| If you, clutching a legally purchased ticket in your hand, show up at the airport for the departure of your flight, and there is not enough space on the plane for you, do not rush to make a scandal. You are not dealing at all with the blatant carelessness of the employees of “your” airline, but with the usual, respectable, internationally recognized mechanism called “overbooking” (Russian aviators also call this phenomenon rebooking). Deputy General Director of JSC Aeroflot - Russian International Airlines Vladimir SMIRNOV believes that there is nothing wrong with rebooking. And some of the inconveniences that it causes to passengers are fully compensated by the special attentions that the airline provides them in such cases.
-- Passengers who experience overbooking on Aeroflot flights for the first time usually perceive such cases as mistakes by company personnel. How are things going with this among your foreign colleagues and competitors?
-- Any airline uses a rebooking mechanism. In this sense, we operate in exactly the same way as other major international air carriers, and we do not do anything that they would not do.
Customers often think that overbooking means that we sell more tickets than there are seats on the plane. In fact, this is not entirely true.
Each route has its own historical average indicators of passenger no-shows for departure (in the international aviation business this is called the now show). The average now show for some flights can reach 5% or even more. This happens mainly not because people are late or change their minds about flying at the last minute, but because of the way the reservation system works. For example, agents may, to be sure, book a ticket for one person on several flights at once, and then not cancel on time those reservations that they did not use. If the airline did not use rebooking, then it would always carry 5% of seats empty, worsening its financial results. To prevent this from happening, the company allows itself to book seats beyond the actual capacity of the aircraft.
At the same time, we insure ourselves not only by observing the same historical and statistical threshold, but also by providing for the possibility of accommodating “extra” passengers of one class in other classes. Let’s say that if we rebook economy class against the total capacity of the plane, then we keep in mind the unsold business class seats, where, if necessary, and without additional payment, we can place some economy class passengers.
Overbooking can also occur against our will. For example, when a certain number of tickets are sold for a flight based on the capacity of a certain type of aircraft, and for technical reasons at the last moment it is changed to another aircraft - smaller in size. Or suddenly several people show up on a “fully sold out” flight with long-term tickets (say, annual tickets), which they purchased a long time ago and decided to use on that very day. If there are no available seats, Aeroflot is not obliged to take such passengers on board, however, we always try to find an opportunity to deliver them to their destination.
There are, of course, ordinary mistakes when the booking system did not work entirely correctly. After all, it is a complex computer system that connects hundreds of agents in different countries and even on different continents. She also has technical glitches. But in this situation, we (like any other serious airline) do not abandon the client, but take measures to deliver him to his destination in the shortest possible time.
- How can you help a passenger for whom there is simply no room on the plane?
-- The air transportation contract that the airline enters into with the client when selling him a ticket does not provide a 100% guarantee of departure time. The company cannot take on such an obligation, since there is God with the weather, aviation and airport authorities with their powers, and finally, an airplane, like any machine, may need unscheduled repairs. The company only undertakes to make every possible effort to deliver the passenger in accordance with the schedule. This obligation also applies in the event of rebooking.
If one of our clients “does not fit” on the flight for which he was sold a ticket, we can offer such a client a number of options to choose from. We give him financial compensation for the delay. It is issued in the form of a so-called MCO (in Russian this document is called a receipt for various fees). In fact, this is a voucher that can be used over the next year to purchase a ticket or pay for other Aeroflot services, such as sending excess baggage.
— Why, in this case, doesn’t Aeroflot give cash to customers, as European and American airlines do?
-- Due to the peculiarities of Russian currency control and accounting, it is very inconvenient for us to operate with cash in such cases (and they usually occur on foreign flights). But we are working on this issue and, perhaps, over time we will also switch to cash payments.
In addition, in case of long delays (if they occur through the fault of the airline, of course), Aeroflot, at its own expense, accommodates passengers in a hotel and issues them food vouchers. It must be emphasized that when overbooking occurs, compensation is only the beginning of our efforts to resolve the problem. The main thing is to deliver the passenger to his destination. On those routes where we have several flights per day, this is achieved relatively simply. The flights seem to back each other up. We transfer “extra” passengers from one flight to another for free. If there are no flights on that day, then we transfer our passengers to foreign companies flying on the same route. Moreover, if our and their prices for the flight differ, then Aeroflot pays the difference for the passenger.
In this case, I believe that money should not be spared, since in this way we confirm the high level of service and responsibility for the clients who have trusted us. Combined options are also possible: delivery of the passenger to the final destination with a transfer somewhere along the way, and part of this journey is carried out by an Aeroflot flight, and the other part by a foreign company.
- People have different circumstances. Sometimes you not only need to get to your destination, but also get there by a certain date. And some may not be in any hurry. Do your employees take such details into account?
— Of course, work with each passenger is built strictly individually. We have such a form as a passenger’s voluntary refusal to fly on the exact flight for which he bought a ticket. The point is not that he stays at home at all, but that in case of rebooking, he allows us to transfer him to a later flight for additional financial compensation. This way we get the opportunity to send first those who are in a real hurry.
-- How often do Aeroflot passengers find themselves in overbooking situations?
-- Over the past year, at our base airport Sheremetyevo, we have solved similar problems for 3,319 of our clients. Considering that a total of 5.7 million people took Aeroflot flights that year, the percentage of overbooking, as you can see, is insignificant. However, the company spent $569,000 just on paying compensation to these clients. Amount of compensation to Aeroflot passengers for flight delays due to the airline’s fault, dollars.| Condition | Delay in scheduled arrival | Flight range | | | up to 3500 km | over 3500 km |
For a “voluntary” flight rescheduling - $50 in any case| When flying on Aeroflot flights | up to 12 o'clock | 100 | 200 | | up to 24 hours | 200 | 400 | | more than 24 hours | 400 | 500 | | When using flights of other airlines | up to 6 hours | 50 | 100 | | up to 12 o'clock | 100 | 200 | | more than 12 hours | 200 | 250 |
Interviewed by Mikhail KUKUSHKIN
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