversold could then mean on the day, too many people turn up and someone has to be offloaded.
Overbooked = airline has taken more reservations for the flight than there are physical seats on the aircraft. Very common, sometimes to a three-figure number for a single flight, because of the expected number of cancellations and no-shows.
Oversold = on the day, more people turning up for the flight with confirmed reservations than there are physical seats on the aircraft. For BA, this seems to be rare but some other airlines (particularly in the US) do this routinely, hence the number of people who routinely do well out of VDBs over there when volunteers are asked for.
Op-ups don't necessarily mean that the flight is oversold, given that BA is now dynamically adjusting the selling configuration of the aircraft. For example, a flight may (hypothetically) be scheduled to be operated by an aircraft with a physical configuration of 14F 70J 30W 185Y, but because it's school holiday time and business travel is low, BA might sell the flight as if the aircraft were configured 6F 40J 40W 213Y. If all went perfectly and exactly 299 passengers with confirmed reservations checked in with a cabin mix exactly matching the selling configuration, the airline would have to op-up 28 Y pax to W, 38 W pax to J, and 8 J pax to F. But overall the flight would not have been oversold.
#10
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Think we had a thread pretty recently on which routes are typically oversold / overbooked the most. I think the answer was "we don't know" (and it's commercially sensitive information) with a lot of anecdotes suggesting various theories.
One of th IST flights was oversold by 3 yesterday (-3 in top right hand corner of check in screen). I wasn't made an offer but I asked what the offer was for those Intersted and it was 149 GBP vouchers, hotel night (it was the last flight of the day) and flight next day. Not sure if that was Y or J or both.
One of th IST flights was oversold by 3 yesterday (-3 in top right hand corner of check in screen). I wasn't made an offer but I asked what the offer was for those Intersted and it was 149 GBP vouchers, hotel night (it was the last flight of the day) and flight next day. Not sure if that was Y or J or both.
#11
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This is exactly it - at least in concept, although I've never been able to find out whether BA uses the terminology in exactly this way (as some other airlines do).
Overbooked = airline has taken more reservations for the flight than there are physical seats on the aircraft. Very common, sometimes to a three-figure number for a single flight, because of the expected number of cancellations and no-shows.
Oversold = on the day, more people turning up for the flight with confirmed reservations than there are physical seats on the aircraft. For BA, this seems to be rare but some other airlines (particularly in the US) do this routinely, hence the number of people who routinely do well out of VDBs over there when volunteers are asked for.
Op-ups don't necessarily mean that the flight is oversold, given that BA is now dynamically adjusting the selling configuration of the aircraft. For example, a flight may (hypothetically) be scheduled to be operated by an aircraft with a physical configuration of 14F 70J 30W 185Y, but because it's school holiday time and business travel is low, BA might sell the flight as if the aircraft were configured 6F 40J 40W 213Y. If all went perfectly and exactly 299 passengers with confirmed reservations checked in with a cabin mix exactly matching the selling configuration, the airline would have to op-up 28 Y pax to W, 38 W pax to J, and 8 J pax to F. But overall the flight would not have been oversold.
Overbooked = airline has taken more reservations for the flight than there are physical seats on the aircraft. Very common, sometimes to a three-figure number for a single flight, because of the expected number of cancellations and no-shows.
Oversold = on the day, more people turning up for the flight with confirmed reservations than there are physical seats on the aircraft. For BA, this seems to be rare but some other airlines (particularly in the US) do this routinely, hence the number of people who routinely do well out of VDBs over there when volunteers are asked for.
Op-ups don't necessarily mean that the flight is oversold, given that BA is now dynamically adjusting the selling configuration of the aircraft. For example, a flight may (hypothetically) be scheduled to be operated by an aircraft with a physical configuration of 14F 70J 30W 185Y, but because it's school holiday time and business travel is low, BA might sell the flight as if the aircraft were configured 6F 40J 40W 213Y. If all went perfectly and exactly 299 passengers with confirmed reservations checked in with a cabin mix exactly matching the selling configuration, the airline would have to op-up 28 Y pax to W, 38 W pax to J, and 8 J pax to F. But overall the flight would not have been oversold.
#12
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Flights with most oversell situations?
I believe Accra has the top spot for oversold, with the Nigerian flights not far behind. I have seen 40 passengers bumped off ACC. They don't seem to mind that much either, for some reason.
#13
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From experience, JNB has quite quite a high level of last minute bookings, especially in J and F - on three occasions I've been asked if I would consider a compensation offer...and that is when in F.
#14
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Think we had a thread pretty recently on which routes are typically oversold / overbooked the most. I think the answer was "we don't know" (and it's commercially sensitive information) with a lot of anecdotes suggesting various theories.
One of th IST flights was oversold by 3 yesterday (-3 in top right hand corner of check in screen). I wasn't made an offer but I asked what the offer was for those Intersted and it was 149 GBP vouchers, hotel night (it was the last flight of the day) and flight next day. Not sure if that was Y or J or both.
One of th IST flights was oversold by 3 yesterday (-3 in top right hand corner of check in screen). I wasn't made an offer but I asked what the offer was for those Intersted and it was 149 GBP vouchers, hotel night (it was the last flight of the day) and flight next day. Not sure if that was Y or J or both.
#15
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: London
Posts: 3,500
No, not at all - it will almost always be much lower. Where BA are breaking the rules in that case was not asking for Chris to volunteer (even if it was a pathetic offer) if they were going to have to deny boarding to 3 people due to oversales.