Why do airlines sell too many tickets? - Nina Klietsch

Have you ever sat in a doctor’s office for hours, despite having an appointment? Has a hotel turned down your reservation because it’s full? Have you been bumped off a flight that you paid for? These are all symptoms of overbooking, a practice where businesses sell or book more than their capacity. So why do they do it? Nina Klietsch explains the math behind this frustrating practice.

Lesson by Nina Klietsch, animation by Anton Trofimov.

[daveliu]

0:42 God, I hate it when I miss my flight due to alien abduction. So rude.

[thomasmulhall]

Happiest flight I've ever been on was when I got bumped and had to miss a relative's wedding.
Had a great weekend at home, then flew on vacation a month later to some place I actually wanted to go.

[brodhax]

Who are these people who dont show up for flights or appointments?

If I have a plane flight at 11am tomorrow, You better believe Im wide awake at 3am ironing socks getting ready to leave

[drrajeevdahiwal]

its definitely unethical, i missed my pg entrance exam because of this attitude of airlines

[lionobama]

“Sorry sir, we sold your ticket that you waited for 6 hours here, Please get off the plane or I will contact the police.”

[GraveUypo]

simply sell overbooking tickets as such and at a discount. so people buying them are aware of the risks of being bumped and can't complain later. but let's sell the same thing twice.

[Haburg]

it happend to me
I was the bumped passenger
and got the next free flight with an upgrade and got the cash back

[isabellabornberg]

ARE you KIDDING? This is what I had to calculate in my maths exam yesterday?!

[avelociraptorwithacomputer]

I'm often stunned by how big companies act sometimes. It's like they're run by heartless machines instead of people.

[jongomm]

This video should just be the words "Because they are twats".

[sammysalter]

solutions to the ethics question:

1. be more open to all who book about the possibility of being bumped. Explain the cost difference every ticket would have without overbooking.

2. sell "safe from overbooking" seats and "at risk from overbooking" seats with price differences and explanation of the (small) risks involved.

[chris]

any percent is unethical. if that person payed for the service you are responsible for providing it, Whether they are there or not. else wise how is it different from robbery?

[Norsketrutt]

Do you really think big companies are ethical?

[tc]

4:27 No, that does not make it okay to sell somebody's seat. If I paid for a seat on a flight, it is my seat, regardless of whether I show up or not. If the airlines gave refunds to people that didn't show up, then it would be fine, but they don't. If something is paid for, you should not be legally allowed to sell it again. The only reason this is allowed, is because airlines pay lobbyists to "persuade" congress to allow it.

[willahladun]

I have no problem with it considering how expensive it is to run an airline, however I have a problem with it when my grandma at the age of 83 is trying to get home to her grandkids and she gets bumped to a flight leaving the next day. That's fucked up.

[menpee]

Is this a thing in USA? I fly 2 times per year in Europe and we buy the tickets based on seat numbers. If a seat is already taken then you cannot choose it again. Maybe me and my friends are lucky but we've never been dumped before (based on dozens of flights).

[tgoddard]

Yep, most aggravating thing in the world! I worked for a hotel in London Heathrow and our specific chain overbooked 15%, which while being great for the chain, was horrible for the staff! On an almost daily basis we had to tell arriving guests that we didn’t have any rooms available even though they had booked and paid for a room, sometimes months in advance! And unlike other hotels in the area, we did not have “overflow rooms”. This meant that the staff ALWAYS got abuse for double booking rooms when it had nothing to do with us! It got to the point where if we saw the bookings were almost at capacity, WE would book rooms on the website to shut it down and only ever ended up with 3 or 4 empty rooms, but they would always be “last resort” rooms due to some sort of issue with them like the TV or shower not working. We used to get into trouble all the time, staff even got fired for doing it, but you see these chains don’t care if the staff get abused, sometimes even physically, because all they care about it the money and not our wellbeing. And the guests don’t care who’s fault it is. Even before my brief stint in the hospitality industry, whenever something like this happens to me I always make sure I express my frustration at the situation and not the the employee who actually never gets paid enough or even acknowledged by the company for the abuse they get for decisions made by faceless unknowns. And because of the way I handle these sorts of situations, I almost always get more than I asked for.

[spandandhungana]

cant believe they showed the animation of aliens taking humans to justify the reason for missing a flight 😂😂😂 at 0:43

[WayneJohnsonZastil]

Erm you pay for the flight even if you do not turn up

[themetal]

So a restaurant has the right to sell the same stake to two customers on the assumption that one of them is not hungry, vegetarian, sick... etc