Lots of luck catching another flight if you’ve been bumped or miss a connection. Commercial airlines in the U.S. have never been so full. Seven of them-Delta, American, United, Continental, US Airways, AirTran and Alaska-reported filling at least 87% of their seats in July. Even Southwest, always the industry’s laggard in load factor, beat the industry’s average over the previous six Julys of 84.6% by filling 84.9% of seats. That leaves precious few spots available if you’ve been bumped off a full flight or miss a connecting flight. And because airlines are scheduling fewer flights than five years ago, travelers could face long waits for a direct flight to their destinations or have to settle for circuitous reroutings to get there.
