FlyerTalk Forums - fun time in Texas (eye-roll)

Like SAT Lawyer I also had interesting things happen to me over the weekend in IAH (not as tragic as his story though).

1) Our trip from LGA-IAH-SLC 6/30.
We offered our seats on the 7am LGA-IAH flight and our only option was to fly out of EWR at 7pm EWR-SLC, an all day wait but we get the $300 each, a car service to EWR, and allowed us to go back to work for the day and save a vacation day. Alas at the last minute our seats were not needed and we took the 7am to IAH. In IAH our 11:30am departure was sold out, we got bumped :) and the agent assigned us seats on the 9:44pm IAH-SLC since the 5pm and the 7pm were sold out. So we waited in the PC and at each 1/2 hour before the 5pm and the 7pm I asked the agents in PC to check to see if two seats had became available on the 5 or 7pm. No seats --and each time I checked I was told to keep what I had since the two flights before were sold out.
When we get to the 9:44 pm flight we run our tickets through the scanner and it sets off an alarm. The GA tells me we are not on this flight and it is now full "I can get you on tomorrow’s flight at 9:44 pm" "WHAT!!?? :mad: As we are walking away going back to the PC to ask what had happened to our seats the GA came running after us and said two seats had opened up "Hurry!" so we ran back got on the plane looking like we were irresponsible late travelers. Our seats were not together and I was in the back between two big sweaty guys. In the end we were super grateful that two seats miraculously appeared and we did not have to wait another day in IAH. However, later when I got our luggage in SLC a piece of paper was attached showing our itinerary and realize what had happened. The LGA GA forgot to take us off of the EWR-SLC standby flight. Then at 7pm in EWR when they called our name and we did not answer (since we were in IAH) they took us off of the 7 pm EWR-SLC and subsequently the 9:44 pm flight (IAH-SLC) and we lost our seats on the 9:44 pm.??? On my return I tried to explain the situation to a gal in the IAH PC and she told me, "Lesson learned - always be sure you get taken off of the standby list" :confused: :mad: How can I take myself off of something I did not know I was on. Seems that when we were not bumped on the LGA-IAH flight the LGA GA would have taken us off of EWR-SLC? It also seems that the several times I checked with someone in IAH (GA, PC agents) would have noticed we were still on this EWR-SLC standby list. They can see all of that info, I can't.
In the end it all seemed so unnecessary to have had to face all of this frustration at the IAH gate at 9:44 pm.

2) Has this ever happened to you? We walk up to gate E10 to catch IAH-LGA flight CO1532. As we walk up a flight to LGA is being boarded. Flight numbers CO532 and CP1532 are flashing. Handing the GA our BP’s I ask if flight CO1532 is boarding already. She says, “No your on flight 1532 it will be boarding in a few minutes after this flight 532 has departed, please have a seat sir” Since she was too busy I went to PC and asked which flight was boarding and which flight we are on. Seems these flights are only 1h 6m apart. Flight CO532/CP1532 departs at 1:12 pm and flight CO1532 departs at 2:18 pm. Flight CO532/CP1532 was delayed a bit so both sets of passengers are waiting at E10.
My question: Why have two flights so close in departure time going to the same destination at the same gate with similar flight numbers?

Sorry this story is so long. :o . Should I pass my experience on to CO?