can an airline company cancel your flight after you paid for the ticket .?

Question

they claim that they book more seats than they have. how is this possible?

Answer 1

Did they cancel the entire flight or did they bump you off the flight because it was oversold? There's a difference.

If they cancelled the flight, the reasons are usually weather, equipment problems or no crew to fly the plane.

If the flight was oversold, that's pretty normal. Airlines are fighting for their lives today (I work in the travel industry/information technology sector). A plane that goes out without a bum in every seat is not maximizing their profit. They know that lots of people will buy a ticket on a flight, then plans change, they get to the airport early or late and end up on another flight. Rather than let that seat go empty, they'll sell it twice and take the chance that they may have to reaccommodate a few passengers.

Either way, you may have some sort of compensation for your inconvenience, depending on the airline's policy. Some will ask for volunteers, and they'll give a credit voucher toward another flight, PLUS they'll make arrangements to get you on another flight. If necessary, they'll put you up in a hotel room for the night.

My sister and her husband try whenever they can to be re-accommodated because they usually get credit toward their next trip.

Answer 2

Canceling a flight is way different than overbooking & your question suggests overbooking, Happens frequently, they first ask for volunteers for the bump ( offer cash, discounts and other stuff ) but if no one volunteers they start bumping as you can only have as many passengers board as there are seats. ( lots of people book flights that no - show later and the airlines now factor this into their booking although there is no way to guess the future, how many no shows there are )
They must honor the travel, just not necessarily at the time / date on your ticket.

Answer 3

Yes airlines can cancel a flight after you have booked the ticket, but if they do they have to take all steps to ensure you reach your destination. if you have an onward conection and you are travelling on a through ticket they are also responsible for booking this too, however be aware if you travel on seperate tickts then the airline is only responsible for getting you to the final destination you have travelling with them.

The difference between a thru ticket and seperate tickets? A thru ticket is one journey with differnt sectors, the whole ticket has one ticket number. your airline responsibility is to get you from A 2 B in time for your flight to C

Seperate tickets are when you buy a ticket from ba for example and then buy another flight from another airline, two tickets, two ticket numbers. the first airlines responsibilty is to get you from A 2 B.

If the airline cancells your flight then you can ask for a full refund of the unused portions of the ticket. They do not legally have to provide a hotel in case of cancellation, as the flight you are booked onto no longer exists. they may provide you with compensation such as a discount voucher on futher travel for example but this is nout of choice not legal obligation.

If they have a delay, then the airline is legally bound to provide you with meals if you flight is delayed for 4 hours or more and accomodation if delayed for 12 hours or more. again if your flight is delayed for 4 hours or more you may ask for a full refund on all unused sectors of you ticked.

Airlines overbook every flight. this is due to what is known as a no show factor, delays on passengers arriving at airports due to traffic, trains, mis connecting from other airlines or other things such as illness, last minute complications passengers face meaning they are unable to take their flight.
99% of the times the oversales situation will not affect passengers as they will have enough seats for all passengers who have arrived to take the flight.
If the airline finds that the passenger volume is higher than the seats they have on the aircraft they will usually request passengers VOS (voluntary offloads) for passengers willing to do this, the airline will provide them with compensation such as free return flights, tens of thousands of airmiles, or even cash. they will also provide top class hotel accomodation if you don't travel until the following day, and will go out of their way to look after you.
If people do not vos, and it turns out that they run out of seats, then those passengers are entitled to 'denied boarding compensation' in the usa this is $400 in europe this is 600euros. (or equiv in local currency for example £) this rarly happens as airlines want to protect revenue. therefore they will close flights dead on time no exceptions, close gates on time with little or no exceptions.

Answer 4

Yeah they can... there was probably some extra fine print warning against this. That's why they encourage booking the insurance.
Depending on the airline, they should help you get another flight, but I guess it depends on their policy.
Sucks for you either way.

Answer 5

yes but most times they will try to get you on another flight with one of their partner airlines or a later flight and if you have to wait til next day they usually will put you up in a hotel

Answer 6

They usually overbook flights because not everyone shows up at the gate on time (or at all). No it's not fair, but that's how airlines do business.

Answer 7

that happens all the time, they will usually either rebook you on another flight and give you some compensation money (thats what they did to me once) or they will get people to give up their seats, it has happened me me at least 5 times.

Answer 8

yes, they can do this ... they will move you to another flight. If it was an overbooking situation they may offer some type of discount coupon for another flight.

Answer 9

yes theycan and it happens everyday,all the airlines do it

Answer 10

yea... but most of the time, they will try to get you on latter flight.