3 ms·

Nearly every aspect of flying in the US is abusive. Over-booking a flight should be illegal. I don’t care about being compensated for it - if I book a flight, t

by lolsal 3y ago

Nearly every aspect of flying in the US is abusive. Over-booking a flight should be illegal. I don’t care about being compensated for it - if I book a flight, that seat should be mine. I’m wondering what else it will take for me to refuse flying altogether.

thomascgalvin 3y ago
I flew from Providence to Orlando last week. The airline's website said (paraphrasing) "we don't oversell flights; this ticket guarantees you a seat." As we were boarding, the gate agent made an announcement (again paraphrasing) "this flight is fully booked, and if your ticket doesn't have a seat assignment, you cannot board." One of those two statements was false.
- dataflow 3y ago
  They sound consistent to me? Your ticket guaranteed a seat for you, but they might've sold some other tickets or given out vouchers that didn't guarantee any seat - like those tickets also saying "you can take any other flight on the same day if they have room", companion passes, etc.
  - marcus0x62 3y ago
    Yep. Unless it was the first flight out, there were probably at least a few non-confirmed standby passengers and maybe a non-revenue ticket or two.
sacnoradhq 3y ago
And if you were to complain, then you'd be gambling with the vindictiveness level of the gate agents.
goodbyesf 3y ago
> Nearly every aspect of flying in the US is abusive. I hear flying by private jet is where it's at. No muss, no fuss. Just walk on the tarmac, get on the plane and off you go. At least, that's what I hear.
- lolsal 3y ago
  Ok, but we’re talking about flying commercially, in case you missed all the context clues.
marcus0x62 3y ago
There are a bunch of scenarios where there are standby passengers on a flight who need seat assignments -- overbooking the flight is just one possible cause. If you miss your connection are you willing to pay for a seat on a different flight since in your scenario the airline held your seat on the original flight and didn't assign it to a standby passenger? Because what happens right now on major US airlines is they put you on standby on the next available flight if they can't guarantee you a seat or get you a confirmed seat if possible at no additional charge.
- lolsal 3y ago
  Contingency plans are not my concern or problem. If the airline has to fly a plane without a person in every seat, so be it. That is good customer service to me — not abusing me so they can eke out more dollars per flight.
  - marcus0x62 3y ago
    Good luck with that.
    - lolsal 3y ago
      Thanks.
tw04 3y ago
>Nearly every aspect of flying in the US is abusive. Over-booking a flight should be illegal. I don’t care about being compensated for it - if I book a flight, that seat should be mine. I agree, but if you want that put in place, expect the price of flights to at least triple in cost. I'm fine with that - most Americans would lose their minds and demand the old system of overbooked cheap flights come back.
- EduardoBautista 3y ago
  Why would it come close to tripling? I don’t believe they oversell all of the seats three times on every flight.
  - tw04 3y ago
    That’s not how it works… airlines have a minimum load factor for a flight to be profitable, generally 75-80%. They over book with an assumption that X% of people won’t show up based on decades of data. The hotel industry does the exact same thing. If you tell them they can’t overbook at all, their options are to either cut flights or raise prices. That also means all the discount tickets that make up that overbooking amount goes away. I guess if you’ve only ever bought full fare tickets you might only see a 30% increase, but if you’re only ever booking full fare, you aren’t the one getting bumped.

by lolsal 3y ago

thomascgalvin 3y ago

I flew from Providence to Orlando last week. The airline's website said (paraphrasing) "we don't oversell flights; this ticket guarantees you a seat." As we were boarding, the gate agent made an announcement (again paraphrasing) "this flight is fully booked, and if your ticket doesn't have a seat assignment, you cannot board." One of those two statements was false.

dataflow 3y ago
They sound consistent to me? Your ticket guaranteed a seat for you, but they might've sold some other tickets or given out vouchers that didn't guarantee any seat - like those tickets also saying "you can take any other flight on the same day if they have room", companion passes, etc.
- marcus0x62 3y ago
  Yep. Unless it was the first flight out, there were probably at least a few non-confirmed standby passengers and maybe a non-revenue ticket or two.

sacnoradhq 3y ago

And if you were to complain, then you'd be gambling with the vindictiveness level of the gate agents.

goodbyesf 3y ago

> Nearly every aspect of flying in the US is abusive. I hear flying by private jet is where it's at. No muss, no fuss. Just walk on the tarmac, get on the plane and off you go. At least, that's what I hear.

lolsal 3y ago
Ok, but we’re talking about flying commercially, in case you missed all the context clues.

marcus0x62 3y ago

There are a bunch of scenarios where there are standby passengers on a flight who need seat assignments -- overbooking the flight is just one possible cause. If you miss your connection are you willing to pay for a seat on a different flight since in your scenario the airline held your seat on the original flight and didn't assign it to a standby passenger? Because what happens right now on major US airlines is they put you on standby on the next available flight if they can't guarantee you a seat or get you a confirmed seat if possible at no additional charge.

lolsal 3y ago
Contingency plans are not my concern or problem. If the airline has to fly a plane without a person in every seat, so be it. That is good customer service to me — not abusing me so they can eke out more dollars per flight.
- marcus0x62 3y ago
  Good luck with that.
  - lolsal 3y ago
    Thanks.

tw04 3y ago

>Nearly every aspect of flying in the US is abusive. Over-booking a flight should be illegal. I don’t care about being compensated for it - if I book a flight, that seat should be mine. I agree, but if you want that put in place, expect the price of flights to at least triple in cost. I'm fine with that - most Americans would lose their minds and demand the old system of overbooked cheap flights come back.

EduardoBautista 3y ago
Why would it come close to tripling? I don’t believe they oversell all of the seats three times on every flight.
- tw04 3y ago
  That’s not how it works… airlines have a minimum load factor for a flight to be profitable, generally 75-80%. They over book with an assumption that X% of people won’t show up based on decades of data. The hotel industry does the exact same thing. If you tell them they can’t overbook at all, their options are to either cut flights or raise prices. That also means all the discount tickets that make up that overbooking amount goes away. I guess if you’ve only ever bought full fare tickets you might only see a 30% increase, but if you’re only ever booking full fare, you aren’t the one getting bumped.