Originally Posted by
sna430
Not sure if this happens to everyone. I have flown 50+ segments this year. Mostly transcons and then the connections to the non-hub cities. Since the flights takes up the whole day for each direction, I am never in much of a hurry. Out of the 50+ segments, I have been asked about 15 times at the kiosk if I want to volunteer. I always agree. From the 15X, none have ever cleared at the gate. I always have to the leave the UC early and wait at the gate 1 hour before departure for the gate agent. Hand in the cert and then wait for group 4/5 to board before they decide they don't need me. For me I get excited, followed by a slight disappointment. Before leaving the UC, I look at the the app and standby says none available and the seat map shows all full. Most of the UC staff never tell me if the the flights are oversold. They just mention I need to go to the gate. Is it normal for the kiosk to ask for volunteers and never use them? 100% fail rate is quite high.
dont know if they will answer you, 1- dont ask the agents that check your credentials and let you in, speak to those at the other desk (if thats the way its set up at that UC not all have 2 different desks.
Or call UA and ask what the load factor is for Flight 111 , they may ask if you are on it, just say yes (if thats the case) and that you were gonna make a conference call or whatever but if the flight is Oversold you dont want to chance getting to the gate only to find out they off loaded you. If they dont say well it holds 124 and booked for 126 you can ask by how many its over , they may or may not tell you. Then I say well if its only over by 1 or 2 I will chance it , if by more then that I wouldnt, and they usally will say well if its that important to be on that flight I wouldnt chance it
That said Ive seen where it was over by say 6 and we still went with empty seats and were over by 1 or 2 and they needed Vols. Personally unless its over by 3 I dont head to the gate so early unless my connection time doesnt warrant a stop at the UC. Keep in mind its PMCO tracking now and they do a great job in knowing by how many to oversell a flight and still not need any Vols. Its not 100% but a heck of alot better then PMUA was doing, I havent been hearing the GAs acting as auctioners that much since the merger