Air Canada agents reveal overselling practices
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Re: Air Canada agents reveal overselling practices
#2Supposedly this is a company internal document[0], which states:
Air Canada Revenue Management’s team is tasked with ensuring that the maximum revenue potential is made on each and every flight we operate. As it is known that a certain percentage of confirmed customers do not show for their flights, it is sometimes necessary to sell more seats than aircraft capacity. Revenue Management uses a sophisticated system that uses “day of” and historical information to monitor all flights in Air Canada’s system, calculating the acceptable level of oversell risk.
0. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5729064-Denied-Board...
Re: Air Canada agents reveal overselling practices
#3Doesn't every airline do this?
Re: Air Canada agents reveal overselling practices
#4There should be a law to disclose this sort of information when you purchase a ticket... as well as the probability that you will be denied passage on the flight you are booking... In fact you could even make it so that they tell you the alternative you will be offered if that event occurs. They could even offer a premium price to guarantee your flight.
The whole point is to make this process more predictable for travelers. The tech exists, only the political will to force its use is necessary.
Re: Air Canada agents reveal overselling practices
#5Wait, there are people who don't realize that when they can't get an assigned seat when they book the ticket (and it's not because they bought a special fare that doesn't allow a reserved seats), it's because the flight is oversold and they will be waitlisted for a seat? Every airline does this.
Re: Air Canada agents reveal overselling practices
#6There should be a law to disclose this sort of information when you purchase a ticket... as well as the probability that you will be denied passage on the flight you are booking... In fact you could even make it so that they tell you the alternative you will be offered if that event occurs. They could even offer a premium price to guarantee your flight. The whole point is to make this process more predictable for tra…
The alternative that you're offered, 99% of the time, is a seat on the next flight.
Re: Air Canada agents reveal overselling practices
#7This seems like standard practice for US airlines, including the part where checking in and going through seat assignment means you have a seat (because it indicates you're unlikely to be a no-show). What's different here? Are they communicating to passengers differently? Are they overselling much more aggressively than US carriers / worse at predicting? Do fewer Air Canada passengers accept offers to take a later flight, or do they fly routes where that doesn't work?
Re: Air Canada agents reveal overselling practices
#8Overselling airline seats is pretty typical, but is there any reason for the check-in agent to give the ticketholder false hope? That just seems like passing the buck to the gate agent.
Re: Air Canada agents reveal overselling practices
#9I'm not surprised airlines do this. I don't think it is just Air Canada. In a way it makes sense but it does make me think they are a bit greedy.
If someone buys a ticket and does not show up for a flight then usually they don't get a refund/credit (or a crappy one: I'm looking at you United).
But now the airline has an empty seat. The best thing to do is fill it. But you can't fill it the last moment so you need to overbook. But if you overbook too much then you need to start bumping people off. So the airline gets to keep all the revenue from the overbooking as well as the fees for the refund which can be substantial. It's a bit like double dipping.
Re: Air Canada agents reveal overselling practices
#10There should be a law to disclose this sort of information when you purchase a ticket... as well as the probability that you will be denied passage on the flight you are booking... In fact you could even make it so that they tell you the alternative you will be offered if that event occurs. They could even offer a premium price to guarantee your flight. The whole point is to make this process more predictable for tra…
The alternative that you're offered, 99% of the time, is a seat on the next flight.
Which is sort of workable if you are taking a direct flight to some location within the same continent and the next flight is in a couple of hours... If the next flight is the next day then that is pretty unacceptable.