Answer by Thomas Zerbarini:
Unfortunately, it's an airline industry practice. You'll notice that the airlines with the cheaper fare structures bump the most passengers because the have to push full capacity on the airplane to make up for the lower fares.
Every flight has a history of passenger "no shows." To avoid significant lost revenue the airline tracks flights and determines the average number of passengers that do not show up for the flight. The airline will then consider overbooking seats equevalant to the average no-show amount to fill the airplane. The alternative is non-refundable tickets if you "no show" for your flight. Even if your late and just miss your flight.
I wonder if the airlines will come up with a better way to handle this. Maybe better statistical analysis, designating bump rate tickets, standby tickets, more high price refundable tickets and/or less cheap seats.
As far as the behavior by the passenger and the airport security officer, I believe the behavior was deplorable. It should not have escalated this far. The passenger should have never been boarded in the first place if there was a chance of him or anyone getting bumped. This is a customer service problem that became a security and safety problem that the Captain and crew had to consider.
Since the matter escalated and the passenger refused to follow crew instructions and became adamant in refusing to deplane and cooperate, the passenger has to be considered a safety/security risk for the flight by the Captain.
As captain and crew we absolutely hate these situations. When possible mistakes or poor customer service, weather delays, maintenance delays, over-bookings etc… happen, it can escalate passenger stress and frustrations. I’m certain this incident will be investigated thoroughly and new protocols and staff training will be put in place to mitigate these escalations in the future and hopefully handle over-bookings more efficiently.
Thomas Zerbarini
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