A sailing instructor has publicly denounced his bad experience with the airline Binter after suffering from overbooking while trying to board with four students on a flight between Lanzarote and Gran Canaria to participate in a qualifying competition.
Overbooking is a widespread practice among Spanish airlines that allows them to sell more tickets than available seats on the plane. If all passengers show up for the flight, some are denied boarding and must be provided with alternative flight options.
"You think that won't happen to you, but when it does, you go through the unpleasant experience of being left behind despite having your ticket paid for," highlighted an affected passenger, who was traveling on Friday morning to a sailing competition on the neighboring island of Gran Canaria. According to his account, two of his students, who were minors, were unable to fly, while others could.Specifically, sources from the airline have indicated to *La Voz* that the affected passengers "were the last to check in" and that, "there were only seats missing for two of them, but as they were a group of four, they decided not to fly and to do so all together on another flight." In statements to this media outlet, the instructor defended that he was not going to leave any of the minors behind, nor separate them, as they were traveling under his responsibility.The adult passenger pointed out that two of the four affected minors did not have their boarding passes before the flight and lost their right to a seat. "The seat you had disappears like the foam on a Coca-Cola," this affected passenger said, visibly angry.
Faced with this situation, the company has insisted that they were relocated to a flight with a layover in Tenerife North and that they were compensated for the cancellation of their flight. However, these changes have prevented them from completing all the phases of the competition they had planned in Gran Canaria.
The instructor explained that they did not do the checking, meaning the process to obtain the boarding pass, because they booked the flight through an agency and had to check in their luggage. "Why do double checking if I have to check in? Well, you have to do it, given what happened, and even then you are not 100% sure you can travel even if you have paid," he continued. "That's how simple the laws in our country are," he criticized.
In this regard, he added that it is a small, non-profit sports team in Yaiza, which suffers from triple insularity, being part of a non-capital island, located at the edge of the archipelago, and forming part of a small municipality far from the city.Faced with this, Binter defends that *overbooking* is "a normal practice in aviation and is regulated by law." At the same time, they have added that they "only" carry it out on routes where "there are many daily flights and with alternatives to reallocate passengers," but that on "external" routes, this overbooking of tickets does not exist.Meanwhile, the instructor pointed out that they have been training for a year to be able to compete and qualify for the national championship. "Now it will no longer be possible, as we will not make it to today's trials, maybe to some but the season is ruined," he lamented. "Hopes, effort, dedication, teamwork, and all sorts of adjectives, which you have to explain sitting in an airport chair to the minors in your care, who don't understand what has happened to them," he continued
Airline sources have assured that "on the vast majority of occasions, overbooking does not generate actual overbooking as it is very common for passengers not to show up for the flight on which they had their confirmed seat".
More than five hundred euros per child
The sailboats that were going to be used in the competition were sent by ferry a week earlier to the neighboring island. "Packing them, loading the equipment, and taking them to Gran Canaria and then bringing them back. Only 600 euros in cost, and add the cranes in Lanzarote and Gran Canaria. That already adds up to 1,000 euros. Then the team's travel, hotel, meals, and internal transportation. And add another 200 euros. Each child pays about 500 euros to do a sport, the one they like, not this one or that one, but sailing."
This instructor has highlighted that the airline Binter has decided to "leave minors on the ground, and the rest doesn't matter." "The law protects it, the company exercises its right, but in the meantime, an entire competition season, thrown in the airport trash," he lamented. "As simple as that, with no further explanation. Binter can do it, and the rest is useless. Absolutely useless," he continued.
In this regard, he thanked the company's staff, who "endure our shouts, complaints, and other insults, but they can't do any more. Except reassign you to another flight where you'll arrive late, and ruin a whole year of work."Finally, he pointed out the "indignation" the sailing club is suffering, seeing that there is no other option to travel together: "It makes us look like fools." The airline offered them to fly from Lanzarote to Tenerife and then take a flight to Gran Canaria. "And so you travel, from one end of the archipelago to the other, to miss a season of competitions, money, and the children's dreams," he added."Remember, they are children and, moreover, our children. Children of Canary families, those who live here and those who will later carry on our values and teachings. Those of seeing wars, invasions, corrupt politics, the abuser always getting away with it, theft, bullying, sexism, and a long etcetera, or simply leaving you stranded because I feel like it," he continued. "I don't see Barça players being left stranded, to be honest, but they are their children, remember. Unfortunately, I won't have children, but I try to help them with the education of theirs. But not with these things and not the way we are doing them," he concluded.
