I cam home from Spain today. At check-in I was told "sorry madam, the flight is overbooked - would you mind staying until Saturday. We will give you compensation" - obviously my answer is no. I have two children who I would like to see.
Anyway, at the gates to go on the aeroplane I see an elderly lady and man having a bit of an argument. Because they were the last to check-in they were told they had to get off the plane because there was no room for them. They tried ardently to stop them from taking their baggage off the plane but there was nothing that could be done - the men on the ground had already taken their luggage off and they were told they had to stay.
As the air stewardesses were herding us like cattle on to the plane into our shrunken economy seats, we were told "the flight is completely full, please make your way down the plane and hurry up", again we were told "this flight is COMPLETELY full". They were proud of the fact they had just kicked an elderly couple off the plane, and I felt they had no right to be proud of themselves. The couple wanted to leave.
Now what I did not realise is that overbooking a flight is now a common practice on EAsyjet flights (and other flights). It feels morally wrong to me. The point is that when I book a place on a flight it means I want to fly on that day. I have fulfilled my side of a contract - their side of the contract is that I should be able to fly on that particular day, that I paid for. Does anyone else think easy jet is outrageous or is this one woman campaign going to fizzle to nothing.