baccarat_king

Went to check in online for my flight from IND-LAS on Friday, Oct. 7th, Flight 151.

Got the Customer Advisory at OLCI
"Northwest Airlines flight 151, scheduled from Indianapolis, IN to Las Vegas, NV on 07OCT, is overbooked.

"At this time, Northwest is seeking volunteers with flexible travel plans who are willing to give up their seat in exchange for compensation... If you are interested in volunterring...."

BUT, if you go to NWA.com you can still purchase [as of 7AM EST today] a one-way ticket on this same IND-LAS flight [albeit at full Y fare].

I can't understand why they would still be selling seats if the flight is overbooked, and NW is even advising folks of this at OLCI.

Seems a bit strange to me.... though, you could probably buy a full Y refundable fare, and just show up tomorrow morning to volunteer

doglover

Subtract the ECV value from the Y fare. Odds are this is substantially more $ than the original ticket sold to the bumped passenger.

baccarat_king

Excellent point... BUT, this is based on the fact that you will DEFINITELY have volunteers. If someone does happen to buy a full Y ticket last minute [and assuming he/she can't get a seat assignment until getting to the airport] --- and there are NO volunteers... than this person doesn't ride.

Pretty bad to be a full fare patron on a $800 + one way ticket and then be involuntarily bumped....

Unless, of course, NW protects full Y passengers from involuntary bumps.

channa

The VDB rate is very low. The IDB rate is even lower than that. The chance of IDBing this Full Y and pissing him off is extremely rare.

The airline overbooks with the intent of not bumping anybody. So if they overbook by say 7, they expect 7 not to show based on past performance. Just because they're overbooked doesn't mean there will be any bumps. In fact, the fact that they're not sold to authorization indicates there is even less likelihood they'll need volunteers.

BobH

and if someone goes standby for an earlier flight in the day, they're a no show for the one they were orginally booked on....

Bob H

channa

Yup, been burned by that.

That's resolving their VDB problem for no compensation. In fact, with the $25 confirmed program, people might be paying NW to resolve their VDB problem!

DHAST

You say that if someone does happen to buy a full Y, gets no seat assignment until at the airport, and there are no volunteers, then the person doesn't ride? That's not true, because you can't be sure that the person will NOT get a seat assignment AT the airport.

There are a chunk of seats blocked off for assignment at the airport. When I worked for UAX, full fare passengers with no seat assignment had the HIGHEST priority on the wait list. They will surely get a seat assignment at the airport.

ironmanjt

Rare, but not unseen. I saw perhaps the worst handling ever of an oversell at MSP on Sunday. Flight was P8 F8 R0 Y0 the day before (no upgrades for plats) and P0/Y0 come flight time. 8 bumps from earlier were now up front instead of platinums

Anyways, agent begged for volunteers (this was the 6:45pm departure) and the best protect she had was 2:30pm the next day. I think she got one or two people. Ended up with 10 IDBs in the end, including one guy who was ranting "I paid $1500 for this ticket this morning!" Agents were incredibly rude (unlike MSP in my experience) and frustrated. I feel for these folks having to work under these conditions - it has to be awful.

ironmanjt

This isn't UAX, and on a flight with lots of elites it's quite possible that all seats will be taken in advance.

flyinglan

I have seen GA bumped confirmed first class passenger from the F cabin (after taking his seat) to accommodate a couple. Everyone in the cabin, including the FAs were rather surprised. There is a market for last minute Y, P fares on the LAS route.

CaveatEmpty

..back on topic-- Ya never know what'll happen.

On Tues (10/4), I was holding 2 K seats on NW781 (5pm) MSP-LAS, & got on the list for NW779 (2pm) -- agent explained the oversell & we figured the chances were slightly worse than the average snowball .. but,hey -- it's LAS .. you're supposed to gamble

At the gate, they offered $300 for volunteers -- got one.
In the end, he wasn't needed: an inbound (MKE?) was delayed, a dozen+ standbys cleared, and we went with empty seats.

/.

DHAST

So are you trying to tell me that full fare pax don't receive priority consideration on sold out flights? It makes no sense to guarantee to your plats that you'll give them a seat on a sold out flight just to subsequently bump them. Second, do you also mean to tell me that an elite can select any unassigned seat? I highly doubt that.

travelnutz

This is the basic reasoning behind "yield-management". Airlines over sell their seats based on the theory that with VDB/IDB they can offer $300 to someone who paid $200 for their seat but in exchange they get someone who paid $1300 Y fare for that same seat.

ironmanjt

Yes, an elite can select any unassigned seat at any time 90 days or less in advance - including exit rows. Only seats they can't are 2-3 handicapped seats, and even that is easy to do if you call in.

baccarat_king

Just a follow-up to the post.

As I was walking off my flight from DTW-IND; gate agent was announcing my name. Went over to the gate, and the agent said I had cleared for the upgrade. At this time, I asked if the flight was still overbooked [Northwest Airlines flight 151, scheduled from Indianapolis, IN to Las Vegas, NV on 07OCT]

She said yes, and she was so swamped that she hadn't gotten to figuring out if and how many volunteers were needed. I told her I was willing, and she said I would be the first on the list.

Turns out, they needed 2 volunteers, and I was one of them. Was re-routed IND-MSP-LAS and the agent was nice enough to block me in first class for the MSP-LAS Friday afternoon flight. This was due to get me into Las Vegas around 3-1/2 hours later than expected, which was well worth the $300 voucher --- but it gets better...

right after the GA gave me the Travel Voucher and Food Voucher... they annouced a mechanical on the flight.... and my re-route through MSP left IND with the IND-LAS flight still at the gate... I never was able to find out when the IND-LAS flight eventually departed. They were guessing at least a 1-2 hour delay, as it was due to a flight control panel indicator light [or something along those lines]

and... this GA was SO ACCOMODATING, as
I was coming home on the Red-Eye on early Sunday morning, and asked if she could put me on a flight for Sunday afternoon. I really wanted the 2:45PM Sunday afternoon flight from LAS-DTW --- as this would give me another full day. Even though the flight was oversold, she was nice enough to put me onto the 2:45PM Sunday flight. So, I basically lost 3-4 hours on Friday and gained 14 hours on the other end.

And... when I checked my mileage this morning, I got the double up bonus on the 50% F class bonus for the re-booking in full F class

and, to the best of my knowledge my return flights home on Sunday were also re-booked in full fare... so, hopefully, I will also get the bonus on those.