A recent potentially bad experience could have been a major problem. For those that fly frequently, this may not be news… for those infrequent flyers like ourselves it seemed unbelievable. We booked our flights (roundtrip) 4 months in advance through Expedia on Continental / United Airlines. The flight was was changed several times by the airline during the 4 months. The outgoing flight was just as planned… the return flight… or should I say, trying to get on the return flight was extremely stressful. Apparently the airline has a standard practice of overbooking flights… selling more tickets than are actually available. This by it’s self is unbelievable to me… why would you sell more tickets than you have seats. As explained, this is a standard practice to make sure the plane is fully occupied. It was further explained that not everyone shows up all the time. We got caught up in this mess on a day when everyone showed up. Even though we booked our flight 4 months in advance… no doubt in advance of many others that booked that flight… and we got to the airport to check in 2 hours early… we were involuntarily placed on a “standby status”. This was not how we booked the flight… we had confirmed reservations for that flight… and nothing was said about the possibility of this until we went to get our boarding passes. When I repeatedly asked how they determined who, of the confirmed reservations, is going to chosen to be involuntarily placed on “standby status”, they would not give a answer… only to say we’ll call you “if” we can get you a seat. The only way we were going to get on that flight was if some people either didn’t show up or voluntarily gave up their seats in favor of a later flight. To me this was unbelievable and unacceptable. To add insult to injury, it was oblivious what determined who was going to get on the flight. First consideration for being on the flight was given to three different Continental Flyer Clubs… something like “The Presidents Club”, “Blue Star Flyers” and “Frequent Flyers” ( the names are probably not accurate, but you get the picture). The next consideration was given to those that booked directly through Continental / United. The last consideration was to “Economy Class” booked via Expedia. Then, the next consideration was for those that needed to make a connecting flight (we were not in this category). The flight was overbooked by at least 9 people… and surely more. Luckily we did get on the flight at the last minute, but could have been left in the airport until the next flight on which we had the same status as “standby'”… and this would happen all over again. No doubt this is a practice of long time standing, and unless you fly enough to experience it, you would never know about it until it affected you. I heard it said years ago… an old saying… “Is this anyway to run an airline?”… just never knew what it pertained to or that it would effect me. Apparently a clue to this possibly of this happening to you is whether or not your conformation has an assigned seat number… but this is something that was never explained anywhere. So it’s flyer beware. It all worked out, but it could have been a real problem. I guess the question to ask the airline in advance… Do I have a 100% guarantee of being on the fight that you book? … and why not? Social status… “First Class” or “Club Member” trumps economy… nothing like the feeling of being a third class consideration regardless of the time you book in advance or the price you pay… wouldn’t be so bad if they gave you a warning of their practices in advance, and the situation you are in. Just a little warning… so you perhaps don’t get caught in the same situation… needlessly stranded in the airport… left to the whims of the airline as a third class citizen.
