Flight passengers are being turned away despite booking tickets and can ‘legally’ be put on another flight, travel experts have confirmed.
It is now legal for companies to overbook their flights by 10% due to travellers not always turning up for their journeys. Also, if switching to a smaller aircraft for operational reasons, airlines will have too many passengers trying to board and have to turn those who have checked in last away.
Airlines are able to do this without a person’s permission, therefore denying your flight despite booking.
A recent case involved a man who had bought a ticket for a Ryanair flight to Mallorca from Birmingham but not reserved a seat.
Gym coach Scott McCormick and girlfriend Helena Boshwick, both 33, were to fly together on May 1 for a week-long break and gym mentorship event.
The pair did not reserve seats as they didn’t mind being randomly allocated on the flight to save extra money on paying for seats together.
Due to this, the pair were each assigned a random seat free of charge upon checking in, which they did online before departure.
However, on arrival at the gate, the airline staff made them aware that only one of them could board the plane – which they initially believed was because the flight had been overbooked.
Ryanair has since confirmed that the flight was scheduled to operate on a Boeing 737-8200 with 197 seats, but later had to be changed to a 737-800, which only had 189 seats.
Following this, the couple either had to travel separately or be put on to the next flight but pay for another full plane ticket as the airline was still technically providing them with one seat on the original flight.
McCormick explained what happened in his case in a TikTok video, saying: “We checked in the night before and we didn’t reserve a seat but you normally just get a random one.
“Me and my partner thought it’s not that much of a problem if we’re not sitting together for a two-hour flight, we’re adults here.
“We were the first ones at the gate ready for boarding. The lady scanned our boarding passes and told us to step to the side for a second. That moment was a red flag, I thought: ‘There’s something happening here’.
“When everyone boarded, she said: ‘the plane is full, there’s only one seat remaining and we will have to reimburse you for the other seat or you’ll have to get on the next flight’.”
Mr McCormick continued: “There was no compassion or care whatsoever. After going back and forth we said we’re not going to take separate flights and be in separate countries for hours.”
He claimed that after the two of them protested, they were eventually told they could both travel on the next flight out and receive a refund for both tickets.
Rory Boland, travel editor at consumer group Which?, told MailOnline: “Unfortunately for travellers, it’s not uncommon for flights to be overbooked.
“Sometimes a last minute change of aircraft might mean less seats available than planned for, in other cases some airlines actively overbook, betting on ‘no shows’ to balance things out, while maxing their profits by charging for more seats than the plane can actually accommodate.
“If an airline ends up with too many people at the gate, it can’t just bump someone from the flight because they didn’t pay extra to reserve a specific seat.
“So long as the flight is either departing the UK, or flying into the UK on a UK or EU based airline, the airline is legally obliged to ask for volunteers before resorting to forcibly denying boarding.
“If you volunteer then you surrender your right to statutory compensation, so you should make sure you’re happy with the amount you negotiate – at a minimum be sure to get at least get the amount you would be owed if the flight was cancelled – which would be up to £520 each for a long-haul flight, or less for a short-haul journey.
“If there are no volunteers, only then an airline can choose to deny a passenger boarding. Anyone who is bumped from a plane should have their flight rebooked as quickly as possible, and be paid cancellation compensation.”