Probably the most dreaded parts of air travel is the potential of being bumped out of your flight — and one airline tends to bump greater than others.
A study from travel site Upgraded Points revealed that Frontier Airlines is most probably to bump fliers, surpassing other major airlines by far, reported Travel + Leisure.
Bumping, or denied boarding, happens when airlines overbook a flight and there are more passengers than available seats on the plane.
The low-cost carrier involuntarily bumped 3.21 passengers per 10,000 travelers from the start of 2023 to 2024 — 400% greater than another U.S. airline, the study found.
“Few travel experiences are more frustrating than being bumped from a flight after purchasing a ticket. Yet it happens incessantly since airlines routinely sell more tickets than available seats in anticipation of no-shows,” Keri Stooksbury, editor-in-chief of Upgraded Points, said in an announcement to T+L.
“We studied this industry practice to provide travelers a heads-up on which carriers are most probably to have this issue.”
American Airlines got here in second after Frontier, bumping 0.6 per 10,000 people, and Spirit Airlines bumped the third-most passengers with a rate of 0.43 per 10,000 travelers.
The airlines with the fewest variety of involuntary denied boardings were Delta Air Lines and Allegiant Air, which each had zero bumps.
Nonetheless, Delta had the best variety of voluntary bumps at 7.49 per 10,000 fliers.
While airlines are likely to offer a type of compensation to passengers willing to provide up their seats on overbooked flights — whether or not it’s money or a flight upgrade — the study found that the quantity that travelers are willing to simply accept to miss their scheduled flight varies from state to state.
In Arkansas, travelers would conform to be bumped for a mean minimum of $382, while in California passengers would only conform to far more — $832.
