Originally Posted by
AllanJ
Except you don't know "how overbooked" the Southwest flight was compared to "how overbooked" other airlines' flights were.
Some airlines will sell you a full fare confirmed coach seat even if your sneak peek at whatsitsname dot com shows all the fare buckets zeroed out i.e. the flight is indeed sold out. How long they do this i.e. how deeply they overbook any given flight this way I don't know.
But yes, do ask if you can buy a ticket.
The ticketing agent showed me her screen that showed that flight 3222, the flight I ended up taking, was oversold by 7. The next flight out (I forget the flight number) was oversold by 14. I got the feeling that the agent would have sold me a seat even if there were 20 people on the standby list. The agent also made it very clear that the ticket was fully refundable if I wasn't able to fly out that night.
I checked at the ticketing counters for AA, Continental and United, and nobody but Southwest would sell me a ticket. I did check the loads on ExpertFlyer and everything was zeroed out, including F at 2pm on the day of travel.
And if you haven't already gathered, I was able to board the plane. I believe that I was the last standby passenger to be called
.