The expert named a way for tourists to protect themselves from overbooking

Organized tourists are protected from overbooking. This was stated by Sergey Agafonov, a member of the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation on entrepreneurship in the field of tourism, on May 28 during a conference at the Izvestia News Center on the topic "Summer season 2025: where will Russians go?".

"Those tourists who travel through the tour operator, buying vouchers from him, are protected [from overbooking]. As a rule, in such cases there is a telephone hotline for a tour operator or agency. You can always go there to get advice and help. At least in order not to spend your money in order to prolong your vacation or start it," Agafonov said.

According to him, the situation with independent tourists is different. Agafonov noted that it often happens when such a category of travelers is faced with overbooking in hotels. In such cases, the hotel can only offer a refund.

"This is a headache that no one needs during the rest period. <...> Tourists do not need to save their time by contacting professionals, this will result in saving money if there are any issues related to non-settlement or refusal to provide air transportation," the expert concluded.

Ticket payment: they want to make payments to passengers for overbooking mandatory

Why is the Ministry of Transport preparing to legalize it

Overbooking can be translated from English as "overbooking". Over—selling of flight tickets is a common practice abroad, where overbooking is legalized. It is not legalized in the Russian Federation.

On April 22, Izvestia learned that the Ministry of Transport is preparing a bill to legalize overbooking. They want to make fixed compensation — from 25 to 100% of the ticket price — mandatory for transfers to other flights in case of overbooking.