Seth Dillon, CEO at news satire website Babylon Bee, was flying American Airlines out of Columbia, South Carolina on Saturday morning and reported that the flight was oversold by 20 passengers. He suggests that 70 people checked in for a flight that only seated 50.
The airline’s gate agent had a unique threat to get passengers to make their way to Charlotte by car instead of plane: threatening that if there weren’t 20 volunteers to do this, then nobody would be flying and they’d cancel the flight instead. Apparently the threat worked, but it was a complete fabrication.
I’m trying to leave Columbia, SC for a 9 am connection in Charlotte. @AmericanAir is announcing that if 20 people don’t give up their seats and get on a taxi to Charlotte, they’ll cancel this flight and no one will make it. Has anyone ever experienced this on American? Insane. pic.twitter.com/IAVntnMex0
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) January 6, 2024
American Airlines operates 7 peak daily departures from Columbia, South Carolina to Charlotte. They’re all on either 50 seat Embraer or larger Bombardier CR9 regional jets. The 89 mile flight is usually scheduled at about one hour and eight minutes. Driving between the airports takes about an hour and a half, and then a passenger arriving in Charlotte would have to clear security.
This morning’s American Airlines flight 5699 was operated by their wholly-owned subsidiary Piedmont Airlines using a 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145. It wound up departing one hour and 22 minutes late, and arriving in Charlotte just shy of 2 hours lates. That delay is despite the aircraft having overnighted in Columbia – the plane didn’t arrive late.
It turns out that passengers would have been no worse off taking up that gate agent’s suggestion to make the trip to Charlotte by cab! But passengers should certainly be compensated for voluntarily giving up their seat, not just have their cab covered.
And if ’20 passengers didn’t volunteer’ the solution isn’t to just cancel on all 70 passengers.
- That’s stupid.
- American needs the plane back in Charlotte anyway, and the crew too, so the aircraft is going to head there.
- American doesn’t want to deal with rebooking 70 passengers, farther away from a hub.
- American is better off getting as many people to Charlotte as possible.
American Airlines Embraer ERJ-145
Instead, if the airline doesn’t get enough volunteers, they’re stuck choosing which passengers not to transport – and paying those passengers involuntary denied boarding compensation.
Since the oversale doesn’t appear to have resulted from an aircraft change, and it doesn’t appear weight and balance restrictions were an issue here, then the amount American would owe each passenger is set in regulation:
- 200% of their one-way fare, up to $755, if the passenger arrives at their destination 1-2 hours late and
- 400% of their one-way far, up to $1550, if arriving over 2 hours late.
In other words, the collective punishment threat that America will “cancel this flight and no one will make it” isn’t how this works. It isn’t how any of this works. If the American Airlines gate agent said it in Columbia, South Carolina, then they were making it up as an (unauthorized) tactic to get passengers to give up their seats on the flight.
(HT: Golden Rule Travel)
Any rules on what the compensation would be for those who booked it on points?
I don’t think booking on points changes the calculation, so still the same $ amount unless you volunteer for a later flight, for a set amount of cash or airline credit.
Maybe I misunderstand the rules. Denied boarding requires compensation to ticket holders who showed up on time and are denied flying. Canceling a flight just requires returning of the cost of the flight. Some airlines will provide some accommodations or food vouchers if an alternate flight cannot be found within a few hours. Because denied boarding compensation is high, it might be more cost effective to cancel the flight and fly an empty airplane for repositioning. Of course, if the flight is the first of several, the later flights may be canceled if they were booked together. It sounds like a mess created by serious overbooking.
Are you sure that this actually happened and his tweet wasn’t just “satire”?
CAE is a sorry place.
Somebody should have videoed the announcement.
It seems unlikely that they’d overbook by 20 on a Saturday morning when most leisure travelers show up.
How can one overbook a flight by 40%? Result of IROPS the night before, or something?
Power crazed airline scum being airline scum.
I was on a Delta flight before Christmas that was oversold by 28 seats. The flight was scheduled on a 132 seat A319 and they subbed in an a 160 seat A320 the morning of the flight. Every seat on that A320 was full. This was at a small airport that Delta only has 2 gates at. No Delta flights from the past several days to any destinations serviced by this airport were cancelled, so there were no IROPS to compensate for.
Maybe they planned to swap in an A320 all along, but until the incoming flight departed ATL it was listed as an A319. The swap caused a catering mixup, so it definitely was not on the schedule. Thankfully no one was denied boarding, all the bags fit, and pretty much everyone was none the wiser save for the ones that got updated seat assignments. It could have been a mess though if they sent that A319 and were 28 seats short.
I’m wondering if this gate agent actually broke the law, given there are requirements for how to handle overbooking. You can’t threaten to cancel a flight if people refuse to give up their legal rights…also wondering if there’s anything in the contract of carriage to cover cancelled flights due to spite? In any case, this gate agent should be fired.
Babylon Bee is about the most conservative parody out there.
BothofUs2: Last airline where I worked the guidance if we had to invol someone who was on an award ticket was to pick a random passenger on same itinerary off the flight and use what fare they paid. That was DOT-approved to do it that way.
I used to love it working for a low fare carrier when people would take a little knowledge usually learned from a blog or travel column and try and think they were getting one over on us. Would always ask if they wanted to volunteer for a travel voucher of $200-500 which also we would buy them a ticket on another airline if we didn’t have another option on us within the same day. People would hold out saying “No, you are going to INVOL me and I want my 200/400% (or double that if intl)”. Well, for INVOL we only offered next flight on us. And once the door closed, legally we couldn’t ask anyone to change to a volunteer so that ship sailed so to speak. So, here’s your rebooked flight for tomorrow night on us… and your check for 400% of your fare… which comes to a grand total of $52. 400% of a penny or a dollar plus carrier fees isn’t much.
Babylon Bee is an unfunny right wing satire site. Do we have any reason to believe this guy?
why are the airlines allowed to sell more than what they have ?
The Amtrak Silver Star train (Miami-New York) operates between these two cities daily.
If the passenger is not making a connection at the Charlotte hub, this is an option.
@NedsKid: If your story isn’t BS, please do let us know where you’re working now so we can avoid the kind of employee who finds glee in intentionally screwing over their own customers. Truly pathetic and you need to find a different career if that’s really your attitude to your company intentionally overbooking flights. Yes, it’s industry practice. No that doesn’t mean you’re not greatly inconveniencing the people who, at the end of the day, pay your salary.
I don’t believe this.
Both of these points have been made already but they’re important enough to bring up again:
1) Sorry, but if your literal job is making up fake news stories, we’re going to need a little more evidence than just your narrative for us to believe that this actually happened.
2) That said, the scenario is at least plausible from a financial standpoint. My understanding is an airline is held to a much lower standard of compensation for flights that are canceled outright than they are for severe delays or involuntarily denied boarding. In that case, an airline could take advantage of that unconscionable loophole, fly an empty plane, and be better off financially.
@Big Al
It’s only unfunny to fragile little libt@rds like yourself.
Haha Gary got got. Clearly this is a blog and not journalism but a little actual research goes a long way. Thanks for the laugh bro and your credibility hit is noted.
It’s not clear who the fabricator was. The gate agent, or the CEO of the Babylon Bee?
Love to get into a game of poker with this gate agent. With their reckless bluffing, I could send them home wearing a barrel.
Just knock off the over booking ! Everyone that books in advance has most likely paid with a credit card. No shows get no refunds !
Even if it turns out to not be real, the incident shows how people (myself included) believe an AA gate agent would threaten to cancel an oversold flight. In fact, there is no domestic U.S. airline that I trust now.
Was on a United flight in 2022 Rochester to Newark, last one of the evening, that had 4 deadhead United employees added, meaning the regional jet was oversold by 4 seats. Was the Friday night before a school break week, and the flight was full of teachers. The gate agent said they would refuse to load the plane until 4 people agreed to be left behind. The standoff lasted for over an hour until 4 people that realized they were going to miss their connection agreed to the paltry compensation they were offering. Meanwhile, a group of 30 on the plane headed to Europe all missed their connections and had to stay in Newark overnight. Not a cancellation per se, but similar threat level.
Why not pay $1000 or may be even less for charter bus to transfer 20 pax to destination 89 miles away? And keep all pax satisfied. Stupid decision, bad publicity and shame for AA!