A flyer's nightmare or dream...OVERBOOKING!

[ptbodale]

If you are a contingent (con) you get use to being bumped and nothing for it.

[TangoSierraVictor]

A few times, on domestic Australia flights. both for overbooking i expect and also because of other reasons. It used to happen quite a bit if you were travelling as part of a family (eg with me, 4 people travelling)

In April 1996 Ansett put my family and myself up to c on a 737 because it was a busy flight, with quite a few families travelling. It was the end of the Anzac Day holiday-weekend and many people travel down south for the time.

January 1997: Ansett flight Brisbane-Melbourne. Overbooked 767, I was moved up to business on AN75 (peak hour flight). I was under 18 and on my own.

January 1997: Ansett flight Melbourne-Sydney. The currency exchange at Sydney airport was robbed, and flights from SYD had been either cancelled or delayed. The a/c I (along with my family) was meant to travel on was in SYD, and so we were re-booked onto a flight that was scheduled to leave MEL about 5 minutes after we had finished checking in. My brother and I were put up to C but mum and dad were in Y.

August 1997: Ansett flight AN123 TSV-BNE. Just moved up to business on a whim by the check-in (oh and it probably had something to do with the fact that I had told the res staff when making the booking that the trip was a birthday present from me to me- 18 years old ).

It used to happen quite a bit when the classes were first, business and economy. Seating (on a 737) in first was 2+2, in biz it was 3+3 and in econ it was 3+3. The diff between biz and y was that the seats were velvety/velour, and had about 4 more inches legroom. The meals were better but basically the y food, but with more crockery, silver and polish. Even the full Y class fares were not too different from the C class ones: something like $350 one way compared with $450 one way TSV-BNE.
First was about $530 one way (1996-7 levels).

TangoSierraVictor

[thunderball'65]

I would especially would feel glad to give up my seat if it were the trip home from a vacation, because that obviously means that you would extend your vacation another day, and you get first class service. America West has done that to us a lot. The Carlsbad, CA-PHX Dash 8 is always overbooked we just fly out of SAN which is twenty minutes driving away and we get in only an hour later to wherever we go whether it be somthing as simple as Phoenix or as far as an East Coast destination. Plus we have earned like $1500 dollars in vouchers with them and plus our miles makes for a lot of free flights. Those are great for last minute trips.

[cal99]

I would usually give up my seat, unless I have to be there that day and its the last flight. Oh course 99.99% of my travel is Non-rev, so when I hear them asking for volunteers, im usually busy trying to rebook

[assghanistan]

yeah....that'd be nice to get comps for overbooked flights, huh, CAL99?.....
one of these days, though.........

[FlyCharlestonSC]

I've only done it once.
My sister has done it more times than I can count. She flies a lot.
In fact, she is in Costa Rica at the moment on a free AA ticket!

[assghanistan]

if i ever flew anything but non-rev, i would sure as hell try and book myself in such a way as to always get free tickets. i know some people who have hardly ever paid for a ticket, yet still manage to become silver elites on continental. they just constantly book on oversold flights, then rebook with the given voucher on another oversold flight, etc.....