When two F seats go out empty on overbooked flight
Mar 10, 2018, 2:55 pm
#1
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When two F seats go out empty on overbooked flight
It’s been a while since I’ve seen this and I was just curious about why.
Yesterday #1182 was about 30 minutes late leaving LGA. GA made numerous announcements about it being fully booked (I know, they always say that) and I overhead some pax discussing it being overbooked and their group got split up onto another flight.
At at least one diamond boarded with first and took his seat in the back. We took off with two empty F seats and I was curious as to why they didn’t upgrade anybody. All F seats were showing as taken online about two hours before flight time.
It didn’t affect me but I just wondered if this was the new norm.
Yesterday #1182 was about 30 minutes late leaving LGA. GA made numerous announcements about it being fully booked (I know, they always say that) and I overhead some pax discussing it being overbooked and their group got split up onto another flight.
At at least one diamond boarded with first and took his seat in the back. We took off with two empty F seats and I was curious as to why they didn’t upgrade anybody. All F seats were showing as taken online about two hours before flight time.
It didn’t affect me but I just wondered if this was the new norm.
Mar 10, 2018, 3:23 pm
#2
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For those who haven't memorized the schedule, this would be FL 1182 LGA-MSY.
Likely last minute no shows and there was nobody left at the gate so the agent closed the flight and off it went. It's common for a flight to be overbooked and at risk of oversale and then go out with empty seats.
With a delayed departure, that is a strike against having the GA do onboard UG's and delay the aircraft further.
Likely last minute no shows and there was nobody left at the gate so the agent closed the flight and off it went. It's common for a flight to be overbooked and at risk of oversale and then go out with empty seats.
With a delayed departure, that is a strike against having the GA do onboard UG's and delay the aircraft further.
Mar 11, 2018, 8:03 am
#4
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Mar 11, 2018, 8:31 am
#5
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It’s been a while since I’ve seen this and I was just curious about why.
Yesterday #1182 was about 30 minutes late leaving LGA. GA made numerous announcements about it being fully booked (I know, they always say that) and I overhead some pax discussing it being overbooked and their group got split up onto another flight.
At at least one diamond boarded with first and took his seat in the back. We took off with two empty F seats and I was curious as to why they didn’t upgrade anybody. All F seats were showing as taken online about two hours before flight time.
It didn’t affect me but I just wondered if this was the new norm.
Yesterday #1182 was about 30 minutes late leaving LGA. GA made numerous announcements about it being fully booked (I know, they always say that) and I overhead some pax discussing it being overbooked and their group got split up onto another flight.
At at least one diamond boarded with first and took his seat in the back. We took off with two empty F seats and I was curious as to why they didn’t upgrade anybody. All F seats were showing as taken online about two hours before flight time.
It didn’t affect me but I just wondered if this was the new norm.
Mar 11, 2018, 8:36 am
#6
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Didn't you mean to ask whether there were standbys who did clear? If a genuine standby gets on, then the flight could not have been oversold. However, the difficulty in looking for such "evidence" is that AFAIK customers who are confirmed on the flight but don't have seat assignments (including those with E fares) can appear on the standby list at the gate and on the app.
Mar 11, 2018, 8:43 am
#7
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No, I meant to ask if there were standbys who DIDN'T clear. It's certainly possible that there were some who cleared and some who didn't, so just knowing if some did clear doesn't help us figure out if somebody messed up.
Mar 11, 2018, 9:55 am
#8
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It is also possible that there as an issue with those two seats. Were they two seats together or in different places? I have seen a row of seats blocked off when there has been a cleaning issue that was managed to enough of a level to allow the flight to take off, but the specific seats required deep cleaning before they could be used again by pax.
Mar 11, 2018, 2:01 pm
#10
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Here is the new, liberalized policy:
"Plus, through the coordination of our gate agents and flight attendants, if you have already boarded but are the next Medallion Member on the upgrade list when an upgrade becomes available, we will do our very best to upgrade you before takeoff, when possible."
Can anyone point to commonly encountered obstacles to a more customer-friendly policy that would result from modifying the above to "upgrade you before or after takeoff"?
Moving someone from coach to FC after reaching cruising altitude obviously will not delay departure or arrival.
The time required to do so would be small compared to the time the FAs require to configure the beverage carts before they move them into the aisles, so there would not be a great delay in service.
What would be the downside to a common-sense policy change that could serve to protect the perceived value of the FC UG benefit?
Give the FAs a list and empower them to do the sensible thing.
BTW... the explicit wording of the policy supports a practice that I have observed... "if you have already boarded but are the next Medallion Member on the upgrade list..."
This legitimizes what I have seen... the GA asks one person if they want to move up and, if the pax demurs, the GA does not go to the 2nd person on the list.
"Plus, through the coordination of our gate agents and flight attendants, if you have already boarded but are the next Medallion Member on the upgrade list when an upgrade becomes available, we will do our very best to upgrade you before takeoff, when possible."
Can anyone point to commonly encountered obstacles to a more customer-friendly policy that would result from modifying the above to "upgrade you before or after takeoff"?
Moving someone from coach to FC after reaching cruising altitude obviously will not delay departure or arrival.
The time required to do so would be small compared to the time the FAs require to configure the beverage carts before they move them into the aisles, so there would not be a great delay in service.
What would be the downside to a common-sense policy change that could serve to protect the perceived value of the FC UG benefit?
Give the FAs a list and empower them to do the sensible thing.
BTW... the explicit wording of the policy supports a practice that I have observed... "if you have already boarded but are the next Medallion Member on the upgrade list..."
This legitimizes what I have seen... the GA asks one person if they want to move up and, if the pax demurs, the GA does not go to the 2nd person on the list.
Mar 11, 2018, 8:25 pm
#11
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It is also possible that there as an issue with those two seats. Were they two seats together or in different places? I have seen a row of seats blocked off when there has been a cleaning issue that was managed to enough of a level to allow the flight to take off, but the specific seats required deep cleaning before they could be used again by pax.
Mar 11, 2018, 8:48 pm
#12
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It is also possible that there as an issue with those two seats. Were they two seats together or in different places? I have seen a row of seats blocked off when there has been a cleaning issue that was managed to enough of a level to allow the flight to take off, but the specific seats required deep cleaning before they could be used again by pax.
Perhaps the FAMs have been reading FT and decided that the grass was greener over at AA.
