Handling overbooked flights

[woodborer]

Would have much preferred they applied United's Dr Dao policy. That would have been entertaining.

 

[RooFlyer]

if you do OLCI when it opens, you are guaranteed to be on the flight? What if you do OLCI later, let's say in the taxi to the airport?

No guarantees, ever, with airlines. Just like even if you do OLCI, the airline has no guarantee that you'll show up.

You can't do OLCI within X (I'm uncertain) hours before departure. It then comes under 'airport control".

Re the linked flights, perhaps o/s flights, if you used a travel agent, don't they have some system of linking the passengers so theres certainty you'll sit together.

Yes, TAs can put bookings under the one PNR etc but again, no guarantees on anything.

All the poor PAX can do is to employ certain (well known) strategies to try to maximise their chances of getting what they paid for and chose. But at the end of the day, the airlines can do pretty much as they please to maximise their revenue.

 

[mannej]

I am fairly sure flights come under airport control a number of days prior to the flight, not a number of hours.

 

[oz_mark]

I am fairly sure flights come under airport control a number of days prior to the flight, not a number of hours.

Certainly, in the case of Qantas it is 80 hours before the flight! (you can sometimes perceive the transition to airport control, as it can cause some anomolous behaviour in seat assignments.)

 

[RooFlyer]

I am fairly sure flights come under airport control a number of days prior to the flight, not a number of hours.

I was thinking 48 hours, or, 2 days in your lingo

Certainly, in the case of Qantas it is 80 hours before the flight!

I've changed seats on the app well within that 'hour' delimited timeframe, but maybe that's a case of consistently inconsistent, as you mention.

 

[davidj]

Seasoned flyers should be aware of the possibility of overselling and denial of boarding - this is fairly basic 101 knowledge. I don't think the industry would be doing it if in most cases the methodology actually worked (ie. A % of flyers don't arrive and everyone has a seat). Getting annoyed and aggressive at the csr because of this is also rich - we know how the system works and should know what we agree to in the terms. If we don't agree, don't book a ticket.

Apart from offloading pax who already boarded (bad move obviously), or giving you alternative routing options as they did, I’m not sure what else VA can do.

What did you want them to do, realistically?

 

[suze2000]

I've read this whole thread and I still don't understand why JohnK refuses to check in online as soon as it opens. I try to, mainly because I want to try to get a better seat than my lowly status gave me in the first place.

 

[JohnK]

What did you want them to do, realistically?

Very simple. Don't sell the seats on the flight that I purchased. Very simple.

Even simpler question. Can I purchase a seat on the 8:00pm Friday night flight and travel on the more expensive 4:00pm flight without surcharge? How about the 8:00am flight? How about the next day?

Nope. I have to pay a premium to change to each of those flights but an airline can deny boarding to my 2 year old daughter even though I paid for her seat in advance and offer no compensation and I'm supposed to suck it up and say thank you for giving me a seat on a later flight to the flight I chose to book.

@suze2000 I explained why I don't use OLCI and that comes from >11 years experience commuting where I've seen and experienced things most people will not experience in their lifetime.

- Flights are regularly delayed/cancelled and once you've checked in not easy to change
- Seats not guaranteed
- if you change your plans it's not easy to uncheck yourself

 

[RooFlyer]

@suze2000 I explained why I don't use OLCI and that comes from >11 years experience commuting where I've seen and experienced things most people will not experience in their lifetime.

I dunno. It might be worthwhile reflecting on why you experience things most people never experience (or very, very rarely). The immigration/passport dramas; the boarding dramas; the check-in dramas, the other passenger dramas, the lounge dramas ... . Seriously - it can't be a matter of never-ending bad luck. Are you happy to keep going about your travels the same way and probably continue to have these dramas? Or might there be a different way of doing things, and join the rest of us who get some inconvenient to bad travel experiences, but without them turning into dramas or nightmare-ish situations.

Join us on the sunny side of the aisle!

 

[kyle]

Here are my 2 cents. While JohnK has his reasons for not doing OLCI, it seems that there was an element of stubbornness which then resulted in the denied boarding situation.

If the airline has offered OLCI which would reduce my chances of getting bumped, regardless of whether overbooking is fair on the consumer, I would play the game and do OCLI and if plans change, I will deal it unchecking in then.

 

[kyle]

I dunno. It might be worthwhile reflecting on why you experience things most people never experience (or very, very rarely). The immigration/passport dramas; the boarding dramas; the check-in dramas, the other passenger dramas, the lounge dramas ... . Seriously - it can't be a matter of never-ending bad luck. Are you happy to keep going about your travels the same way and probably continue to have these dramas? Or might there be a different way of doing things, and join the rest of us who get some inconvenient to bad travel experiences, but without them turning into dramas or nightmare-ish situations.

Join us on the sunny side of the aisle!

Slightly OT, but sounds like my boss who always seem to have problems with Telstra, insurance companies, etc and always yelling into the phone, whereas we (the employees listening to all that yelling) proactively take actions to prevent problems occurring and even if they occur, find the most efficient ways to resolve them.

 

[kookaburra75]

I've been watching this thread from the get go - resisting the urge to jump in with a comment as everyone else has had their go. I understand JohnK's point of view - you pay for a seat on a flight, you should get the seat. Unfortunately, with the patchwork of legislation and internationlal agreements, any idea there is a contract bewteen the passenger and the airline is moot.
The airlines factor in any 'no shows' into their pricing model, which is what we pay for our airfares - as I do for my business (allowing for risk factors that is - I don't run an airline). So to say if they were somehow stopped from overbooking, would result in more expensive airfares for all is a furphy in my mind.
I've struck the problem of Virgin bumping our team members from flights out of Melbourne in the morning all too often, and it doesn't matter whether they have checked in online prior to the flight - they get bumped. The result; we don't use Virgin for that time of day flights - I need to get my people to where they need to be on time. Virgin's loss.

 

[oz_mark]

I dunno. It might be worthwhile reflecting on why you experience things most people never experience (or very, very rarely). The immigration/passport dramas; the boarding dramas; the check-in dramas, the other passenger dramas, the lounge dramas ... . Seriously - it can't be a matter of never-ending bad luck. Are you happy to keep going about your travels the same way and probably continue to have these dramas? Or might there be a different way of doing things, and join the rest of us who get some inconvenient to bad travel experiences, but without them turning into dramas or nightmare-ish situations.

For an extraordinary run of bad luck, can't go past the fold at Loyalty Lobby. Then again maybe Johnk writes for them

 

[clipped_wings]

JohnK is now fielding a plethora of curve balls everyone is throwing at him. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that that the factual account of what went down, lies somewhere in the middle of his original post - and his last comment above.

John, you obviously travel enough to know good service from bad experience. Your last trip with Virgin appears to be more the latter. And while that's a dreadful shame - what's the point of having to continue to defend yourself against the growing wave of public opinion who does not agree with you.

It doesn't matter who has the higher ground. We all have rotten days. Yours, although a major inconvenience - simply doesn't stack up with the Worst of the Worst. You have a 2 year old daughter who got to fly with you on a plane. Odds are, she won't even remember it. But you will.

Make it a good memory for her sake mate. Move on.

 

[JohnK]

JohnK is now fielding a plethora of curve balls everyone is throwing at him. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that that the factual account of what went down, lies somewhere in the middle of his original post - and his last comment above.

John, you obviously travel enough to know good service from bad experience. Your last trip with Virgin appears to be more the latter. And while that's a dreadful shame - what's the point of having to continue to defend yourself against the growing wave of public opinion who does not agree with you.

There are quite a few who agree with my opinion.

It's simple. I don't agree with the way airlines handle overbooking. It stinks. I don't care who thinks it's an acceptable practice. I will keep maintaining I am purchasing seats on a flight not the opportunity to go into a lottery for a seat on a flight. I don't care what their fine print says either. I wasn't offered the opportunity to volunteer to move to a later a flight which is what the aitline should do each and every time not make the assumption that I may do a 'no show'. Standby fixes that scenario much better without inconveniencing anyone.

Daughter is fine. I'm not ready to move on. I haven't sent feedback to Virgin yet with a request to be compensated for the inconvenience and stress. If I don't get anything, I've lost nothing. But I'd also like to understand why they denied boarding to a 2 year old without first checking.

 

[burmans]

I dunno. It might be worthwhile reflecting on why you experience things most people never experience (or very, very rarely). The immigration/passport dramas; the boarding dramas; the check-in dramas, the other passenger dramas, the lounge dramas ... . Seriously - it can't be a matter of never-ending bad luck. Are you happy to keep going about your travels the same way and probably continue to have these dramas? Or might there be a different way of doing things, and join the rest of us who get some inconvenient to bad travel experiences, but without them turning into dramas or nightmare-ish situations.

Join us on the sunny side of the aisle!

Great advice but why do I suspect JohnK won't take it?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Very simple. Don't sell the seats on the flight that I purchased. Very simple.

How do you know the seats you purchased on that flight, for both you and your daughter, weren't seats that existed only because the airline allowed overbooking?

 

[JohnK]

How do you know the seats you purchased on that flight, for both you and your daughter, weren't seats that existed only because the airline allowed overbooking?

I'd assume they weren't as a result of overbooking as firstly discount economy was available on Flybuys, Webjet etc and secondly I'd booked my daughters seat via call centre and again discount economy available. If VA are overbooking flights on discount economy then it would go part of the way to explain the mess they are in right now.

This was also a quiet weekend for travel as the flight down was not full by any stretch of the imagination and we got seats to BNE easily ~1 hour prior to departure with seq #117 and #118 from memory.

Anyway I did learn a valuable lesson last week. Don't book VA back to OOL on a Sunday night as they struggle to cope with the schedules.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'd assume they weren't as a result of overbooking as firstly discount economy was available on Flybuys, Webjet etc

That's something we'll never know. If there are 160 seats on the plane, but based on historical data VA believes only 155 will show up... they will try and sell 165 tickets on the flight. Those extra 5 tickets could be in any fare class, including your flybuys or discount classes. They don't have to restrict those 5 seats to full fare fully flexible tickets (because no one might buy them at those prices).

 

[Mr Pumblechook]

I haven't sent feedback to Virgin yet with a request to be compensated for the inconvenience and stress.

Will you factor in the fare difference between the OOL flight you bought and the BNE flight you took and reduce your claim accordingly?