Chaos and confusion at airports: how to get a tidy sum as compensation from the airline

Due to the high demand for flights, airlines are giving away thousands of dollars for passengers to rebook their tickets. How to get the most out of this, tells CNBC.

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Derailed flights have become the new normal. This year, 23% of all domestic and international flights in the US have been delayed or disrupted, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. On the Friday before July 4, that number rose to almost 30%.

This means there are more paying customers than plane seats available, and passengers are enriching themselves by giving up their seats on overbooked planes worth thousands of dollars per ticket. But airlines won't just offer you that much money, says Willis Orlando, senior flight expert at Scott's Cheap Flights. Rather, he says, you'll have to negotiate - and he has some advice for any adventurous passenger willing to sacrifice their travel for the maximum amount of money.

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An airline offer usually starts with a voice on the intercom. If you haven't boarded the plane yet, you will hear an agent at the entrance offering some money for the passenger to give up their seat. If you are already on the plane, it will be a flight attendant who is looking for volunteers to return to the airport.

Orlando's first tip: Show interest quickly, but never accept the airline's starting price.

“If you're flexible and want some extra money in your pocket... run ahead and ask them for everything,” Orlando says. “This is always the nicest offer.”

You can also sweeten up other parts of your overbooked experience. Orlando says airlines are often willing to let you into their exclusive lounges or let you choose an expensive seat at the front of the plane on an overbooked flight. All you have to do is ask.

“They want guaranteed quantity... almost no matter what,” Orlando says. “If you step down voluntarily, the negotiating ball will be on your side of the field.”

Orlando says airports in major cities such as Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles are more likely to experience flight disruptions than others as they are often hubs for transfers. He adds that the airlines most likely to encounter unintended passengers are Frontier, Southwest and American Airlines.

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Orlando says the dollar figures are above average, likely for two reasons: to get the plane off on time and to preserve the airline's reputation. If not enough passengers voluntarily disembark from a flight, airlines have to forcibly "push" passengers, often resulting in a customer service nightmare.

“If a plane is delayed by two hours due to a problem getting people off the plane, there aren’t enough crew and pilots to ensure that it doesn’t affect their entire network,” says Orlando. “Before the pandemic, they didn’t risk their entire network falling apart because one or two flights went down.”

If you're forcibly transferred, you'll at least be compensated: federal law requires the airline to pay you four times your fare, up to $1550, depending on when your overbooked flight leaves.

Planes are usually overloaded due to airline optimism, Orlando said. This is especially true this year, with airlines scheduling a large number of flights as spring arrived in anticipation of high demand for summer travel.

That demand forecast came true, Orlando says, but airlines didn't foresee another problem: a lack of available staff to service those flights. Some crew members laid off at the height of the pandemic did not return, while others missed flights due to contracting Covid-19 during the extended micromicron wave in the country.

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