I haven’t received any emails for ages about overbooking but this week, two consumers have contacted me regarding their situations with flights on Cathay Pacific and United Airlines. When you book a flight, you expect that the seat is booked providing you can get to the airport on time.
How frustrating must it be to arrive at the airport on time to find that the airline has overbooked and it being Christmas time no one is going to want to wait for the next flight, compensation or not. Airlines whilst notorious for overbooking are not the only ones, hotels are particularly bad.
Left to sleep in the car
I remember a story a friend told me a few years ago. On arriving at a budget hotel in the evening, he was informed that his room had been taken due to overbooking. The hotel rang around the local hotels, but they were full – he spelt in his car in the hotel car park.
Introduce fines for overbooking
Overbooking seems to always happen during peak times of the year because they want to make as much money as they can. It is time airlines and hotels are fined for overbooking unless it is due to an emergency. It is time that they put consumers first.
Customer service goes out of the window where greed and money is concerned. I find myself getting frustrated when consumers are taken for a ride by travel companies, and they think offering a free meal and a few drinks is going to make it all okay.
I am interested to hear from anyone who has been in this situation.
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Rawrbots | 29 December, 2008 at 2:24 am
Tell me about it, been waiting for a flight for the last 4 days, sorta an emergency buy the soonest ticket out of here.
Everyone is selling me overbooks, can’t tell which airlines have open tickets and which i’d have to wait years to get on
Kim Kinrade | 29 December, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Hi Darren,
This is a very timely blog considering the botched Christmas season, compliments of the airline industry and their minions, the hotel people. I followed the horror stories on Twitter.
Christians probably thought back 2000+ years and would have loved to lie down in a stable rather than endure the ragged energy of sleeping in an airport.!
Cheers and Happy New Year!
Kim
Kevin May | 29 December, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Overbooking, although it is as frustrating as the dreaded cancellation or dodgy hotel on arrival, is as old as the industry itself.
Airlines and hoteliers operate on incredibly slim margins and therefore need to ensure they maximise the potential to fill their rooms or aircraft.
This is no excuse as far as the consumer should concerned.
However, questions in response to your post:
1) How would such an issue be policed for hoteliers and airlines?
2) How would compensation work for consumers that booked in another country?
3) What would the process be for those that booked either direct or via an intermediary?
4) How would fines be administered and collected?
It is because these are such difficult questions to answer that some kind of regulation has not been put into place before now.
Always happy to be corrected, of course. 
It’s a fascinating – if very irritating – apsect of how the industry operates. I was recently overbooked on a flight to LA on British Airways. I was downgraded to economy from World Traveller, but then reinstated at the gate.
Darren Cronian | 29 December, 2008 at 8:59 pm
@ Kevin,
Thanks for asking the questions, and yes, your probably right this is the reason why nothing has been done about overbooking. I’ll try and answer them but haven’t thought about that until now.
1) How would such an issue be policed for hoteliers and airlines?
Hotels – no idea, tourist boards? Airlines, how do other fines get administrated, CAA, EU legislation? Or maybe IAPA? I could be wrong but if trains are delayed don’t the networks get fined by Network rail – maybe there needs to be a way of recording the number of overbookings.
2) How would compensation work for consumers that booked in another country?
Compensation is usually provided by the airline to the passenger when they have overbooked, i.e. free meal, drinks, so the same should apply? Some airlines offer compensation, some don’t. If your hotel is overbooked, then your swimming on your own, that’s where booking a package comes in – security.
3) What would the process be for those that booked either direct or via an intermediary?
It should not make any difference if the consumer booked direct or with a third-party. As for the process, the process for compensation or fines? I have no idea though to be completely frank!
4) How would fines be administered and collected?
The same as any other fine or penalty – I am not aware how airlines are currently fined for breaking EU legislation.
I take your point Kevin, alot to work out and a bit of a headache to administrate, but surely, something needs to be done – you can’t have people stranded either at the airport or hotel because they have overbooked.
Andy | 31 December, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Overbooking is a constant situation on the planet, I have seen people sleeping on Swimming Pool Decks in Acapulco, Sleeping in the reception ares in Bangkok, Sleeping in the Airports in Frankfrut Germany.
I am 100 percent in agreement that airlines and hotels should be fined. The Hotel industry is making gouge level profits, while the airlines are less prosperous.
The Low Cost Carriers are on the right track, you do not get refunds easy and they make the tourist responsible for their actions.
I am a professional traveler, I do not not get reservations with Hotels because I know they are not to be trusted….
Think about this proposition, why is there Restaurant Critics, and there are not Hotel Critics. I was searching a year ago for the Hotel Critics associations, the industry operates effectively as a monopoly.
Sara | 1 January, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Here. Here. There is nothing so aggravating or difficult to understand.
Kevin May | 2 January, 2009 at 7:57 am
@andy – “there are no hotel critics”…?
last time i looked Tripadvisor was doing a pretty good job of aggregating opinions of hotels around the world.
Andy | 2 January, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Yes, Tripadvisor.com does have opinions and they do a great job, however they are not Critics, they are normally fans of the Hotels.
A critic has to live in Hotels constantly, I have lived for about 11 years in hotels, I change rooms about every 3-10 days, I am continually in a different hotel. There are business travelers that could explain the pros and cons as a critic.
The kicker is this, the majority of Travel Writers get free rooms in echange for a good write up of their hotel. the majority of people on Tripadvisor are on a vacation and only know one hotel How many people on the planet have lived in 5-10 hotels in the same city. They are on a trip, they are not a critic.
The whole industry creates a system where people will misrepresent the truth.
Kevin May | 2 January, 2009 at 2:38 pm
@andy
if people did not trust consumer reviews of hotels or think the sites are doing a bad job then tripadvisor/igougo et al would not have user figures in the multi-millions, right?
i’m not sure if a professional “Hotel Critic Association” is going to be of benefit to anybody other from the exclusive circle of writers that belong to it.
And it certainly would not be able to stop the overbooking policy (if we are going to try and keep to the topic of the post).
Darren Cronian | 3 January, 2009 at 5:57 am
@ Kev / Andy
Overbooking in hotels I agree is going to be very difficult to manage but whilst the likes of Trip Advisor, etc, are good at reviews, it’ll be good if they could hold specific types of negative reviews, i.e. the negative review was because of overbooking, rather than reading through tons of text. This way you would be able to identify easily which hotels are worst for overbooking etc. Just a thought.
Phil | 24 January, 2009 at 10:15 pm
A consumer’s time is worth as much as the airlines’, or so -I- believe (being a constant airline ticket consumer of course). It really is that simple… fining or some sort of incentive to NOT overbook is most likely a necessity if one wants the airlines to take notice and change policies. I definitely cannot blame the airlines for this, but money seems to be their driving motivation, so its a logical action to take if we want any kind of change to take place.
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11 responses to “Airlines and hotels should be fined for overbooking”