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Old Jun 4, 2010, 11:57 am
  #1  
Zip
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BF Seat Guarantee

Recently, there have been several threads asking something along the lines of "How often does the BF cabin become fully booked?"

One of the benefits of full-fare BF tixs is the ability to change flights at the last minute. Used to do this quite often; expect a seat anytime I wanted if on the full fare. Never a problem with changes. So CO always seemed to hold a handful of seats till the last hour.

This is why so many non-revs get into BF; if those seats "reserved for changes" are still available at the +1 hr mark, they became available to the non-revs. Now, I haven't done this since 2002, but I'm guessing the basic philosophy is still the same. Anyone know if this is NOT the case anymore??
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Old Jun 4, 2010, 4:58 pm
  #2  
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I doubt CO is (or ever did) willingly not selling seats just in case someone wants to change flights.
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Old Jun 4, 2010, 5:22 pm
  #3  
 
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Correct, I believe they "hold out" for last minute purchases.
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Old Jun 4, 2010, 11:57 pm
  #4  
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Depends on the route and what the historical trend in last-minute bookings is. I've certainly been on flights (and known folks on flights) where 2 of the last 3 BF seats were cleared for upgrade/awards at the 24 hour mark. So that would have left only one seat for last-minute sale. But obviously it was something CO felt comfortable with on these specific flights.
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Old Jun 6, 2010, 12:46 pm
  #5  
Zip
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Originally Posted by ijgordon
Depends on the route and what the historical trend in last-minute bookings is. ..... But obviously it was something CO felt comfortable with on these specific flights.
I think this is correct. Back in "those days," my organization would be pretty upset if CO couldn't fly me when and where it wanted, even if it involved last hr changes.

I doubt that this would involve more than 1 passenger per flight (though once, three of us did such a change within 2 hrs; we had contingency plans for 2 of us). But as I said, that was over 8 years ago.
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Old Jun 6, 2010, 12:54 pm
  #6  
 
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You make it sound like BF flights operate like domestic F flights, with multiple flights per day for last-minute changes -- but there are only a couple of BF routes that offer more than one flight a day. So I don't really understand the scenario under consideration.
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