I was ticketed on DL, ISP-FLL-ISP yesterday for an amazing fare of 103+. The fare was probably to match WN at ISP. Anyway, I figured I could book it now and cancell it if I couldn't arrange for the days off. I looked back on DL.com to find the exact departure times and the ticket was gone. After hours on the phone with DL, the supervisor told me that all the flights from FLL-ATL-ISP were oversold and all the fare classes were zeroed out. She told me something was changing on these routes and she was unable to book anybody from FLL-ISP at the moment for my dates. She told me my flight was now showing an oversales of 80 seats - this on an MD-80 which was showing an empty seatmap and all 9s in the inventory just 30 minutes prior.
I asked her how to solve my problem of finding a return (the outbound was still going to be honored). She told me that the itinerary that I had was not ticketed but only a reservation that "must have been cancelled". I was outraged because you cannot reserve the seats, you must buy them at DL.com. She was giving me some line of garbage and I finally asked for a coordinator. Her boss told me that he understood what had happened but, even he couldn't book the fare for that flight or any fare from FLL-ISP on December 4th.
He is the kicker, there is inventory if you search FLL-ATL and ATL-ISP seperately. Booking the trip that way comes out to be almost $500 though.
WHAT IS HAPPENING?
SR