SolveYourProblem.com
Article Series: Airline Travel
Airlines, Planes & Airport Security
Earn
a Free Airline Ticket By Getting Bumped
It is now not even the slightest bit odd
to hear the airline workers calling for volunteers who are
interested in taking a later flight and being compensated
by a voucher for a free flight. This is happening more and
more every day and it’s no longer because the airlines are
making mistakes. It used to be that a mistake on the part
of the airline would trigger this sequence of events, perhaps
there was a problem in the computer or there was some kind
of glitch in the buying software. In any case, all of the
airline employees would huddle around the computer trying
to figure out how it could possibly be that they had more
passengers who had checked in and gone through security than
there were seats on their plane. Nervously, they would try
to get someone to give up their seat and offered a sort of
reward as a good reason for doing them this service. At some
point the airlines got smart and started doing this on a
regular basis. Here’s how it works…
Airlines have very accurate data about the percentage of
people who buy tickets and subsequently use them. If there
is statistically only 95% of paying customers showing up
for the scheduled and paid-for flights, then, logically,
they can sell 5% more tickets and break in at 100%, and fly
with a full plane every time. However, the motivation here
is not flying with a full plane; the motivation is selling
as many tickets as possible. Let’s imagine, for simplicity’s
sake, a plane with 100 seats. If the airline has figured
out that only 95% of ticketed customers actually make it
to the airport and onto their flight, logically, they can
sell five more tickets. Now, this sale of five extra tickets
does not happen there on the spot, no this sale of five extra
tickets happens well before the day of the flight, assuming,
of course, that there are five more people who want tickets.
On the day of the flight, they’ve sold 105 tickets, but
are only going to take 100 passengers because they only have
100 seats. Now, if the statistics are a bit off on this particular
day, and 97 people show up (of the original 100) instead
of the 95 people that were statistically predicted to show
up, the airline has a problem, because they’ve sold five
extra tickets, but as it turns out they only have three extra
seats. This is because two more people than were statistically
expected showed up. This is the moment where you can benefit
from knowing this system. This is the moment when the airline
employees will come onto the loudspeaker asking for volunteers
to get bumped to the next flight—with a flight voucher thrown
in for good measure.
When they need to get 100 people on the plane and there
are 102 people sitting in the waiting area ready to board,
you can benefit from being willing to fly on a later flight.
Usually the next available flight that they would put you
on is only an hour or two later than the flight that you
were scheduled for. It is rarely a huge ordeal of waiting
all day in the airport; usually it’s a very simple matter
of waiting an hour. Why not take that hour to enjoy a drink
in celebration of getting a voucher for a free flight. That
free flight will save you anywhere from $100-$300 depending
on the restrictions of the voucher; that must be a worthy
cause for celebration!
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SolveYourProblem.com
: 2008
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