A young Aussie is urgently warning travellers headed to Europe to pay an extra fee for their plane seats if they want a guaranteed spot.
Tiah Slattery, an Australian living in the UK, cautioned those visiting the continent to pay an added airline fee to avoid ‘chaotic’ disruptions to their travel.
The expat became stranded at Tirana airport after purchasing a $575 ticket on a budget airline and being bumped from an overbooked flight during the summer travel season.
‘I have one piece of advice: if you’re travelling to Europe this summer, pay for a seat. I literally never do it, I’ve never done it unless I’m desperate,’ Tiah said in a video.
‘But it’s the only way to guarantee yourself on a flight if the flight is overbooked, and I’ve never had an overbooked flight but this summer alone I had two.’
When booking her travel, Tiah had declined to pay an optional £25 ($48) charge to secure a seat, leaving her stranded at the sweltering airport.
The Aussie was on a waiting list with 11 other people for a flight out and became ‘desperate’ after learning the next available flight wasn’t for another month.
Tiah was told that the airline’s terms and conditions recently changed and passengers can now lose their place on an overbooked flight if they don’t pay.
Tiah Slattery, an Australian living in the UK, cautioned those visiting the continent to pay an added airline fee to avoid ‘chaotic’ disruptions to their travel
The Aussie, who didn’t want to name and shame the airline or deal with their ‘ratty’ social media team, said that the local airport staff had told her that overbooked flights have been happening all summer.
And thousands of travellers shared Tiah’s outrage, saying that the same thing had happened to them – especially on flights across Europe.
‘1,000 per cent. I went on a trip with a friend and I booked a seat and she didn’t, they downsized the plane and the only ones on it had paid for a seat,’ one said.
Travellers insisted that although it was an ‘outrageous’ practice, it was perfectly legal for airlines to overbook flights as 10 per cent of people often don’t show up.
Many accused budget airlines Ryan Air and Wizz Air of the ‘infuriating’ practice that was unfair to customers who had purchased a ticket, but others said it wasn’t only the cheaper airlines that were guilty of consistently overbooking flights.
‘It’s common practice for many airlines unfortunately,’ one said.
People who had flown with Turkish Airlines and Air Canada said that the ‘insane’ practice of missing a flight due to overbooking had also happened to them.
‘That’s why I check in exactly 24 hours before,’ one woman said.
But Tiah, who had also checked in early, said it made no difference: ‘Unless you purchase a seat it’s not guaranteed – if the flight is overbooked the people who have purchased a seat take priority.’
