Has this happened to anyone?

When flying on a non-rev ticket how is the compensation determined on a INVOLUNTARY bump. Thank you to all in advance for their thoughtful answers.

When you say 'non-rev' do you mean staff ticket, or a lottery prize ticket etc or a ticket paid with MILES? Former two might (?) be treated differently, but most airlines regard a ticket paid with FF MILES as having attached to it pretty well all the normal entitlements of a "money paid" ticket - other than being able to accrue mileage of course. Get bumped and you get the normal deal for that.

[This message has been edited by sendoisan (edited 12-08-2001).]

My all time worst service airline story

A few years back, I used a 40K award for F travel R/T DFW-RNO on AA to ski Tahoe for a week. Two days after I arrived, the storm of the century hit. Ski lifts not running, no water in the casinos, and back in Reno, the airport shut down for 3 days because the runways and ground floor of the terminals were underwater. My first ttime in a federal disaster area since the NYC blackout in the 70's. Extrordinary circumstances, certainly.

The airport re-opened for limited service Friday, my flight out was Saturday. I actually called on Firday to reconfirm that was flight was going, and that I'd be there.

Got to the airport Saturday, about an hour before my flight. Checked in and checked bags at the ticket counter; they told me I'd need to re-check in upstairs at the gate, since the computers were all down since the wiring had been underwater. No indication that there was any unusual need to rush, so I stopped at the gift shop before clearing security and going to the gate.

When I got to the gate, a half hour before flight time, there was pandemonium. They were already boarding, but no one without a blue boarding card was allowed on board, and folks (not me) were being threatened with arrest for questioning the harried gate agents.

At the counter, I was told that my seat had already been given away, and I could get on the standby list for the extra flight they had added, but no guarantees. That would be the last flight of the day, on any carrier. I asked what I had done wrong to lose my seat, despite showing up within their posted deadlines - no answer. I asked if they would compensate me - "no". I was told to stay in the gate area, since they might call me for that next flight at any time, which menat that I couldn't get anything to eat.

Eventually, the next flight started boarding, while I and a dozen other standbys huddled around the counter. They were manually checking off seats as folks boarded. The guy next to me was complaining that he'd confirmed his seat two days earlier - when I told him I'd confirmed my F seat 3 months earlier, he shut up. The plane filled up, and there was only one seat open, as luck would have it, in F. They gave it to me.

The flight itself was no better -
because of the conditions at RNO, they hadn't properly catered the flight. They ran out of gin, then vodka, then kahlua, then meals.

In all, it was only about a 2 hour delay, but at least a month's worth of stress.

I wrote a pretty angry letter to AA when I returned. I was afraid that if I didn't ask for anything specific, they'd send me drink coupons, or something like that, so (aiming high) I asked for $500 cash, or $1000 voucher, or 40,000 miles.

They answered in short time with a letter of apology and a $500 voucher, which I accepted.

<edited for spelling>

[This message has been edited by swag (edited 12-08-2001).]

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[This message has been edited by AS Flyer (edited 12-08-2001).]

I can't believe what I'm hearing. The airport has closed because of extensive flooding. The likes of which, by the way, Reno has never seen. You show up one hour before your flight. You wander casually over to the gate area thinking you have all the time in the world. You are surprised to find out that there are many stand bys and that your seat has been given away? Somehow this is the fault of the airline? To further that, you are upset that they run out of gin, then vodka, then kahlua. And you let it bother you for a month after the fact. No offense meant, although I'm sure some will be taken, it might be time to take a little personal responsibility in these situations. If you know the airport has been closed then give yourself EXTRA time. Not just the suggested one hour. Of course there are going to be many stranded people. It's amazing, to me, the whole me, me, me attitude. Running 0ut of vodka is hardly an inconvenience when compared to the 11 other people left behind from the LAST FLIGHT OF THE NIGHT. How about putting things into perspective and just feeling lucky to have been on one of the extra flights they added to get you home to your own bed. And next time you suspect there could be a problem at the airport - give yourself some extra time and don't assume the whole world is waiting on you.

Go ahead now, and begin bashing me for having the nerve to say what, I'm sure, is on alot of minds.



[This message has been edited by AS Flyer (edited 12-08-2001).]

I did realize there might be problems. That's why I called the airline a day before. Probably the only time in my life I've re-confirmed a domestic flight.

There was no indication from them that I would need to arrive early. I checked in at the ticket counter. Again, no indication that there was a rush. Of course, if either had told me that I needed to get to the gate extra early, I would have. And still I wasn't running up just inside the 10 minute rule - I was at the gate 30 minutes before departure.

So given the airlines own stated check in policies, how could they start releasing seats and calling standbys what must have been 40-50 minutes prior to departure? If they hadn't, there might have been a 30 minute delay, which I certainly would have understood. But if they're gonna depart from their own policies, shouldn't they maybe mention that to me on at least one of the two occasions when they spoke to me, on the phone or at the ticket counter?

As to the on board service shortfalls, you're right, they are understandable, and if that had been all that that had gone wrong, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. But as stressed as I was, and (after being stuck at the gate) as hungry as I was, I just wanted to relax on the flight with some strong drinks and fill up my stomach.

And I didn't mean that I was stressed for a month. I had a month's worth of stress compressed into a couple of hours.

But you're **** right on one point. If I had been one of the passengers with a confirmed seat who got stuck till the next day, I'd have been much more pissed.

[This message has been edited by swag (edited 12-08-2001).]

I think this has gotten off topic. We had 3 FF tickets to Antigue one spring break a couple of years ago. They were very overbooked and we (3) volunteered - got $700 each, and I asked if ticket could be changing to earning mileage and it was! We got bumped again, this time for $1000 each, -we got meal tickets as well. Unfortunately we couldn't get bumped again, but it was close (out of Puerto Rico). The $5100 paid for an awful lot of flights (taxes waived so it was worth more than then the $5100. And they kept THANKING us for volunteering. So if you are flying on an award ticket, don't be afraid to ask them to change the flight code to get miles. I did this once when I arrived to find my flight cancelled and was put on the next flight (DFW to ORD). I asked to get miles for the inconvenience).

------------------
DtG

DGordan
which airline did this?

Assuming you had a friendly, helpful gate agent how logisticly would this be done.

writetorich,

Your last question to dgordon is a good one: "which airline did this?"

Which airline will you be or were you flying on? You might try posting your question in that specific airline forum as it seems policies regarding involuntary bumping vary according to carrier.

In the olden days there used to ba an airline called Canadian Airlines. They used to code-share with AA many US-CAN routes. I was once flying LGA-YYZ on miles and ,y flight was cancelled. I had arrived late at the airport and they rebooked everyone on the next flight which left 1 hour later. I wasn't even in a rush, and therefore I dodn't consider this to be in any way an inconvenience, so I didn't make a peep about it. I still ended up with a "Y" fare trip that earned miles. (Although it was only a grand total of 500)