Overbooked by 15 (is that a record?)

While some airlines are struggling to fill its planes, I had the
unusual
experience of being on a CO flight (697) from IAH to LAS that was
overbooked by 15!

CO offered passengers $400 per seat plus a guaranteed arrival to
LAS the same day (Flt 697 was scheduled to arrive LAS at 3:55 pm).

My wife heard the announcement while I was still at the President's
Club, and we missed out being the voluntarily bumped passengers.
The flight was worth only about half what was offered to get bumped.

I wonder how often airlines are THAT much overbooked.

-- Bob.

"Reef Fish" wrote in message
ups.com...
While some airlines are struggling to fill its planes, I had the
unusual
experience of being on a CO flight (697) from IAH to LAS that was
overbooked by 15!

CO offered passengers $400 per seat plus a guaranteed arrival to
LAS the same day (Flt 697 was scheduled to arrive LAS at 3:55 pm).

My wife heard the announcement while I was still at the President's
Club, and we missed out being the voluntarily bumped passengers.
The flight was worth only about half what was offered to get bumped.

I wonder how often airlines are THAT much overbooked.

I've seen 15 or more on several occasions. There are flights, generally
ones which primarily serve connecting pax from bad weather airports or early
morning departures, or the routinely overbooked by full fare midafternoon
flights, which operators have traditionally been able to overbook by high
numbers, confident of no shows.

TMO

Reef Fish wrote:
While some airlines are struggling to fill its planes, I had the
unusual
experience of being on a CO flight (697) from IAH to LAS that was
overbooked by 15!

CO offered passengers $400 per seat plus a guaranteed arrival to
LAS the same day (Flt 697 was scheduled to arrive LAS at 3:55 pm).

My wife heard the announcement while I was still at the President's
Club, and we missed out being the voluntarily bumped passengers.
The flight was worth only about half what was offered to get bumped.

I wonder how often airlines are THAT much overbooked.

-- Bob.

I fly out of IAH once a week. 15 is a bit high, but not a record.
Although
the $400.00 is the highest offering that I've heard. Usually they
announce
$ 200.00.

AA overbooked and asked for 24 volunteers out of San Juan a number of years
ago. Needed all of them. Cruise came in. Many got bumped that night. We
(wife, brother, sister-in-law and myself) got $400 each (flight voucher),
hotel for night at Condado Plaza hotel in a really great room for each
couple, 3 meals each (I had steak and lobster paid for by the airline for
dinner) and carfare to and from the hotel. When we got back to the airport
the next night, they upgraded the wife and I to first class (I asked, my
brother didn't, two seats left.) Used the flight voucher for 1 & 1/2
trips to Las Vegas for wife and myself. Brother used his to help pay for a
trip to Australia. Sometimes you just fall into a great thing.




"Reef Fish" wrote in message
ups.com...
While some airlines are struggling to fill its planes, I had the
unusual
experience of being on a CO flight (697) from IAH to LAS that was
overbooked by 15!

CO offered passengers $400 per seat plus a guaranteed arrival to
LAS the same day (Flt 697 was scheduled to arrive LAS at 3:55 pm).

My wife heard the announcement while I was still at the President's
Club, and we missed out being the voluntarily bumped passengers.
The flight was worth only about half what was offered to get bumped.

I wonder how often airlines are THAT much overbooked.

-- Bob.

"Reef Fish" wrote in message
ups.com...
While some airlines are struggling to fill its planes, I had the
unusual
experience of being on a CO flight (697) from IAH to LAS that was
overbooked by 15!

CO offered passengers $400 per seat plus a guaranteed arrival to
LAS the same day (Flt 697 was scheduled to arrive LAS at 3:55 pm).

My wife heard the announcement while I was still at the President's
Club, and we missed out being the voluntarily bumped passengers.
The flight was worth only about half what was offered to get bumped.

I wonder how often airlines are THAT much overbooked.

It's not that unusual, depending on the size of the plane and other factors.

There's a whole subgroup of passengers who intentionally look for overbooked
flights to ticket, never intending to take that flight, so they can
volunteer for the bump and get the free flight voucher/ other compensation.

Reef Fish wrote:

While some airlines are struggling to fill its planes, I had the
unusual
experience of being on a CO flight (697) from IAH to LAS that was
overbooked by 15!

CO offered passengers $400 per seat plus a guaranteed arrival to
LAS the same day (Flt 697 was scheduled to arrive LAS at 3:55 pm).

My wife heard the announcement while I was still at the President's
Club, and we missed out being the voluntarily bumped passengers.
The flight was worth only about half what was offered to get bumped.

I wonder how often airlines are THAT much overbooked.


Was it overbooked by 15 or oversold by 15?
If you mean it was short 15 seats near departure, that would be an
oversold situation. Overbooking is not unusual and the goal is to fill
as many seats as possible. This is more desireable than leaving with a
lot of empty seats. Sometimes there is quite a bit of miscalculation due
to some event not considered when determining the number of seats to
overbook. For instance, a large percentage of travelers going to a
destination that can't change their plans. For instance, in the event of
a convention or other event like baseball playoffs. I assume that the
Super Bowl is normally considered for trips to the Superbowl city around
game day. Baseball playoffs locations are not decided until shortly
before they are scheduled, so I guess that some of these might be left
out. It could also be that some holiday information was not entered
into the system.

bunny wrote:

"Reef Fish" wrote in message
ups.com...

While some airlines are struggling to fill its planes, I had the
unusual
experience of being on a CO flight (697) from IAH to LAS that was
overbooked by 15!

CO offered passengers $400 per seat plus a guaranteed arrival to
LAS the same day (Flt 697 was scheduled to arrive LAS at 3:55 pm).

My wife heard the announcement while I was still at the President's
Club, and we missed out being the voluntarily bumped passengers.
The flight was worth only about half what was offered to get bumped.

I wonder how often airlines are THAT much overbooked.


It's not that unusual, depending on the size of the plane and other factors.

There's a whole subgroup of passengers who intentionally look for overbooked
flights to ticket, never intending to take that flight, so they can
volunteer for the bump and get the free flight voucher/ other compensation.


I was in a situation once where the whole plane was offered voluntary
bump compensation of $200 + plus the value of a one way ticket in
vouchers to give up their seats. If we wanted to, we could have
remained on the plane for the next trip.
This was on a flight from SJC to SNA on WN. Since the LA area was fogged
over, we circled a while, then flew back to SJC. When we got to SJ, it
was in time for the plane to be used for another flight to SNA. We gave
up our seats for a flight departing 1/2 hour later to LAX. This was
during the "friends fly free" promotion, so the free ticket got $200.
Since we were spending several days in the LA area, we simply change the
sites we were visiting as it was too late for the site we were visiting
from SNA. The fog was not WN's fault, so this was really bonus in vouchers.

wrote:
Reef Fish wrote:

While some airlines are struggling to fill its planes, I had the
unusual
experience of being on a CO flight (697) from IAH to LAS that was
overbooked by 15!

CO offered passengers $400 per seat plus a guaranteed arrival to
LAS the same day (Flt 697 was scheduled to arrive LAS at 3:55 pm).

My wife heard the announcement while I was still at the President's
Club, and we missed out being the voluntarily bumped passengers.
The flight was worth only about half what was offered to get bumped.

I wonder how often airlines are THAT much overbooked.


Was it overbooked by 15 or oversold by 15?

I don't know what the difference in those terms mean. In the context
of my description, it was obviously a case of "oversold" -- otherwise,
why would CO look for 15 volunteers to get bumped for $400 each.
My ATL/IAH/LAS roundtrip cost less than that!


If you mean it was short 15 seats near departure, that would be an
oversold situation.

For the smallest of the B737-500, the number 15 is significant.

For instance, in the event of
a convention or other event like baseball playoffs. I assume that the
Super Bowl is normally considered for trips to the Superbowl city around
game day. Baseball playoffs locations are not decided until shortly
before they are scheduled, so I guess that some of these might be left
out. It could also be that some holiday information was not entered
into the system.

Those conditions didn't apply. In fact, it was one of DEADEST
midweek days travel to LAS. The Hilton was practically empty
and for their promotional price of $69 for TWO nights, I was
upgraded to a huge-size suite. I learned that the 3000-room
Paradise Hilton was no longer owned and operated by Hilton
though the HHonor Program perks were still honored.

-- Bob.

Reef Fish wrote:

Those conditions didn't apply. In fact, it was one of DEADEST
midweek days travel to LAS. The Hilton was practically empty
and for their promotional price of $69 for TWO nights, I was
upgraded to a huge-size suite. I learned that the 3000-room
Paradise Hilton was no longer owned and operated by Hilton
though the HHonor Program perks were still honored.


While it might not have been a busy day in LAS, it could be there was
something going on that affected a large number of people between the
origination and destination that caused a lower than normal of no shows.
I don't know about the Hilton in LAS. I usually get take a comp at
Venetian or Mandalay.

Reef Fish wrote:

My wife heard the announcement while I was still at the President's
Club,


The ODOROUS "Reef Fish" has a "wife"...!!!???

Guess that makes her a "FISHWIFE"...

Bwahahahahahahaaaaaaa....!!!

--
Best
Greg