shorthauldad

So, I've just arrived at AMS, hand baggage.

Bog-standard RFS to LHR, booked on BA433 (22:05 departure), it's been looking pretty busy (J0 Y0) for a day or two.

Check-in desk: "Oh, yes, it's oversold."
me: "Oh?"
check-in desk: "<excitedly> They're looking for volunteers to take compensation and travel tomorrow morning!"
me: "Are they looking for volunteers to travel on BA443 (dep 21:00)?"
check-in desk: "do you have a flexible ticket?"
me: "redemption booking"
check-in desk: "ah, in that case, no. we used to do this, but BA don't allow it any more"
me: "so someone is going to get paid to spend the night here, because they refuse to move me to an earlier flight?"
check-in desk: "yes"

^ so at least we know that Sauron Revenue Management don't give a monkey's about anyone, just as long as revenue is protected

V10

Well fancy that.

If anyone is flabberghasted by this, I shall be, well, flabberghasted.

Zaynab

So what is the rationale?

BTW: recently spent the night at the Mercure AMS Terminal hotel. Small rooms but otherwise pretty good and not expensive (less than € 100 and in the plane 45 minutes after waking up).

T8191

My ghast is also flabbered, shorthauldad ... BA nowadays cares for nothing but the bottom line.

MrHeckles

So revenue management are responsible for incoming money, and care not a jot about outgoing.....

shorthauldad

Different budget line, so not their problem?

Maybe there ought to be a bidding system for rebookings?

T8191

The outgoing deal (hotel) protects them against the idea that a non-flex ticket could ever be deemed flexible to suit BOTH parties?

BahrainLad

The clue is in the name, they'd be called "profit management" otherwise!

littlefish

As with many organisations, BA finds it difficult to avoid the silo tendency.

callum9999

That depends though. Maybe it wasn't very oversold and they calculated the odds of them actually needing the volunteer (I'm constantly volunteering but without fail I'm later told that they don't need me to after all) were slim?

Regardless, from a customer service perspective it was pretty stupid. You clearly wouldn't take that to mean your tickets are now basically fully flexible so stop buying the more expensive classes, and they reduce their odds of compensating someone (no matter how slim those odds were).

V10

No doubt someone else has also crunched the numbers and consider they have a good chance of persuading someone on a fully flex ticket (that they probably didn't personally pay for) to take the hit and go away happy with something that costs less than an involuntary denied boarding+duty of care claim.

mjh0

Am I allowed to say "f**kwits"? Or should I tone it down to "muppets"?

Something very similar happened to a friend of mine travelling ex-EDI to connect in LHR. The booked flight ex-EDI was delayed enough that he'd very likely misconnect to the last flight of the day once at LHR. He was early enough to EDI (and hand luggage only) that the previous flight was still at the gate, boarding in progress and with plenty of empty seats.

He volunteered to go on the earlier flight to avoid the misconnect:

"Non-flex ticket? Oh, we can't change that."
"But you're going to have to put me up in a hotel."
"Probably."
"But you can send me on this plane, now, and I can get to where I'd like to be, and you won't need to put me in a hotel."
"Can't change it, I'm afraid."

Of course, there's likely no recording that this is happening - that the passenger tried to get onto an earlier flight, which had open seats, and could have avoided the expense for BA of overnight hotac, but they were denied by policy (or unhelpful staff).

Where it is obvious that there's a high likelihood of a misconnection or overbooking, and the passenger arrives at the airport early enough, they should be proactively offered the chance to get the earlier flight.

It's not difficult, it's just good customer service and smart business.

Mike

HIDDY

Imagine you're a passenger holding a fully flex ticket who turns up early for the 22.05 hoping to get on the 21.00 only to find they've given the last seat to someone on a el cheapo RFS ticket?

MPH1980

I was travelling with several colleagues out of TXL last year. I was on the later flight, them on the earlier. The later flight was clearly pretty full (low Y seat numbers in FlightStats).

We'd all checked in, no hold bags, and headed through security (not realising the lounge was land-side). I went up to the desk and politely enquired about moving to the earlier flight - confessing openly I was on a non-flex ticket. They said no. I prompted them about it being oversold, they said yes it is, but no - you can't change. I asked about getting back to the lounge for my 3 hour wait and they told me I could return through security.

Ok said I ... and wandered back to the people I was travelling with, finished up the impromptu meeting we were having and walked back toward security. I quickly asked which way at the desk and was greeted with 'ah ... your flight is now delayed ... we can move you'. Amazing the difference 3 minutes made.

shorthauldad

Nice excuse, but there were actually plenty of seats left on the 21.00, not just one (J5 C3 Y9 B6 H1 S1 as of ~1h before it departed)

Anyway, what's "el cheapo" about RFS?