Flight capacity status
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 209
Flight capacity status
is there a way to check how many people are on your flight? if its overbooked or not?
#2
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: Marriott Titanium
Posts: 2,861
Only guesses based on data, usually not very good:
Seatmaps - A TERRIBLE way to do it, because you can have people with unassigned seats and have no clue. Also, because some airlines block seats until day of flight.
Availability - This is a better way, because you know how many of what fare bucket an airline is willing to sell... BUT, you can't tell if the airline is overselling or not.
Also, there is a fair amount of churn or flux on day of flight, due to customer decisions, weather, missed connections, and a TON of other issues. If the airlines themselves could predict accurately, there would never be an oversold situation. But they can't. And neither can you. And you are at a HUGE disadvantage over the airlines, since your data is limited and your experience base is limited.
When you fly the same route all the time on the same airline, you can use Availability to make some pretty intelligent guesses, but they are still GUESSES.
Seatmaps - A TERRIBLE way to do it, because you can have people with unassigned seats and have no clue. Also, because some airlines block seats until day of flight.
Availability - This is a better way, because you know how many of what fare bucket an airline is willing to sell... BUT, you can't tell if the airline is overselling or not.
Also, there is a fair amount of churn or flux on day of flight, due to customer decisions, weather, missed connections, and a TON of other issues. If the airlines themselves could predict accurately, there would never be an oversold situation. But they can't. And neither can you. And you are at a HUGE disadvantage over the airlines, since your data is limited and your experience base is limited.
When you fly the same route all the time on the same airline, you can use Availability to make some pretty intelligent guesses, but they are still GUESSES.
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist




Join Date: May 1998
Location: Massachusetts, USA; AA 2.996MM & Plat Pro, DL 1MM, GM & Flying Colonel
Posts: 25,034
You can call the airline and ask. In my experience with AA, the EXP desk has been happy to tell me. (I've asked for all sorts of reasons: upgrading, bumps, chances of the seat next to me staying empty...) I don't know if the folks who answer general phone numbers would be equally willing to check, and it may not be worth your time on hold to find out, but it's not confidential.
#4
Join Date: May 2001
Location: is everything...but...
Programs: dont matter anymore...
Posts: 3,019
There's already some good suggestions here, and as this has nothing to do with miles or points, I'm going to close it.
Regards,
Flipside
Regards,
Flipside

