What happens when premium cabins are overbooked?

[Pax Vobiscum]

Reading about the guy who got bumped from Conc to First

How BA turned the dream of a trip on Concorde into a flight of fancy (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-785431,00.html)

set me wondering - do airlines overbook their premium cabins as well as economy? I would guess they do as the number of no-shows is probably greater (most of these pax being on fully flexible tickets). So what happens if my booked class is full (and I obviously can't be upgraded), do I get bumped from R to F (or First to Club) - and do I get a refund of the (potentially several thousand pound) difference in cost?

I emphasise this has never happened to me, so just curious. I'm sure Bealine will have the answer ... :D

[PAXboy]

An excellent question PV, although I have noticed that Bealine has not posted in our forum for some time. I hope that he still visits.

I have heard of European Club folks overflowing down the back but only on odd occasions. One must presume that a rebate or credit is made. If not, then it would be very shabby.

[Notso Fantastic]

Overbooking of premium cabins is a very necessary requirements. These are overwhelmingly flexible tickets- make any bookings you like, you don't have to turn up. Companies book every evening flight in the hope that the traveller may finish business to get home that day etc. It's going on all the time. So occasionally people get bumped. If it's possible to bump upwards, all well and good. If downwards, appropriate refunds/credits are always made. Presumably compensation as well.

[Globaliser]

Have a look at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum15/HTML/002314.html - but only when you have lots of time to wade through the thread. (I'm not sure that the ultimate result was posted on this thread, but apparently the palm tree has died.)

More seriously, I've heard it said that in a typical long haul first class cabin, you can only really safely target an average load factor of about 30-40%. If you get it much higher than that, you are going risk bumping people out of first class. There's only one route in the world on which you could offer a bumpee something better, and that option's (a) full and (b) coming to an end.

[cargosales]

Yep, it happens.

Was on Virgin, London to New York recently, booked in P/E. At check-in I was offered a 'downgrade' to Economy. Lots of money, FF miles and the promise of being first in line for upgrade to Upper if downgrade wasn't actually required due to no-shows.

Thought about spending possibilities in NY and said 'fine, I'll take the cash'. Can't do that they said, it has to be in form of refund to whoever booked the ticket (in this case our company's travel agent). Check-in agent seemed surprised when I said no thanks!

Moral: book with own cc and get the refund yourself.

CS