Oversold Flights, Bumped Off- Best alternatives

Welcome back..So how was the weekend? Yesterday I was speaking to my one of my friend,who was recently bumped off from his scheduled Airline Travel as the flight was overbooked and the Airline couldn't take passengers more than the seat capacity of the aircraft..

Presently, lots of the major Airlines virtually overbook their flights by 20-40 percent because there tends to be few passenger that do not show up at the airport resulting financial losses to the Airlines. Airlines can be oversold at any time of the year and the percentage is often not disclosed by the airlines.

Now, lets see few best alternatives available for the overbooked flight :

• The Airline would ask for the volunteers,who can take the later flight or is ready to stay back.
• Sometimes, the passengers can be bumped off the flight even though they have not volunteered to take the later flight as the airlines is oversold and there are no seats available. These passengers are still entitled for the compensation.
• Airline staff would give the MCO known as Miscellaneous charge order. Its the travel voucher and can be redeemed for future travel
• MCO is not cash but like a boarding card and the value of their MCO is higher than the cash
• Always remember to check if this MCO can be transferred to other family member so that in case you are unable to use it then your family member can use it.
• Check the validity of the voucher plus if this voucher can be used both for domestic and international travel
• Few Airlines can extend the validity of the voucher.Hence, always remember to explore that option
• Check out the restrictions on the travel voucher, It should not restrict your future travel, your seat should be confirmed, you should be able to use the voucher on the partner airlines as well. For e.g: If you are taking British Airways (BA) from London to New york and American Airlines (AA) for New york to Seattle then you should be able to use the voucher for both the Airlines as BA and AA are one world partner
• Its your right to ask for meal voucher or hotel accommodation in case you are bumped off due oversold flight.

Above are the few best alternatives that's mandatory for all the passengers that are taking Airline Travel. All of us would face this situation one day and its always good to know our rights and keeping in mind these simple steps would ease the stress at the airport.

All the best and Keep Flying !!