4 ms·

To be fair, I'm sure the airlines and your fellow travelers would also prefer for you to not waste a seat. I know I would be pissed if I needed to take a fligh

by micampe 12y ago

To be fair, I'm sure the airlines and your fellow travelers would also prefer for you to not waste a seat. I know I would be pissed if I needed to take a flight but it was fully booked, and then found out that a dozen people already planned to not show up. I see this trick as not very respectful to other people.

domdip 12y ago
Is there anything stopping a standby passenger from being given a seat on the second leg?
- micampe 12y ago
  Regulations, probably, but I also don't think you are allowed to randomly walk around the airport looking for empty seats if you don't have a ticket, and if I have a ticket I'm just going to my gate, since if I am at the airport it means my flight is about to leave anyway.
- spacefight 12y ago
  Nope. Each leg can be oversold, hence their complain is only about the lost money. And control.
- frandroid 12y ago
  No, but standby seating is not really something people pursue anymore in this era of cutthroat pricing and overbooking. And then you can only give that seat away at the very last minute, which pretty much guarantees that you will be delaying that plane, with much higher financial consequences for the airline. I think overbooking is a better solution for the airlines.
dchest 12y ago
Why? They paid their price for the ticket.
- micampe 12y ago
  Please re-read my last sentence.
  - dchest 12y ago
    My question is about your last sentence. Why is it "not very respectful to other people"?
    - micampe 12y ago
      Re-read the previous sentences then? Because you may prevent me from taking that seat without actually needing it. Sure you can but it's not nice to me.
      - Dylan16807 12y ago
        They paid for the seat. It's not disrespectful to buy something you don't need when the supply isn't limited. And the supply of plane seats isn't limited; the more people buying seats, the more seats there are for you to purchase, on average. Looking at a single possible outcome and using it to complain about the entire practice is foolish.
        micampe 12y ago
        On average, you and I eat half a chicken. I'm not the one considering one single outcome, if anything I feel like I'm the only one in these comments considering a different possible side effect of the trick.
        Dylan16807 12y ago
        >On average, you and I eat half a chicken. I have no idea what you're trying to say. There are millions of people involved. Averages make sense to use. For example maybe 450k are unable to get a ticket because a plane filled up with non-riders, and 550k are able to get a ticket when they couldn't before because additional capacity was allocated to the route. Is it 'disrespectful'? Hell no, in my view. It's just shuffling what are fundamentally random numbers. These people are buying tickets too late to be assured seats. Some will get them, some won't, and buying your own is not a negative unless you do something like coordinate to buy out an entire route. Edit: >I'm not the one considering one single outcome Yes you are. You are only considering the possible downsides of a purchase. I could use a similar argument to say that nobody should ever buy anything non-critical because stock might run out and screw over the person behind them. And then the economy collapses.
lukashed 12y ago
I've heard and experienced many times that most flights are overbooked by default to compensate passengers that are not showing up. On the other hand this often results in changed seats or even rebookings to other classes (I got an upgrade to Business class "for free") or even other flights.

by micampe 12y ago

domdip 12y ago

Is there anything stopping a standby passenger from being given a seat on the second leg?

micampe 12y ago
Regulations, probably, but I also don't think you are allowed to randomly walk around the airport looking for empty seats if you don't have a ticket, and if I have a ticket I'm just going to my gate, since if I am at the airport it means my flight is about to leave anyway.
spacefight 12y ago
Nope. Each leg can be oversold, hence their complain is only about the lost money. And control.
frandroid 12y ago
No, but standby seating is not really something people pursue anymore in this era of cutthroat pricing and overbooking. And then you can only give that seat away at the very last minute, which pretty much guarantees that you will be delaying that plane, with much higher financial consequences for the airline. I think overbooking is a better solution for the airlines.

dchest 12y ago

Why? They paid their price for the ticket.

micampe 12y ago
Please re-read my last sentence.
- dchest 12y ago
  My question is about your last sentence. Why is it "not very respectful to other people"?
  - micampe 12y ago
    Re-read the previous sentences then? Because you may prevent me from taking that seat without actually needing it. Sure you can but it's not nice to me.
    - Dylan16807 12y ago
      They paid for the seat. It's not disrespectful to buy something you don't need when the supply isn't limited. And the supply of plane seats isn't limited; the more people buying seats, the more seats there are for you to purchase, on average. Looking at a single possible outcome and using it to complain about the entire practice is foolish.
      - micampe 12y ago
        On average, you and I eat half a chicken. I'm not the one considering one single outcome, if anything I feel like I'm the only one in these comments considering a different possible side effect of the trick.
        Dylan16807 12y ago
        >On average, you and I eat half a chicken. I have no idea what you're trying to say. There are millions of people involved. Averages make sense to use. For example maybe 450k are unable to get a ticket because a plane filled up with non-riders, and 550k are able to get a ticket when they couldn't before because additional capacity was allocated to the route. Is it 'disrespectful'? Hell no, in my view. It's just shuffling what are fundamentally random numbers. These people are buying tickets too late to be assured seats. Some will get them, some won't, and buying your own is not a negative unless you do something like coordinate to buy out an entire route. Edit: >I'm not the one considering one single outcome Yes you are. You are only considering the possible downsides of a purchase. I could use a similar argument to say that nobody should ever buy anything non-critical because stock might run out and screw over the person behind them. And then the economy collapses.

lukashed 12y ago

I've heard and experienced many times that most flights are overbooked by default to compensate passengers that are not showing up. On the other hand this often results in changed seats or even rebookings to other classes (I got an upgrade to Business class "for free") or even other flights.