Why Do Airlines Overbook Flights — and What to Do If You Get Bumped

When checking into your flight, have you noticed a prompt asking if you’d be willing to change your trip? Alternatively, you might have heard an announcement at the gate asking for volunteers to take a later flight. Yes, it’s true — most airlines overbook their flights. Booking a plane ticket doesn’t actually guarantee you’ll have a seat on that flight. So, why do airlines have this practice?

“The reason why airlines overbook flights is because some people do not show up for them,” former pilot Dan Bubb, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, tells Travel + Leisure. “Airlines make money when all seats are full, and the planes are at cruising altitude. When passengers don’t show up for their flights, those empty seats could be sold to other passengers.”

No-shows happen for a variety of reasons, from missed connections to last-minute schedule changes to passengers going on standby for an earlier flight. And airlines work exceptionally hard at crunching the numbers to estimate exactly how many people won’t end up boarding their booked flight (they use advanced algorithms that look at historical data and current trends to anticipate no-shows). Generally, airlines are pretty good at this. No airline wants to bump passengers, not only because they’ll have to dole out compensation of some kind, but also because it leads to customer dissatisfaction.

But airlines aren’t perfect, and sometimes passengers need to be bumped. The bumping process starts with volunteers — the airline will ask passengers to voluntarily switch to a later flight. Typically, the airline offers flight vouchers as compensation, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars. But you can negotiate for cash compensation, upgraded seats on a later flight, and even lounge access.

If not enough passengers volunteer, the airline must involuntarily bump passengers in a process called “denied boarding.” How do you get selected to be denied boarding? The hierarchy varies per airline, but factors might include frequent flier status, fare class, and check-in time.

Fortunately for involuntarily bumped passengers, there are federal regulations in place to protect them. “The U.S. Department of Transportation outlines specific rights for airline passengers who are involuntarily bumped from an overbooked flight,” Andy Palacios, VP of growth and strategic partnerships for travel app App in the Air, tells T+L. These rights include rebooking on an alternative flight, expenses to cover food and accommodations (depending on the length of stay), and, in some cases, cash compensation.

But the process of claiming all these rights is sometimes easier said than done. It’s crucial to keep detailed records of your delay. “If you’re bumped from a flight, I advise you to ask the boarding agent to provide you with a denied boarding form. This is important evidence to prove the denied boarding has actually occurred and impacted your travel,” Anton Radchenko, CEO at AirAdvisor, which helps passengers navigate air disruptions, tells T+L. “If you incur any additional expenses as a result of your journey being disrupted, including hotel stays in case of an overnight delay, food, or taxis, keep original receipts, as these will be necessary if you want to seek reimbursement.” Eventually, you’ll have to submit all this documentation online to your airline to seek reimbursement.