St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Please include your name, address, and day and evening telephone numbers. The airlines really don't want you to know this. But the upcoming summer travel season could be a boon for savvy travelers looking to get more for their airline tickets than just trips. And now the government wants you to get more.
Airlines routinely overbook to compensate for no-shows.
When they guess wrong, they offer free tickets or vouchers to persuade passengers to give up their seats, to avoid forcing passengers off. With the busy summer travel season approaching, overbooking is expected to worsen. Commercial flights on the average are already more than 70 percent full, and that's expected to climb to more than 80 percent between May and September. So many smart people these days realize bumping isn't such a bad word. Travelers also get to keep that ticket.