Why The Airlines Overbooked Your Flight

Virtually everybody is talking about the man being dragged off the United Airlines plane in Chicago.  The headlines on day two after the event in the Huffington Post reads “United Airlines Loses $900 Million In Value In Hours As Viral Video Spreads”.  This could be the biggest PR blunder of all time!  If the losses hold up, United could have commissioned and built a brand new plane to fly their crew to Louisville for less money! A 747 is only 150 million plus !

The airlines says the flight wasn’t overbooked but that they needed four seats to send a crew to their next job. Still, the incident has pushed the practice of overbooking into the spot light.

Time magazine reports that as many as 50,000 people are bumped from flights each year.

Why do they do it?  A Ted Talks video explains that it’s a built in insurance policy for always having a full plane despite cancellations or no shows.

If you do get bumped off a flight in the U.S. know that you are entitled to "denied boarding compensation," and that can come to you in the form of cash, check, free tickets, or vouchers for future flights .

Check out the Ted Talk.  http://youtu.be/ZFNstNKgEDI