cancellation of flights due to underbooking

Interestingly, I recall hearing on the radio about a domestic airline that is under heavy criticism for flying a plane with 5 passengers from the U.S. to somewhere in Europe. The flight was scheduled and they flew it.

Can you say "captive audience"? Unfortunately they can do it. Presumably they would refund your ticket price, but that might not happen either. Personally, I find the concept of canceling a flight in this manner abhorrent. Its saying, "I sold you an item, but now I don't want to give it to you because it costs me more to give it to you than I thought". That's the cost of doing business. The airline has had my money since last August for a flight in June. They should have put the money in the bank to earn some interest.

Whenever an airline encounters a situation where it would cost them more money to fly than to offload passengers it will always cancel. This applies to any flight, any time, anywhere.

When passenger numbers are low a carefull calculation is made. The net revenue from ticket sales and cargo transportation is weighed against the costs of cancellation and hotel accommodation for passengers and the costs of transfer to another flight ( which will vary depending on whether the same airline can accommodate or they have to transfer to another airline ).

All that has happened is that higher fuel costs are moving the point on the scale at which a flight becomes financially unviable.

All of what I've posted sounds gloomy, but don't be fooled, it's not bad news at all.

With the USD rate at it's current level flights to and from the US have never looked so inviting to Europeans. The summer flights are looking full already. No cancellations expected.

What about flights TO Europe?

Yes, that could happen. I am actually expecting it to happen. Welcome to my world! It's common to "combine" flights when neither is more than half full. That often causes subsequent delays. It has to, when you look at the bigger picture.

I'm glad they generally try not to fly planes less than half full. I understand the logistics of it. I'm also glad for the sake of our environment.

Some of us may have heard about Montreal based Air Transat's approx 14 million dollar loss(?)in the first quarter of 2008. Instead of putting their money in the Bank they invested something like 144 million (?)or so in American Mortgage Loans. Not Canadian, but American. Due largely to fore closures and the sluggish US Economy they have lost a bundle. Now add to that the soaring cost of feul...That could spell trouble!

Eli....for flights TO Europe...they'll be filled by all those Europeans that Al says are coming here to enjoy the strong Euro....after all, they've got to get home! That's another reason we won't see airfares coming down anytime soon.

Cancellations will take place depending not only on your flight, but the flight that plane was scheduled for following yours.

The AA plane flew from ORD to LHR with 5 pax. The reason was because the flight the aircraft was scheduled to take back to the States was nearly full. The aircraft was needed so it had to go.

With the large number of Europeans coming to the U.S. this summer, I don't think you'll see too many cancellations because they have to go home as well.

This thread has reminded me of a project I had to do back in College...

I had to call up a new Client and explain to them that their Flight time and day had changed due to underbooking. The whole conversation was recorded.

We were graded on how precise and diplimatic we were at addressing the Passengers concerns. I remember my "Client" was absolutely irrate and I had to carefully explain this to her. It was a hard call to make! I pretty much had to stick to a pre-approved dialogue as most professionals would have to according to company policy.

The "Client" really let me have it and clearly let me know that "I" was responsible and messed up her vacation time and demanded compensation! As a "Newbie" that was tough! It was a great learning experience but I'm glad I haven't had to do that since!