Madrid, Aug 9 (EFE).- “Overbooking”, “overbooking” or “overbooking”, among others, are preferable alternatives to the foreign word “overbooking”, explains the Fundación del Español Urgente (FundéuRAE), promoted by the EFE Agency and the RAE.
This English term is frequently used in the media in examples such as “There is a trick to travel for free by plane this summer and also earn money thanks to overbooking”, “Passengers have a series of rights when they suffer overbooking” or “In case of overbooking, a claim must be filed with the airline”.
The term “overbooking” is used in business to describe the practice of some airlines or hotel companies of accepting reservations or making sales for a volume greater than the number of seats actually available. This action could be expressed in Spanish, depending on the context, with “sobreventa” or “sobrerreserva” (oversales) or “sobrereservation” (overbooking), both alternatives included in the European Union terminology database, or “sobrecontratación” (over-contracting), all of which are options that transparently reflect the fact referred to.
In this way, in the initial sentences it would have been more appropriate to write “There is a trick to travel for free by plane this summer and also earn money thanks to overbooking”, “Passengers have a series of rights when they suffer overbooking” and “In case of overbooking, a claim must be filed with the airline”.
Furthermore, in general language, this anglicism is increasingly used to express that there is an abundance or excess of people or things, as stated in the “Diccionario del español actual” (Dictionary of current Spanish). Thus, it appears in phrases such as “El Atlético de Madrid debe correcto el overbooking de jugadores en la equipo” (Atlético de Madrid must correct the overbooking of players in the squad) or “Overbooking of Portuguese caravels in Cantabrian waters”, in which Spanish equivalents could have been chosen, such as “exceso”.
Please note that if you choose to keep the English word, it is appropriate to highlight it in italics, or in quotation marks if that type of letter is not available.
FundéuRAE (www.fundeu.es), promoted by the EFE Agency and the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), has as its main objective the proper use of Spanish in the media. EFE
The entrance FundéuRAE: «oversold» or «overbooking» is better than «overbooking» was first published in elCaribe newspaper.
