Renard

I flew iah-den-hnl on Friday.... flight had been zeroed out for several weeks. Nothing on either iah-den or den-hnl. Both flights went out full but no called for volunteers. I would have thought about it if the price was right but wasn't interested if it was only the typical 'free domestic 48' thing Overall it was a disappointment just 24 hrs earlier on the iah-den...at least as far as VDBs went.

TA

I suppose that if most people are traveling to HNL on restricted fares for spring break, then UA might not need to overbook so much. On the other hand, if this crowd has been drinking heavily to start the weekend already, UA might be able to sell lots of extra seats of the no-shows!

On a different note, I still think that the legislated IDB compensation should be increased (which is well overdue considering CPI increases), so that airlines have a stronger interest in either getting the passenger load forecast right, offering higher and higher VDBs until enough takers who don't mind being delayed, or feel the sting of having to pay up cash for people's inconvenience.

ps. this Friday is all red for SFO/LAX/DEN/ORD to HNL/KOA/OGG/LIH. The flights are absolutely booked solid.

jason8612

Wirelessly posted (Blackberry 8800: Opera/9.50 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.0.10031/286; U; en))

And my lhr-ord flight today (ba) is 9'd in all classes. shame.
Not as good as my vdb last christmas when a 757 sfo-ord was oversold a good 30+ (equip swap). The possibilities to get good comp was possible.

J.Edward

I went back and looked at the eticket itinerary and it looks like UA had previously assigned a 733 to the route, so they might have done an equipment swap.

But still that plane, regardless of the model, RON'd at IAH before it became the flight to DEN, so even if UA subbed it at the last minute they still had a good 9+ hours to start grabbing the few seats left from CO, DL, and F9.

As for myself I had booked two tickets for my trip on two dates so I had an easy alternative to fall back on should UA decide they needed to start bumping folks.

PDXPremier

I'm a high school teacher...our spring break here in Oregon is the last week of March...and when I say "our", I think I'm talking about the entire state...if you are flying out of PDX this Saturday you can almost guarantee getting a VDB if you want it...no matter where you are flying to....in my opinion, it's busier than the Thanksgiving rush...I had better luck booking flights mid-week (Tues./Wed.) when some less expensive L fares were still available...

kingalien

LAX-SEA today, GA says "heavily oversold" but only offering free tix. Needless to say I took my flight.

prismwiz

intresting. SEA and surronding communities get off the second week in April (7-12). Not Easter, not Passover, not anything.

ChinaShrek

For Maine and Massachusetts elementary and secondary schools, spring break is always the week beginning with Patriot's Day in April. Lots of IDBs out of PWM that week.

Rosebud9802

I live on the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin (close to MSP) and all of the schools, including the colleges in my area all began spring break on Sat. March. 15 and will go back on Mon. March 24th. My family and I are flying out tomorrow from MSP-ORD-IAD-FRA-VIE. It will be interesting to see what the load factors are, especially because we are coming back on Easter Sunday. However, I am not sure about the weather for tomorrow, it sounds like there is a snow storm coming.

chrisw

757 DEN-BWI Sunday night was oversold by 20. I think they took 12 or so VDBs, and no one was IDBed.

The agent was happy to do travel credits in lieu of the DBCFREE ticket, and he gave me $600(!) for the overnight bump. I asked for (and got) a reroute DEN-SFO-(overnight with college friend)-IAD, with SFO-IAD in 3-class F .

The next day the 767 SFO-IAD was swapped to a 757 (another thread on that), producing another VDB for $300 in travel credits. In the end I got to BWI 23 hours late, with $900 in travel credits, 3600 extra EQMs, and a chance to have dinner and lunch with my friend in SFO. Not bad, if you ask me.

harold

What do they do with your checked bags if you agree to bump overnight? I almost always carry my bag on so I never had to think about it before. But this weekend I'm traveling with the entire family so there will be bags in the hold. Do they pull them and send them down to baggage claim or do you catch up with them at your destination the next day?

chrisw

Domestically, your bags go on your original flight. Internationally, I've had my bags pulled and placed on my flight the next day. Either way, you don't have access to your checked bags overnight.

Ironically, this trip was the first time in forever that I've checked by rollaboard. I was checking skis anyway, so I decided I'd rather not lug the rollaboard around during my connection.

Lightman7

My FRA-SFO yesterday was showing 9s, but economy was oversold and they ended up op-uping people (me included )

PDXPremier

I've flown a zillion times, sometimes on over-booked flights, and never once have I seen them IDBed anyone....unless I am going to a wedding or funeral or job interview, they can drag me off the plane with a free ticket (DBC) or travel credits....I'd even take an extra set of 4 e500s....I'm usually not THAT pressed for time....I CAN be bought and obviously so do a lot of other people based on the fact that all of my denied boarding experiences have been voluntary...

UCBeau

were you on UA900? my mom was on that flight and said Y looked completely full and C only had 2 open seats.