http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-j-jones/how-to-avoid-be...
If you are removed involuntarily (not asked to switch for a certificate) you're entitled to up to 400% of your one way fare up to $1350 cash in hand on top rebooking you, depending how long you got held up. [1] Theyre also required to show you your rights on paper in that situation. It almost never happens because there's a huge incentive for them not to do this to you.
And if you think that's rough check out EC 261/2004 [2] and that applies even in the case or a mechanical issue.
[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/14/250.5
[2] http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/holidays/article-2271213/...
> They should also be required to make their best effort to find the available seats for the passenger.
In other words, it should be their responsibility to get you re-booked immediately on all available flights. This should be something that should be verifiable afterwards (i.e. if you as a customer find out they didn't send you on a certain flight by another airline that was better, that should mean additional fines). This should be strongly enforced by regulators to the point where it actually occurs.
Unless I'm missing something (didn't see it in [1]), those rules/enforcement are not currently place. Under these circumstances, I could _maybe_ accept overbooking as an acceptable practice, but without them I don't see why it should be acceptable.
I have no moral argument against overbooking, its wasteful for them not to do so if their projections show that without it, the seat would go out empty. Sometimes they mess it up, sure, and in those cases they owe you cold hard cash, hotel accommodation IIRC and a flight to your destination anyways. Between the monetary outlay and the social media feedback, as a very frequent traveler (top tier with AA and Alaska this year, that's 190,000 qualifying miles), I feel quite satisfied with the status quo.
Per [1] in 2015, only 0.09% of passengers were denied boarding voluntarily or involuntarily. Involuntarily denied boarding accounts for only 0.0075% (43 out of 613,141) of boarded passengers -- that's four nines -- and my understanding is 2016 performance was even better. You were almost as likely to be hit by lightning each year (1 in 700,000). With those kind of performance metrics, it feels like things are working, or else we need to really get our act together re: lightning strikes :)
[1] https://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/pu...
In years of business travel, where I frequently arrive at the hotel at midnight, I've only been walked three times. Once at a trade show, where the hotel was renovating and didn't get the rooms done on schedule. Second, where a guest got ill and was unable to depart on schedule. Third, on a trip to New York, where they walked me to a sister property located literally across the street (I got the feeling that these two hotels frequently traded guests).
>the cancellation period is actually one day prior to arrival
Unfortunately, a lot of chains are increasing their cancellation window. In addition, there seems to be a fairly significant trend toward hotels (especially the chains) offering substantial discounts for non-cancelable reservations.
All hotels routinely is not accurate.
From the cited article:
>Now that I've sufficiently scared you out of ever booking another hotel, here is the reality: Your odds of being walked are incredibly slim.
Even most sold out hotels have maintenance rooms. Sometimes the only reason it is in "maintenance" is something simple. And could be rented last minute (as i did in similar job)
I think you'll find hotels targeting backpackers overbook, too (if they allow reservations, at all)
But is not at all common, and when it happens it is more likely that the reason is not overbooking, but rather some incident (like a mistake in the bookings, a bathroom found leaking just before the customer arrival, a couple that booked a twin and then arrived with a 17 year old "kid", etc.)
I can't imagine working someplace where, as a matter of course, people with reservations are turned away due to overbooking. It's likely that such a place would not last very long either, because as soon as people read TripAdvisor reviews about how your property doesn't honor its reservations they will stay elsewhere.