Airlines like money and it turns out that the best way for airlines to make money is to ensure that there are as few empty seats on a plane as possible.
When a person doesn’t show up for a flight, the seat is left empty and an empty seat is a lost opportunity for revenue. As a result of this conundrum, airlines employ fancy statisticians to figure out how many seats the airline needs to overbook just to make up for the no-shows.
Unfortunately, those statisticians aren’t fortune tellers and sometimes (okay, a lot of times), their figures are off. When the figures are off, it’s still a better deal for the airline to give you a $300 travel voucher than it is to risk letting a seat fly empty.
So, how can you cash in on all of this free travel? Here are seven tips to releasing your inner free-travel royalty:
Show up Early
This may sound like a no-brainer, but the early bird gets the worm. Arrive at the gate at least an hour and fifteen minutes before your scheduled departure and ask the gate agent if he needs volunteers. If he isn’t sure, give him your name just in case. This doesn’t commit you to volunteering, but it might get you first dibs on those choice ticket vouchers.
Choose Your Flights Carefully
If you really want to scope out the overbooked flights, check out AOW (Airlines of the Web). Search for your flight of choice and then take a look at the string of numbers and letters on the side. Those letters refer to the class (first, business, coach, etc.) from highest to lowest and the numbers refer to the number of remaining seats in the corresponding class. Keep in mind that the highest possible number is nine, so if the number listed is nine, the real figure could be much higher. Ideally, you want to find a flight with zeros (or close to zero) all the way across.
Mornings are better than evenings—airlines are more likely to overbook these early flights, knowing that they have a better chance of delaying passengers to a later flight. Holidays, Saturday mornings, and Sunday evenings are good bets, too. Similarly, popular destinations are goldmines for the flexible traveler. Las Vegas, Hawaii, and major business travel hubs like New York, Minneapolis, and Chicago are common sites of overbookings.
