Which airline is most likely to bump?

Southwest, nation’s largest domestic carrier, had most involuntary removals

Videos of a passenger being dragged off a United Airlines plane have gone viral and sent United’s stock down in the wake of the public relations disaster, but they have also prompted discussion of the practice of “bumping” passengers from flights.

Many airlines actually sell more seats on flights than exist on a fairly regular basis, leaving ticket holders stranded. Some passengers volunteer to be bumped in exchange for flight vouchers or other compensation; others, like the United passenger who was asked to give up a seat for a crew member, are involuntarily bumped.

The Department of Transportation says that overbooking is not illegal, and most airlines overbook their scheduled flights to compensate for “no-shows.” But when an “oversale” like this occurs, the Department of Transportation requires airlines to ask willing passengers to give up their seats in exchange for compensation, and those bumped involuntarily are mostly entitled to compensation. The DOT lays out its rules for that on its website.

But how common is it, and which airlines do it the most?

According to data from the Department of Transportation, about 475,000 passengers were denied boarding voluntarily or involuntarily last year because

the airlines sold more tickets than there were seats on the plane. A total of 40,629 passengers were denied boarding involuntarily on domestic flights in 2016, slightly down from the 43,704 passengers who were bumped against their will in 2015.

Southwest, the biggest domestic carrier in the United States, had the most involuntary bumps in 2016, with 14,979. Its rate of involuntary bumps — 0.99 for every 10,000 passengers — ranked second behind regional carrier ExpressJet, which had a rate of 1.51 passengers bumped for every 10,000.

JetBlue’s involuntary bump rate was 0.92 per 10,000 passengers. The airline in 2016 bumped 3,176 unwilling passengers while giving compensation to 1,705 volunteers.

Delta oversells a lot of flights, but it also pays off many passengers to volunteer themselves off the plane. It gave compensation to 129,825 volunteers last year while bumping 1,238 non-volunteer passengers.

United Airlines’ rate of involuntary bumps in 2016 was 0.43 for every 10,000 passengers, followed by Alaska at 0.4, Virgin America at 0.12, Delta at 0.1 and Hawaiian Airlines with the lowest rate at 0.05 passengers.

But some passengers with flexible schedules are willing to take credits or flight vouchers in exchange for moving to a different flight.

A recent study by MileCards.com analyzed which major airlines were most likely to pay volunteers to get off an oversold flight in 2016. On average, 6.6 out of every 10,000 passengers on all airlines that report to the Department of Transportation in 2016 became volunteers who earned compensation for getting off the flight.

It found that Delta was most likely to bump passengers because of overbooked flights, usually paying in flight vouchers or credits. The airline bumped 10 passengers out of every 10,000. United was second, compensating 7.2 out of every 10,000 passengers, followed by: