Best irrops/schedule changes/overbooking that have worked in your favour

[coco50]

I have had many upgrades on American in the US from economy to first because economy was overbooked and first wasn't. I feel this is because of my oneworld status.

 

[wheelsup]

On a J flight SIN - MRU a few years back, we'd arrived at Changi mid morning to find no pax at the MK checkin and only a couple of ground staff. They said they hadn't been able to find us (BNE - SIN had been a separate booking) to tell us the flight was cancelled for 2 days as they'd taken the option to get the aircraft serviced in SIN. Lost 2 out of our 4 days in MRU on the way to CPT, but 2 nights in a huge suite at the InterCon, meal vouchers and a handful of taxi vouchers for airport and shopping took the sting out of it.

 

[wheelsup]

Not actually a cancellation, but while waiting in the gate lounge at FRA for a connection to CIA, LH ground staff called for volunteers to take a later flight via ZRH as the flight was overbooked and were offering E500 per pax for their trouble. While Mrs W and I discussed it, the queue formed and we missed out, but after the long haul from BNE via SIN, most just wanted to get to a hotel. Only days later, after we'd recovered, did we lament the true value of that missed holiday cash!

 

[sirjeff]

My story comes from a few years back before aircraft flight decks were "no go" zones. My wife and I were flying out of the old international terminal at BNE. We arrived well before the flight. In those days each check in point had its own line. We struck the very slow one full of people without the correct documents etc. We foolishly stuck with that queue as we watched others who arrived later get checked in. On arrival at the check in we were advised aircraft was full. I performed and complained and stated I need to be in AUK just after the planned arrival of the aircraft as I was the keynote speaker at a conference.
After some whispering and checking on the phone we were offered two seats on the flight deck. Certainly made me happy as I was a private pilot at the time. Interestingly come lunch time each pilot ordered a different sandwich as one would think they should in case one was off. Surprise they then swapped half of each sandwich thus negating the safety issue.

 

[vcontherun]

I was on Emirates J all the way from Rome, Dubai then Perth. I missed the connecting flight from Dubai to Perth due to a 5 hours delay at Rome airport. Emirated provided the accommodation and transfers. Next day when I checked in, I was told business class was full. The ground staff offered me to fly on Economy with the adjacent seat blocked, plus a set of business class return tickets between Perth and Dubai for future use. I accepted the offer straight away.

 

[TonyHancock]

Without a shadow of a doubt BA's decision to pull its SVG and BGO flights. Ex Eu is never better when you don't have to do the ex EU bit, but pay ex EU fares.

 

[ithongy]

Supppsed to fly DEN-LAX-DFW-ORD (AA in F) -LGA (AA in Y) on same PNR. LAX-DFW delayed then cancelled 12am. Managed to get rerouted LAX-JFK direct flight at 8am in 1st class & my mate got J class on A321 Transcon. Arrived at JFK 2 hours later from original schedule. Bags never made it & was -14 DegC in NYC, shopped at Macy's at AA's expense. Claimed original SC routing of 195 SC LAX-DEN-ORD-LGA. The flight from ORD-LGA was discount economy earn.

 

[msheldrick]

Booked on a Finnair RTW in J, was supposed to fly YYZ-JFK-HEL-LHR, got an email from Finnair saying that the JFK-HEL leg was to be operated by a HiFly A340 instead, rebooked onto BA JFK-LHR direct, got in 4 hours earlier, 744 upper deck, and got to use the arrival lounge at LHR.

 

[Dee#]

2 years ago when Virgin still flew Perth-Bali I was booked business return up there (such good value) for a girls holiday.
Well another volcano went up and all flights were cancelled for quite a while.
Virgin offered a destination change at no extra charge.
Lots of Perth people went to Malaysia, Thailand or Singapore.
I picked ......Samoa, via Sydney all in business!!! more than double the airfare cost if I had had to pay. Not only did I get to see Samoa for a week (but hotels more expensive) but all those extra status credits.

 

[amp-qld]

Only upgrade I've had due to overbooking was on Air Canada back in 1984. Nothing in the hundreds of flights since.

However, I've just had the opposite. Air Austral cancelled our return leg SEZ to RUN, assuming we were OK on a flight 3 DAYS later. I had to book via Mauritius instead. I paid for the flights 9 months before travelling and the airline wouldn't refund to my credit card because it was over 6 months. They want to refund to my bank in Euros and my bank charges like a wounded bull for that. Since it was a commercial decision by the airline, our travel insurance doesn't cover it. Credit card company are investigating whether they can refund me despite it being over 6 months. That wouldn't cover the extra costs. I'm currently investigating EU compensation laws.

 

[UP4014]

A Saturday night QF flight out of LAX to Sydney.

There are two about an hour apart and one was was canceled as the 380 was leaking fuel and another aircraft would be bought in for an 11am LAX departure the next day.

I offered to go the next day and was thanked with a nice hotel room but more important was a daylight flight across the pacific. That was so much better on the body clock than the coughpy QF schedules of trying to make everything overnight for operational reasons.

I got off the plane and felt great after enjoying a few movies and lunch and home In time for normal bed time.

Matt

 

[tuppence47]

Back in Oct 1983, five of us were travelling from ADL to DPS via MELB (no direct flights in those days) via Garuda. We left ADL early Sunday am and were due to fly out around 11 am. About 10 am an announcement was made that the plane had blown a tyre whilst in SYD and they did not know when they would get a replacement, so they put up a planeload of people at the Travelodge Tullamarine. Some people managed to get a QF flight, but we waited it out. On Monday morning, they advised us that they were flying us Singapore Airlines to Singapore, so we were happy about this, as I had never been there before. We arrived in Singapore Monday night and Garuda put us up in various hotels for the night, so we had a good look around. Tuesday morning we left the hotel and bussed it to the airport for our flight to DPS with Garuda. Unfortunately we had to go via Jakarta with a stopover, so by the time we arrived in DPS early evening, it had taken us 3 full days to get there. When the aircraft finally touched down, the passengers all cheered loudly that we had finally made it. I often wonder what the other passengers who boarded in Singapore and Jakarta thought this was for. It certainly made a good story to tell at the time, and still does.

 

[G00r]

My first trip to the US about 5 yrs ago with UA on the return leg, lost track of time, raced back to LAX, had to cut in front of 30 people in the security queue, ran all the way to the gate and managed to board. We sat there for 40 minutes until the golden announcement came over "this flight is too heavy, we need 18 people to get off and we'll offer US$1200 in vouchers to each". Hell yes! I don't have to be back in Aus for anything.

We got off and for the next hour it took them to organise the vouchers, that flight sat there.
UA couldn't find hotel rooms for us (even I started calling around for them).
I ended up going back to a mate's.
UA offered to put us on a QF flight the next day, instead, I asked to go on a UA flight 2 days later, but upgrade me for the trouble. Done deal!
(plus 8000 points for not being able to find me accommodation).
The flight crew on my return trip were the ones from the original flight, they said it was something to do with the cargo, it was heavy and urgent which is why they paid so much to get us off.

Used the voucher to fly back to the states a year later, the combined points from these two trips was enough to fly me and a mate MEL-BKK in J