Frontier and the other 4 airlines most likely to bump you from your seat
Blue Line Capital president Bill Baruch and Stifel airlines analyst Joseph DeNardi discuss delays in the Boeing 737 Max, the 3Q earnings miss, and the airline industry’s duopoly.
The sky’s not always the limit for people who fly Frontier Airlines.
That’s according to new research from travel website Upgraded Points, which used data from the U.S. Department of Transportation to find the 2018-to-2019 change in involuntary denied boardings from the top U.S. airlines due to overbooked flights.
The No. 1 U.S. airline most likely to boot you: Frontier. The low-cost carrier, which had a high number of involuntary denied boardings and a lower number of overall passengers, bumped more than six passengers per 100,000 people, according to the research.
Here are the top five airlines most likely to deny you a seat:
1. Frontier
Involuntary denied boardings: 1,219
Enplaned passengers: 19 million
Bumps per 100,000 passengers: 6.28
2. Spirit Airlines
Involuntary denied boardings: 1,529
Enplaned passengers: 27 million
Bumps per 100,000 passengers: 5.57
3. Alaska Airlines
Involuntary denied boardings: 743
Enplaned passengers: 32 million
Bumps per 100,000 passengers: 2.3
4. PSA Airlines
Involuntary denied boardings: 309
Enplaned passengers: 13 million
Bumps per 100,000 passengers: 2.29
A flight attendant is suing Southwest Airlines over an incident where she claimed two pilots had a bathroom camera set up in a lavatory.
5. American Airlines
Involuntary denied boardings: 2,614
Enplaned passengers: 133 million
Bumps per 100,000 passengers: 1.95
Frontier and Spirit ranked most likely to rescind a reservation, twice as likely as the next three carriers in the top five. But “there are significant differences in your chances depending on which airline you book your trip on,” the researcher notes.
American and Southwest Airlines, for example, had high numbers of bumped passengers but low percentages of bumps due to the volume of enplaned passengers.
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The data show that the overall number of bumps is declining, dropping from 4.38 passengers per 100,000 in 2016 to just 2.09 passengers per 100,000 in 2017.
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If you are bumped, though, it could pay off. The U.S. Department of Transportation said you can be compensated equal to double the one-way price of your flight, up to $675. For longer flights or delays, you could get four times as much, or up to $1,350.