<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by purser @AC:
My last flight to LHR was overbooked by 70 seats. We left with 50 open. Ten of the J class customers originally booked on the flight, did not end up onboard. It would seem a little disingenuous, to criticize the airlines for a practice, which is designed to minimize the financial impact of customer noshows.
The icing on the cake, is trying to pawn off a special meal, ordered by a noshow customer.
Until there is an across the board penalty for not honouring a reservation, customers will noshow, and airlines will overbook to compensate.</font>
When I buy a full fare J ticket, you (AC) have my money, I have the right to noshow a flight. If I am going to noshow, I always call as a matter of courtesy. However, one of the perks of being a high rev passenger is that we work on our time frame and not ACs.