Gary Neville has hit out at British Airways this morning, after he was bumped from a flight travelling from Manchester to London.
The former England international aired his grievances on Twitter in a series of messages.
.@British_Airways you are an absolute disgrace !! Overbooking flights and not getting people on .... worst airline I’ve ever seen!
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) February 5, 2018
This week's incident with Gary Neville and the United Airlines saga last year, in which a passenger was forcibly removed from an overbooked flight, have shone a spotlight on the controversial practice of overbooking, which is done by airlines to reduce the amount of empty seats they have on flights.
Airlines bank on a percentage of passengers not showing up for their flight and double book seats accordingly. Their sums are based on statistics that are analysed by computer models; often they get it right, sometimes they don’t.
British Airways has defended its application of the overbooking policy. In a statement made to the Manchester Evening News, they wrote: "We’re getting in touch with Gary to apologise and resolve the issue, caused by difficult weather conditions in Manchester. Many airlines operate over booking policies because a small number of passengers, having made their bookings, do not turn up for their flights. By careful monitoring of booking and load patterns for each flight, we do our best to maximise the number of customers able to travel on each service."
It’s legal for airlines to overbook flights and the practice is more common than you might think. In fact, in the US, which provides the best statistics on the subject, the chance of a passenger being denied boarding because of overbooking is 1 in 1,000.
When you consider that a Boeing 777 can carry more than 500 passengers, those odds seem quite low.
According to the US government,434,000 passengers voluntarily gave up seats on the country's largest 12 airlines last year, including nearly 63,000 on United. The champion of overbooking was Delta Air Lines – about 130,000 passengers flying with the carrier gave up their seats last year to accommodate for overbooking.
The vast majority of passengers who are “bumped” are willing volunteers, encouraged onto another flight by the prospect of compensation or an upgrade.
“Compensation varies from £250 to £600 depending on the length of the delay and the distance of the flight, although an airline is allowed to negotiate a lower rate with those who volunteer to be bumped,” explained Nick Trend, Telegraph Travel’s consumer expert.
According to the compensation company, AirHelp, there are ways to reduce the likelihood of being “bumped” from a flight.
“Flyers are less likely to get bumped if they are frequent travellers with the airline they are travelling with,” said Marius Fermi, UK country manager. “So signing up for frequent flyer programs is one way to decrease their chances of being bumped from an overbooked flight.”
Flying off-peak will also reduce your chances of being “bumped”.
“Those choosing to fly early in the morning versus later in the evening are less likely to board an overbooked flight,” he said.
