One of the great scandals of modern aviation is that airlines continue to over book with impunity. In the distant past, the vast majority of airline tickets sold were flexible. Airlines were faced with large numbers of passengers who would 'no show' and use their ticket on later flights. To manage this they often overbooked flights based on a percentage of 'no shows' and from time to time they were caught out. In a way, this could be justified. A no show in these circumstances is a loss of revenue, as the passenger who failed to show up would still get a service later, so if the seat went empty, the airline lost out.
Today, the vast majority of seats are sold on a non refundable basis and if the passenger is a 'no show' the passenger loses the right to travel. The airline has no loss of revenue in these circumstances, as they have been paid for the seat. The justification for 'overbooking' is no longer valid. The airlines know this, but have continued to gouge passengers by selling more seats than they have. In any other business, this would be fraud. If I set up a website selling TV's and I had 1,000 to sell, but took money for 1,500 I am committing fraud.
With the exception of some low cost carriers, all airlines do this, so you have little opportunity to take your custom elsewhere. BA should know better on a route such as the Antigua route. The percentage of no shows on predominantly 'leisure' routes such as this, compared to a business route such as LHR/JFK is much lower. The ability of airlines to do this needs to be regulated...it is time this practise was stopped.
|