Originally Posted by
F92K
In my station every flight, every day is overbooked. Overbooking is based on historical no show factors. If you are traveling on a fully refundable government fare more than likely you are considered a Classic Plus or Classic ticket in our reservation system. If that is the case, you may standby on an earlier flight at no charge but there is no guarantee of getting a seat. Classic Plus may be confirmed at no charge if a seat is available earlier or later on all segments of the itinerary while with a Classic ticket you would be charged $25 to confirm a seat if available on all segments of the itinerary.
Depending on how much the flight is overbooked, an agent may waive fees if you show up at the ATO and check-in early for your flight and offer to go on an earlier flight if yours is overbooked. However, this is not policy and is up to the lead agent or supervisor. There is no compensation as you would arrive earlier than scheduled if you get a seat on an earlier flight. The DOT rules kick in if everyone shows up for their scheduled flight and the flight is truly overbooked. We are then required to solicit for volunteers and offer compensation based on the length of time it will take to get you to your final destination. Your flight is currently not overbooked, so you shouldn't have any problems. If you don't have a pre-assigned seat, I would suggest checking in on-line 24 hours prior to departure to get the best seat even if you can't print a boarding pass from home. You can always reprint a boarding pass at any ATO kiosk or with an agent. Enjoy your trip!
Thank you.
Your information is helpful.
Actually, the earlier departing DCA-DEN-MCI routing would get me into MCI later than the later departing non-stop (given the limited facts listed above, I did not anticipate you would know that).
Given the load my office is providing (60% of the flight, and professional disaster for anyone who arrives late), I anticipate (1) overbooking (2) no one in my office can, from a professional standpoint arrive on the next flight, and doubly from a professional standpoint be seen by 60 colleagues accepting VOLUNTARY denied boarding compensation, and then arriving late in MCI. I think Frontier may need to resort to involuntary denied boarding.
I'm Summit, and have a seat assignment, so I do not anticipate trouble for me.
The one way government fare which most of have booked is $96, which seems to be one of the lowest fares in the DCA-MCI market. With the DOT compensation for involuntary denied boarding pegged to fare, will the fact that many of my nonstatused-colleagues have booked perhaps the lowest fares on the plane make them more likely candidates for involuntary bumping?
What is TRULY ironic here, is that, according to specifically defined regulations, if compensation is for voluntary bumping a federal employee may accept it for personal purposes, although such an employee is personally responsible for any on duty time lost on account of accepting it (I've accepted on a Friday redeye on UA, but the time lost on Saturday was already "mine"). BUT, if the denied boarding is INVOLUNTARY, the compensation is considered liquidated damages for the "breach" of the contract of carriage between the government and the carrier, and as such the compensatino goes to the government.
I know, no one asked me for a civics lesson.