Speculative bookings with "some" intent to fly
Mar 27, 2022, 11:51 am
#16
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Blue Ridge, GA
Posts: 5,511
An airline "determines its own fair boarding priorities." No recourse if forcibly removed from a flight, even for "having an offensive odor that is not caused by a disability or illness."
Mar 27, 2022, 12:05 pm
#17
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 311
Thanks, That is interesting. Especially that 4+ hours is the highest category. So, for example, 4 hour delay is treated the same as 44 hour delay!
I am not a very frequent WN flyer, but I recall only once seeing WN overbooked and seeking volunteers. It was about 5 months ago on a Friday evening flight leaving IND. What caught my attention was they were seeking only one volunteer and offered $1000 voucher, to take a flight the following morning. (They VERY quickly got that volunteer, and I suspect would have even if they had begun the bidding at $500).
I wonder how often the "passenger smells bad but not because of a disability/illness" thing is enforced. I could imagine someone who smells bad because they do not wash/shower properly -- but that is attributable in whole or in part to a mental illness. I guess that is the sort of thing that keeps lawyers employed...
I am not a very frequent WN flyer, but I recall only once seeing WN overbooked and seeking volunteers. It was about 5 months ago on a Friday evening flight leaving IND. What caught my attention was they were seeking only one volunteer and offered $1000 voucher, to take a flight the following morning. (They VERY quickly got that volunteer, and I suspect would have even if they had begun the bidding at $500).
I wonder how often the "passenger smells bad but not because of a disability/illness" thing is enforced. I could imagine someone who smells bad because they do not wash/shower properly -- but that is attributable in whole or in part to a mental illness. I guess that is the sort of thing that keeps lawyers employed...
Last edited by Chamor; Mar 27, 2022 at 12:29 pm
Mar 27, 2022, 3:22 pm
#18
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: PIT, BWI, or IPT
Programs: Dividend Miles, WorldPerks
Posts: 1,302
And overweight, weather, over sold (yes still happens on WN, not sure how, but I have benefited). My VDBs have actually gone up on WN since they "stopped overselling" flights.
Last edited by ftnoob; Mar 28, 2022 at 7:05 am Reason: Clean up
Mar 27, 2022, 9:46 pm
#19
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: California
Posts: 1,129
There have been some cases where airlines have gone after people who make speculative bookings in order to try to obtain bump vouchers. Basically, they would book fuller, more popular flights and hope they end up overbooked and then jump to the head of the queue at the gate for a bump voucher if they needed volunteers. However, generally they would book fully refundable fares and just refund them before actually taking a flight (whether or not they came away with any vouchers). So as long as you are not routinely claiming bump vouchers for speculatively booked flights, I don't see this as generating any red flags. I suspect this tactic would not be very successful today as airlines don't seem to intentionally overbook after Dr. Dao incident.
There is also the story of a customer who booked refundable tickets for the sole purpose of eating and drinking for free at the lounge with no intent to actually fly. I don't remember which airline or any other detail, but I read about it a couple of years ago.
Mar 28, 2022, 2:02 pm
#20
Join Date: May 2002
Programs: WN F9 HA UA AA IHG HH MR
Posts: 3,305
There were pax who would position themselves in LAS on a Sunday afternoon with a handful of tickets to various cities, knowing that these were the most oversold airplanes in the system.
Mar 28, 2022, 3:20 pm
#21
Join Date: Mar 2021
Posts: 402
The closest I can get to gaming the system these days -- since Southwest closed most of their 30-day rebooking loopholes -- is speculatively booking the most harebrained route I can find with 2 connections within 14 days of my desired trip, and hoping something changes in the system to trigger a rebooking (heck, even a tail number change will do it!).