Air China International
Customer Services for Overbooked Flights
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Customer Services for Overbooked Flights
Dear Passengers,
Air China may occasionally overbook certain flights that are likely to have empty seats at the time of departure due to "no-show" passengers. These are passengers that need to cancel their travel plans for unexpected reasons. Air China wants to limit these last minute vacancies and allow that more passengers can take the flights of their choice. We will control the number of oversold tickets to a reasonable extent and therefore, passengers with confirmed reservations rarely will be denied boarding. If some passengers are asked to give up their seats on an oversold flight:
- We will first seek volunteers who are willing to take flights at a later time or those who are willing to cancel their travel plans.
- If a sufficient number of volunteers are not obtained, we will get passengers onto the flight according to the following boarding priority rules:
2.1. Passengers in urgent needs to deal with public affairs;
2.2. Special needs passengers with the approval of Air China and with prior arrangement, such as the elderly, sick, disabled, expecting mothers and unaccompanied children;
2.3. Passengers holding first-class or business-class tickets;
2.4. Air China Platinum Members, Gold Members and other Star Alliance Gold Members;
2.5. Passengers who have confirmed seats on connecting flights and have a short connecting time to their next flight;
2.6. Air China Silver Members and other Star Alliance Silver Members;
2.7. Passengers with proved special reasons (e.g. visa is about to expire).
- We will provide customer service for passengers who are denied boarding on oversold flights.
3.1. We will try to arrange the first available flights for those passengers;
3.2. Or to refund tickets on an involuntary basis with no refund penalty;
3.3. Or to reroute passengers on an involuntary basis (for alternate flights, overpayment will be refunded and supplemental payment for any deficiency will not be required);
3.4. Or to provide free accommodation to passengers whose alternate flights are on the following day.
- In addition to the services stated above, Air China will also offer compensations in certain forms according to passengers' ticket prices, flight miles and waiting time for alternate flights.
4.1. Compensation Conditions
Volunteers and other passengers, who are denied boarding on oversold flights and can satisfy all the following conditions, are eligible to receive compensation.
4.1.1. Passengers should have confirmed seats (including those holding mileage-to-award tickets). This does not include passengers holding tickets from various awards programs or airline employees holding free or discounted tickets from staff travel programs;
4.1.2. Passengers should check-in for their flights within the specified time frame;
4.1.3. This does not apply to passengers refused carriage by Air China according to Air China Limited General Conditions of Carriage for Passenger and Baggage on International Flights and Air China Limited General Conditions of Carriage for Passenger and Baggage on Domestic Flights.
4.2. Forms of Compensation
4.2.1. Air China will make compensation in three forms: transportation credit voucher, mileage and cash.
4.2.2. Air China will offer compensation in the form of mileage only to volunteers and other passengers who hold mileage-to-award tickets and are denied boarding or are downgraded to a lower class of service.
4.3. Currency in Compensation
Air China will use the following forms of compensation: currency of the country or the region where we pay cash or issue transportation credit vouchers.
We will release information regarding oversold flights by posting a notice or by making an announcement over the airport public announcement system in related areas. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.