Service Management Exercise – December 6th, 2021

Group 3:
- Amadea Louise
- Beata Angela
- Vincetius Marvin
- Terrence Susetio
- Samuel Fors
Question:
Recall the incident on April 9, 2017, when United Airlines had a passenger dragged from his seat
on an overbooked flight. How could this situation have been handled differently?
Answer:
 Accuracy of no-show predictions.
There seem to be vast differences between airlines’ ability to predict no-shows. Best
practice airlines use sophisticated algorithms, increasingly supported by artificial
intelligence (AI), to predict no-shows. These algorithms include a large variety of factors,
such as departure time, day of the week, school holidays, peak times for business travel,
and destinations. Furthermore, early check-in and booking information help to enhance
prediction accuracy. For instance, passengers who check in early and families and groups
are less likely to be no-shows. However, better predictive capabilities do not eliminate
offloading. Rather, they allow airlines to achieve load factors closer to 100% without
increasing offloading. In addition, flight disruptions are frequent (e.g., due to bad weather,
technical issues, and delayed connecting flights) and can also lead to overbooking.
 Compensation.
Providing compensation to the passengers that were supposed to be offload is also a way
to make the situation better and more civil. Instead of calling the security or police on the
passengers, offering compensation would also help the Airlines to keep their reputation in
the eyes of the public. However, not everyone are happy being offloaded even with
compensation. Some prefer to get to their destination on time in order to see families or for
work purposes.
 Voluntary Offloading.
Airlines that still use a lot of involuntary offloading are reputed to be less customer
oriented. These airlines tend to have fewer and less well-trained employees at the airport
to handle voluntary offloading. Therefore, searching for voluntary offloading is definitely
better than having to force an unwilling passenger of the aircraft. Looking for voluntary
offloading should also become easier if the airlines provided compensation for the
volunteer.