Have you been the victim of an overbooking preventing you from boarding for your flight? We explain everything to know how to be refunded!
There is nothing more energizing than being denied access to a plane, for an unknown and unforeseen reason, while we had planned everything to spend a nice holiday. Upon arrival at the airport, the employees of the selected airline prevent you from boarding on the plane to visit New York the Alhambra of Granada or the Colosseum of Rome? No luck, one loses one or two days on the trip, in addition to being disappointed and taken in the devoid...If the situation seems to have turned into a disaster, it is because it is above all an increasingly common practice of financial optimization: overbooking, or overbooking.
To address this issue, many companies have specialized in compensation “victims”. Like Flightright, all have the same objective: justice be done.
But what is it? surbooking ? How to be supported by these specialists and above all, how to obtain compensation for delayed and/or cancelled flight? The point with our special magazine onbooking.
What is superbooking?
The overbooking comes from the “yield management”, a management strategy that appeared in the United States in 1978, allowing newly created airlines to offer prices that challenge any competition. This same strategy that gave rise to the so-called low-cost flights, generating at the same time the appearance of last-minute airline tickets and other cheaper airline tickets.
This managerial approach to the air sector was adopted so that airlines have more freedom to set their tariffs, breaking the market of traditional companies. To counteract competition, they responded by developing their offer on the sale of their aircraft tickets, price management, demand analysis, or market segmentation. With the Single European Act voted in 1986, a higher level of economic integration of the member countries of the European Economic Community, the European companies were able to take advantage of this new openness to competition by applying the principle of freedom of prices in the air sector: the overbooking thus made its intrusive entry into the travel agencies and later, on the flight comparisons low-cost on the internet.
How does Surbooking work?
More and more airlines are trying to maximize their sales – and profits – are doing an activity, albeit strange of selling more tickets than there are available seats on the aircraft. As a result, when you arrive at the baggage check-in counter, the company refuses you access to boarding. Why does this practice seem fraudulent? Just because it comes from a deregulation – a softening of the law – offering more freedom in the fixing of the tariffs: the competing companies make sure to fill their planes by announcing the costs associated with the distractions, the empty spaces they call “no-show” .
As it is framed by the European law , the overbooking is therefore not fraudulent. On the other hand, it causes many inconveniences to travellers who charge the costs, but companies are required to meet certain conditions, including the care of passengers and the proposal of another flight to the same destination. It may happen that the company changes the reservation to place you on another flight, or that you are placed in a smaller plane than expected, because there was not enough ticket sales. In all cases, the ticket price will not be changed.
What solutions for bearing the overbooking? What compensation?
*** Airlines**
If you are a victim of overbooking, the airline has the legal obligation to offer you another flight to the same destination. Thus, the traveller is offered to wait for a new flight to the airport, and the airline must take charge of the waiting passengers for all the expenses and primary needs of the airport: accommodation, catering, telephone calls, drinks and refreshments. Access to the next flight must therefore not change the ticket price. If you decide not to make the next departure for any reason, the airline must refund the flight ticket within seven free days. However, there are conditions for this reimbursement: travellers must have a reservation, and must have checked their baggage no later than 45 minutes before the start of boarding.
Even if the airline has paid you the full price of the flight ticket, you are entitled to compensation on its part in order to repair the moral damage suffered. In Community law, there are three levels of compensation for intra-community flights and three others for flights outside the European Union:
- Up to 1,500 kilometers: € 250 in the European Union or between the EU and a non-member country,
- From 1 500 km to 3 500 km: 400 € in the European Union or between the EU and a country outside the EU,
- More than 3,500 km: 400 € in the EU, and 600 € between the European Union and a non-member country.
It should be noted that the airline is obliged to provide you with a written notice that provides information on how to claim compensation. In principle, the company's contact information will be useful to send a claim to the airline customer service by registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt. If your reservation has been unilaterally modified by the company and your arrival and departure times change, you can make this claim for compensation, by contacting the company that actually operated the flight (it happens that it is a different company from the initial booking).
Problem: coordinates are often concealed, unsuccessful or non-existent. This is why there are service providers whose mission is to negotiate compensation to companies and on behalf of their customers who have been victim of overbooking. If the airline even refuses in writing to compensate the traveller, then the Civil Aviation Branch (CAF) may be seized. The airline can also be prosecuted, but there the deadlines can be very long.
*** Compensation specialists**
In order to avoid bringing the weight of all these steps and finding themselves quickly dissipated in the face of such situations, there is a solution, not least: to get closer to a provider specialized in the claim of air compensation. In the image of a legal assistant, the latter is responsible for the heavy duty of compensation by asserting your rights with the airline concerned.
European Reference, Flightright accompanies you in your compensation efforts. In case of delayed, cancelled or overbooked flight and after obtaining your relevant flight number, a team of international legal experts is responsible for obtaining compensation under the European law. By acting directly with the airline concerned, Flightright may even go to sue, if necessary, to obtain your compensation. On your side, the long legal steps are spared you and you can claim up to 600€ per passenger (excluding ticket prices).
The suite is simple and evokes two cases of figures:
-The airline is held responsible: Flightright therefore obtains compensation and withdraws a commission of 27% (+ VAT) on the amount obtained. -The airline is not responsible: you do not get compensation but have nothing to pay with Flightright.
Good to know. 95% of Flightright’s claims are compensated. In the case of a trial, the company registers a success rate of 99%.
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