Southwest to Stop Overbooking as United Uproar Echoes
1–10 of 335 posts
Re: Southwest to Stop Overbooking as United Uproar Echoes
#2Does that mean ticket prices will increase?
Re: Southwest to Stop Overbooking as United Uproar Echoes
#3Does that mean ticket prices will increase?
Southwest already often isn't the cheapest, or even close to the cheapest, fare on many routes. And whether this causes an increase in fares will mostly depend on the existing load factor. If they already had planes mostly going out with a few empty seats, they don't necessarily have to change anything.
Re: Southwest to Stop Overbooking as United Uproar Echoes
#4Does that mean ticket prices will increase?
I don't see how it could. Only a handful of people on any one flight are ever bumped, on average. The bumped are normally put on other flights. The only 'win' is where someone doesn't show and also doesn't fly or get a refund. I cannot see how it is more than 1 or 2% of revenue.
That said, perhaps I am dead wrong and overbooking is being used for darker purposes. Perhaps they are deliberately overselling flights at peak times knowing that they will push bumped customers to later less-full flights. If that is being done knowingly, that's a bait-and-switch operation that might be worth more than a couple percent.
Re: Southwest to Stop Overbooking as United Uproar Echoes
#5Does that mean ticket prices will increase?
Southwest already often isn't the cheapest, or even close to the cheapest, fare on many routes. And whether this causes an increase in fares will mostly depend on the existing load factor. If they already had planes mostly going out with a few empty seats, they don't necessarily have to change anything.
I've flown very often with Southwest, and have rarely seen a completely full plane. The fullest I've seen still has one or two middle seats free at the very back of the plane.
Re: Southwest to Stop Overbooking as United Uproar Echoes
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Southwest already often isn't the cheapest, or even close to the cheapest, fare on many routes. And whether this causes an increase in fares will mostly depend on the existing load factor. If they already had planes mostly going out with a few empty seats, they don't necessarily have to change anything.
I've flown very often with Southwest, and have rarely seen a completely full plane. The fullest I've seen still has one or two middle seats free at the very back of the plane.
You must fly very different routes than me... the flights I am on are almost always full.
Re: Southwest to Stop Overbooking as United Uproar Echoes
#7Does that mean ticket prices will increase?
I don't see how it could. Only a handful of people on any one flight are ever bumped, on average. The bumped are normally put on other flights. The only 'win' is where someone doesn't show and also doesn't fly or get a refund. I cannot see how it is more than 1 or 2% of revenue. That said, perhaps I am dead wrong and overbooking is being used for darker purposes. Perhaps they are deliberately overselling flights at p…
Well, if it's a 1-2% decrease in revenue there might be a 1-2% price increase. I thought the margins for US airlines were incredibly small (could be wrong, I'm no expert).
Re: Southwest to Stop Overbooking as United Uproar Echoes
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Southwest already often isn't the cheapest, or even close to the cheapest, fare on many routes. And whether this causes an increase in fares will mostly depend on the existing load factor. If they already had planes mostly going out with a few empty seats, they don't necessarily have to change anything.
I've flown very often with Southwest, and have rarely seen a completely full plane. The fullest I've seen still has one or two middle seats free at the very back of the plane.
I can't even remember the last time I was on a flight (Southwest included) that wasn't at capacity. I'm sure it depends on where you're flying to and from though.
Re: Southwest to Stop Overbooking as United Uproar Echoes
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see how it could. Only a handful of people on any one flight are ever bumped, on average. The bumped are normally put on other flights. The only 'win' is where someone doesn't show and also doesn't fly or get a refund. I cannot see how it is more than 1 or 2% of revenue. That said, perhaps I am dead wrong and overbooking is being used for darker purposes. Perhaps they are deliberately overselling flights at p…
Well, if it's a 1-2% decrease in revenue there might be a 1-2% price increase. I thought the margins for US airlines were incredibly small (could be wrong, I'm no expert).
They also won't have to pay the people who get bumped which will somewhat offset the lost revenue from overbooking.
Re: Southwest to Stop Overbooking as United Uproar Echoes
#10Does that mean ticket prices will increase?
I don't see how it could. Only a handful of people on any one flight are ever bumped, on average. The bumped are normally put on other flights. The only 'win' is where someone doesn't show and also doesn't fly or get a refund. I cannot see how it is more than 1 or 2% of revenue. That said, perhaps I am dead wrong and overbooking is being used for darker purposes. Perhaps they are deliberately overselling flights at p…
Southwest doesn't do this, but some other low-cost carriers do (especially in Asia): they purposefully cancel flights and offer only credit vouchers as compensation instead of re-routing passengers. Many travelers end up buying same-day tickets at considerably higher expense, or not ending up in a position to use those vouchers (which is the same as the airline keeping the money).