[chad]

This week I checked into an Air Canada flight with web check-in…but in place of my seat number were the letters GTE.

I arrived for my flight well before boarding time and made my way to the boarding desk to ask what my seat number was. I was told that the flight was ‘oversold’ and that unless someone volunteered to give up their seat (for a lousy $100 or $200 flight credit) that I would be bumped. No volunteers came forward so I was bumped.

I was bumped and my trip ruined because Air Canada decided it would be a good policy to intentionally sell more product than they could fulfill.

After I bought the ticket weeks earlier, we had a deal but Air Canada waited until 30 minutes before my flight to tell me that they were reneging on the deal. Then they offer me $100 cash or a $200 travel voucher (on the same damn airline that just screwed me over). Maybe a flight credit on WestJet would be more appealing?

What other businesses would ever think of doing this?

- A restaurant won’t fill 100% of their tables but only make enough food for 98% of the customers and then tell the 2%…”come back tomorrow and we’ll give you a free dessert”.

- A dentist won’t book 20 people for a day when he can only perform 18 procedures and say…”come back tomorrow and by the way here’s a free toothbrush for your trouble”.

Air Canada has let the 'Bean Counters' put the pursuit of maximum profits ahead of customer care. It is just a matter of time before another company that cares about customers puts this dinosaur out of business.

[The_Judge]

The Everly Brothers had a song that fits here. "All I have to do is dream". Overbooking will never go away and you are right on when you say the bean counters put profits ahead of customer care. I don't know if anyone here disagrees with that.

To your problem specifically, you should be entitled to 200% of the fare you paid to travel to your destination and also transport to said city.

[azstar]

Overbooking is outrageous and ought to be illegal. Years ago, before e-tickets, most fares were refundable and airlines never knew who was ticketed and who wasn't. Some passengers made multiple reservations on multiple flights and either never bought a ticket, or only had one ticket so they would pick and choose which reservation they would actually use. Empty seats cost the airline money.

Today, virtually all tickets are e-tickets so airlines know exactly who is ticketed and who isn't. I would say 99.9% of the fares are not refundable. So, I don't understand the point of overbooking flights. The airline is going to get paid whether the seat is occupied or not. If they are so concerned, they should make non refundable tickets unusable for future travel instead of allowing ticket exchanges. By the time they're through paying denied boarding compensation and rerouting passengers, often on other airlines planes, it's got to cost a lot more to overbook a flight than to have 1 or 2 empty seats.

[jimworcs]

There is no justification in airlines overbooking non refundable tickets. In any other business this would be fraud. The seat has been paid for and the airline will keep the revenue regardless of whether the passenger shows up or not. Some low cost airlines have in fact dropped over booking. Ryanair for example, one of the most profitable airlines in the world, does not overbook.