International Journal of Business and Economics Volume 16, No. 3 December, 2017

What Passengers Did Not Expect When Their Flight Was Overbooked

Mohammed Lefrid

University of Central Florida, U.S.A.

Po-Ju Chen

University of Central Florida, U.S.A.

Abstract

Lost luggage, delays, overbooked flights, or assigning separate seats to passengers from the same party are only a few examples of service failures in the airline industry. When complaints are met with a lack of empathy and promptness of service recovery, passengers may experience frustration, disappointment, and a feeling of betrayal. Due to increased competition, airlines need to accept responsibility and resolve service failures. Once an airline company neglects to resolve service failures, no apology will fix the damage done to its reputation, which could translate to loss of customer loyalty.

Keywords：airline passenger transportation, overbooking, service, recovery, customer-orientation.

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