Why do airlines sell too many tickets? - Nina Klietsch
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Date: 2020-08-22
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Comments and reviews: 10
Limerence
Perhaps there can be a middle grey ground between unethical and practical. For instance have a rating system based on how much the passenger needs to be on that flight at that time. 1 for I really need to be on that flight at that time. Then this system goes and those passengers get priority. 2 for I would like to be on that flight at that time but I can afford to wait a few hours or a day. 3 you can flat out cancel my flight. Obviously people will put 1 no matter what reason but if you put incentives for passengers to put 2 and 3 it could work. I'd recommend cheaper flights for both options but as 3 has the most to lose they get a bonus plus their full refund. People will really be encouraged to put down 3 and airlines will do whatever they can to avoid it. Then if all goes well and they don't have to cancel their seats but still given a new flight than they'll be bumped up to option 2. If no one has to be relocated than everyone will be treated as 1. Obviously no one unless they're really desperate will put down 1 and the majority of passengers will be treated as 1. They'll be a high demand for 2 because they're cheaper but the majority of seats will be 1 so then so will the majority of tickets sold. The 2 and 3 tickets will sell out the quickest because they're cheaper. 1 should be more expensive but not too much to discourage customers from going to the competition instead and they'll be rewarded with the knowledge that they will pretty much be guaranteed a seat on that plane.
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Perhaps there can be a middle grey ground between unethical and practical. For instance have a rating system based on how much the passenger needs to be on that flight at that time. 1 for I really need to be on that flight at that time. Then this system goes and those passengers get priority. 2 for I would like to be on that flight at that time but I can afford to wait a few hours or a day. 3 you can flat out cancel my flight. Obviously people will put 1 no matter what reason but if you put incentives for passengers to put 2 and 3 it could work. I'd recommend cheaper flights for both options but as 3 has the most to lose they get a bonus plus their full refund. People will really be encouraged to put down 3 and airlines will do whatever they can to avoid it. Then if all goes well and they don't have to cancel their seats but still given a new flight than they'll be bumped up to option 2. If no one has to be relocated than everyone will be treated as 1. Obviously no one unless they're really desperate will put down 1 and the majority of passengers will be treated as 1. They'll be a high demand for 2 because they're cheaper but the majority of seats will be 1 so then so will the majority of tickets sold. The 2 and 3 tickets will sell out the quickest because they're cheaper. 1 should be more expensive but not too much to discourage customers from going to the competition instead and they'll be rewarded with the knowledge that they will pretty much be guaranteed a seat on that plane.
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Kent
A friend of mine is a pilot with a major carrier. The number of seats beyond capacity sold varies with the route, the time of day, and the day of the year. You can find that a very popular business route, like New York-Chicago will overbook by 100%. That's because business travelers get caught in meetings and miss flights.
Flights out of Las Vegas overbook, because people literally lose track of time in the casinos.
For major routes out of New York and L. A, they will overbook first class.
Once, my wife and I volunteered our seats for a Vegas-O'Hare flight. We had to fly to LAX to get a flight to ORD. While gate agent got us into first going to LAX, he said first on LAX-ORD was full.
Guess what? When we pushed back, there were 4 empty seats in first. That means that 4 people missed the flight.
Airlines also overbook knowing that on any given day, people will miss flights due to missed connections, due to weather, mechanical issues, and the like.
As for other situations, I have missed doctor appointments, restaurant reservations, limo and taxi pick-ups, and service appointments for my car, for various reasons.
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A friend of mine is a pilot with a major carrier. The number of seats beyond capacity sold varies with the route, the time of day, and the day of the year. You can find that a very popular business route, like New York-Chicago will overbook by 100%. That's because business travelers get caught in meetings and miss flights.
Flights out of Las Vegas overbook, because people literally lose track of time in the casinos.
For major routes out of New York and L. A, they will overbook first class.
Once, my wife and I volunteered our seats for a Vegas-O'Hare flight. We had to fly to LAX to get a flight to ORD. While gate agent got us into first going to LAX, he said first on LAX-ORD was full.
Guess what? When we pushed back, there were 4 empty seats in first. That means that 4 people missed the flight.
Airlines also overbook knowing that on any given day, people will miss flights due to missed connections, due to weather, mechanical issues, and the like.
As for other situations, I have missed doctor appointments, restaurant reservations, limo and taxi pick-ups, and service appointments for my car, for various reasons.
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education
I understand people saying that this is unethical.
But think of it like this:
You are a restaurant owner, and someone made a reservation for 50 people, saying that they will be having a feast, and thus need loads of gorgeous food to have an awesome time.
You prepare the food, which costed you over 300, but the customers don't come.
You just lost approximately 300 because either a)reservation didn't cost or b) the reserved customers get back after cancellation.
Now in the case of the airlines, its the seats, service, oil, and other things needed to make the flight happen, that they just lost. (If they didn't implement overbooking)
And statistically, there is a 10% chance that it will happen.
Yes, it may seem unethical to purposefully overbook, but if that's the case,
they should be allowed to tell YOU that it is unethical to not come to board on time.
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I understand people saying that this is unethical.
But think of it like this:
You are a restaurant owner, and someone made a reservation for 50 people, saying that they will be having a feast, and thus need loads of gorgeous food to have an awesome time.
You prepare the food, which costed you over 300, but the customers don't come.
You just lost approximately 300 because either a)reservation didn't cost or b) the reserved customers get back after cancellation.
Now in the case of the airlines, its the seats, service, oil, and other things needed to make the flight happen, that they just lost. (If they didn't implement overbooking)
And statistically, there is a 10% chance that it will happen.
Yes, it may seem unethical to purposefully overbook, but if that's the case,
they should be allowed to tell YOU that it is unethical to not come to board on time.
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Mohit
I am just waiting for the moment when the creator of this video is bumped out from an airline at that time when he needed to travel urgently.
Till now i thought TedEd was a good source for information but after watching this video, it looks like TedEd is trying to justify the crime that airlines are doing. I am actually not mad at airlines that much as I am mad at TedEd. In the end of the video they take the un-ambiguity of
'Being Ethical' and justifies the doing of the airlines.
Basically if someones family member is dying and he booked an airline ticket and then at the last moment airline bumped him out then can the capitalism can be used to justify this? It makes me mad that today's educated class think that they can say anything they want to justify anything.
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I am just waiting for the moment when the creator of this video is bumped out from an airline at that time when he needed to travel urgently.
Till now i thought TedEd was a good source for information but after watching this video, it looks like TedEd is trying to justify the crime that airlines are doing. I am actually not mad at airlines that much as I am mad at TedEd. In the end of the video they take the un-ambiguity of
'Being Ethical' and justifies the doing of the airlines.
Basically if someones family member is dying and he booked an airline ticket and then at the last moment airline bumped him out then can the capitalism can be used to justify this? It makes me mad that today's educated class think that they can say anything they want to justify anything.
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Lexdrillo
Doctors don't do that. They sometime have patients that simply don't understand something and keep asking and asking. Or maybe is the first time they see that specific doctor and he or her has to look all the expedient and habits of this person. Or a lot of other variables.
Did I sound upset? Maybe I was a little. It's my mother's job after all. A noble job. A hard work. And even if she were going to do it, she would have the right, because there's nothing worse than a patient not showing. People think that doctors doesn't have other things to do, that their whole life is centered around them. That's not how it works.
Anyways, I don't see the flight thing that bad. Is bad, but. not the worse thing ever.
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Doctors don't do that. They sometime have patients that simply don't understand something and keep asking and asking. Or maybe is the first time they see that specific doctor and he or her has to look all the expedient and habits of this person. Or a lot of other variables.
Did I sound upset? Maybe I was a little. It's my mother's job after all. A noble job. A hard work. And even if she were going to do it, she would have the right, because there's nothing worse than a patient not showing. People think that doctors doesn't have other things to do, that their whole life is centered around them. That's not how it works.
Anyways, I don't see the flight thing that bad. Is bad, but. not the worse thing ever.
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Karan
It surely is unethical. but guys just think more than the money they make.
Without overbooking, offcourse cost per seat will be higher but mainly capacity of a plane is 10% higher too, and sometime we ourselves use those extra tickets to travel to our destinations.
Without overbooking, airlines have to run 10% more flights than they are running, which will effect our pockets but just think about it as additional effect on resources and on environment.
Airlines are doing it for their pocket but eventually it is optimising the resources of earth and causing allover 10% less damage to our environment.
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It surely is unethical. but guys just think more than the money they make.
Without overbooking, offcourse cost per seat will be higher but mainly capacity of a plane is 10% higher too, and sometime we ourselves use those extra tickets to travel to our destinations.
Without overbooking, airlines have to run 10% more flights than they are running, which will effect our pockets but just think about it as additional effect on resources and on environment.
Airlines are doing it for their pocket but eventually it is optimising the resources of earth and causing allover 10% less damage to our environment.
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Atomic
This is madness and empirical flawed in the eyes of Customers! Is this a casino or what! Didn't the airlines say 'customer satisfaction is first'. Well, how do you satisfy a customer by bumping him off the planned flight in return for compensation. It's best to use the f-word Airlines for using binomial distribution for their unethical profit's
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This is madness and empirical flawed in the eyes of Customers! Is this a casino or what! Didn't the airlines say 'customer satisfaction is first'. Well, how do you satisfy a customer by bumping him off the planned flight in return for compensation. It's best to use the f-word Airlines for using binomial distribution for their unethical profit's
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Andrew
It is unethical, they would still get the profits from a full flight anyway if the seats are non-refundable. You should not be selling a resource that you dont have in order to maximise profits on the off chance someone doesnt turn up
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It is unethical, they would still get the profits from a full flight anyway if the seats are non-refundable. You should not be selling a resource that you dont have in order to maximise profits on the off chance someone doesnt turn up
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paulina
I hate that this video suggest that it might be okay or reasonable to overbook. It's not. I never got bumped off a flight but this just shows how little corporations care about customers. They make money for things they don't have.
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I hate that this video suggest that it might be okay or reasonable to overbook. It's not. I never got bumped off a flight but this just shows how little corporations care about customers. They make money for things they don't have.
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Phillip
I always offer to be bumped on return flights to get cash from airlines. I don't like the practice but I make accommodations for the eventuality. And I reckon if I knew I wouldn't have that chance I'd just stay another day.
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I always offer to be bumped on return flights to get cash from airlines. I don't like the practice but I make accommodations for the eventuality. And I reckon if I knew I wouldn't have that chance I'd just stay another day.
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