chapinpirulin

I agree with peter42. At DUS they are openly calling on everyone, whenever the Thursday late afternoon flights to MUC and FRA are overbooked as all of a sudden only 20% of C Sen's decided not to show up, instead of the 40% regularly encountered on those routes.

cph_flyer

Yes, at least on a SAS flight from FRA to CPH , I was on some time ago. And they announced the compensation offered as well.

oliver2002

It completely depends on the gate agent how they want to handle it. Normally the offer is given via the PA. If the situation is not that serious, the agent offers it to people who check in late and come to the gate for a seat assignment. The experienced agents keep on refreshing their screens to see the load and connecting pax before closing the flight.

silvertex

The yield management of LH is -especially on international flights- excellent. The chances to get a bump there are very slim. IMO chances with United are 10-15 times higher than with LH.

s-tex

curt

Roughly 60% of my transatlantic travel is on LH, only 15% on UA. In the last 3 years, I had 2 op-ups on LH, but 3 op-ups on UA plus 2 bumps...

Gaucho100K

OK..... lemme see what I experience and I will let you guys know.

segelflieger

Just happened to browse through the LH "Balance" Magazine in the FRA lounge yesterday. What a coincidence - it had an honest feature on LH�s yield management. Quite an interesting read. Looks like they are operating a large scale yield management profit center (no surprise). It was mentioned that the chances of getting bumped on LH are rather slim - roughly 1 in 1000. And, if I recall correctly, due to their efficient yield management they were able to fill up an equivalent of 15000 (!) additional Jumbos last year accounting for an additional 3 figure million increase in profit. Eat this!

So if you happen to be literate in German and have some time during your next lounge stay, you might want to pick up a copy of "Balance".

Cheers,

segelflieger

Winglet

The "Balance" can be downloaded under

In German:
http://konzern.lufthansa.com/de/html...nen/index.html

In English:
http://konzern.lufthansa.com/en/html...nen/index.html

BEYFlyer

...however that in certain countries, immigration might not be willing to let you back in after clearing immigration and customs, so even if you get to the gate knowing that you have a good chance of being bumped, you might not be able to exercise that right. Happened to a friend of mine flying OS from BEY to VIE. Nevertheless, if you have a spare few days and the coast is clear, by all means, bump till you drop

Counsellor

I wonder what they're referring to - 1 in 1000 pax doesn't seem particularly low in comparison with other airlines. However, if they are saying they bump on only one in a thousand flights, that's quite impressive!

It would mean either that they've finally gotten it down to a science, or that they're not "overselling" enough. I would think a "really good" (but not yet perfect) system would be designed to ensure full planes as often as reasonably possible, which in turn would mean bumping more often than 1 in 1000 flights.

I'll look for the article next time I'm in a LH lounge.

bertheike

I read the article like, they denie boarding in 1 :1000 pax !
That does not count the pax who they ask bevore at check in, which agree to the compensation offered !

Gnopps

Yes, the number doesn't say wether it is IDB or VDB...

chapinpirulin

I read it as 1 of 1000 PAX being "denied boarding" which seems a lot (i.e. 1 out of 5 flights being effectively overbooked). Most likely this holds true for certain routes, where no-shows are heavily fluctuating. On the standard intra-German routes or long-haul FRA-MEX that is not the case.

Andrius

I would strongly disagree. Airlines know very well what they are letting themselves into when they overbook the flights. For lack of better word, they are treating passengers like a commodity.

It is like saying that it is OK to go to a casino and win occasionally, but going to the casino with the purpose of winning and cashing in on the house is immoral

Buying a ticket with a hope of compensation is not illgeal, it is not against the rules and no-one can force the airline to dump, bump or pump you if they don't like it. And, in addition, by doing that you are actually betting your own good money which airline gets to keep. Remember, airline is selling you a ticket for the seat they don't actually have in a hope that someone who also bought the seat does not show up. They sell the same seat twice and you want to talk to them about morality?

Passmethesickbag

Anybody know how much they offer for passengers to volunteer their seats on an intra-European flight? Just noticed availability on mine has gone down to zero more than a week ahead (operated by Augsburg Airways, if that makes a difference).