Originally Posted by
sbm12
{snip}
As for the comment about seat maps, they are right, even if done with "attitude."
Yeah, I know not to trust the seat maps... for the 7PM flight, there were at least a dozen seats shown as open there, all in the premium section. That just means that non-elites are confirmed, just haven't checked-in to get a seat yet.
Originally Posted by
OptionsCLE
You would only have been able to SDC onto that flight if you had a ticket in Y or H class. The way SDC usually works for cheap fares is that somewhere within 24 hrs of the flight CO opens up all fare classes (even though pricing doesn't necessarily have fares that can sell them without advance purchase). If your fare class doesn't show up on Seatcounter (or whatever GDS tool you use) you won't be able to SDC onto that flight. the Y1 H1 probably meant that the flight was oversold, but at some point before departure seats for sale drop down to the capacity of the plane...they will no longer oversell. I think it's about 3 hours before, but don't remember.
I was on an O fare and when I called/tried online, the 1PM flight was showing 3 in Y/H (according to seatcounter.com), which it allowed me to change to. I thought your description was how it was supposed to work, but it didn't in this case, unless seatcounter.com was wrong. I don't know how reliable it is.
Originally Posted by
texd
The OP's specific case has been pretty well covered here, so I won't re-hash that.
I will, however, second the OP's request that the CO reps get properly trained so that they could explain the situation to the OP instead of FTers having to do it.
Why do we know it better than they do? Because we have to live with it. Perhaps CO should have a three day training seminar for their reps someplace boring or with lame weather (summer in Midland, perhaps) for which the reps are provided a certain amount of money for travel and are allowed to keep whatever's left, giving them an opportunity to experience booking a flight. Then the seminar should wrap up early at the end of day two, leaving the agents figuring out how to change flights to go home early while not spending too much more money.
^^