Woman bumped from flight, misses 10K dream cruise (2 Viewers)

[Sun Wukong]

Why expect them to do what they're supposed to do?

Because they so frequently don't.

It's idealism versus realism. Yeah, ideally they should hold up their end of the bargain. In the real world they don't. Flights get cancelled, people get bumped, etc. You can't operate on the ideal. You have to operate knowing that they suck and botch things every day.

 

[saintmdterps]

Because they so frequently don't.

It's idealism versus realism. Yeah, ideally they should hold up their end of the bargain. In the real world they don't. Flights get cancelled, people get bumped, etc. You can't operate on the ideal. You have to operate knowing that they suck and botch things every day.

That's a piss-poor way to run a railroad. What happened to accountability?

 

[LOONEY]

And what ever happened to getting more then one bag of peanuts on the flight?

 

[saintmdterps]

And what ever happened to getting more then one bag of peanuts on the flight?

Well, see, now there ya go, wanting the sun, moon, and stars.

 

[soggymoss]

That's right!! It's completely foolish to expect an airline to hold up it's end of the bargain. Travelers should always foot the bill for an extra night in a motel because the airline will screw up. Why expect them to do what they're supposed to do?

When you purchase a ticket, it's not guaranteed you will get there at the time stated on the ticket. It just guarantees that you will get there. It's completely foolish for people like you to think that an airline should lose money on 4+ seats every flight, just in case they need those seats for special circumstances.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

When you purchase a ticket, it's not guaranteed you will get there at the time stated on the ticket. It just guarantees that you will get there. It's completely foolish for people like you to think that an airline should lose money on 4+ seats every flight, just in case they need those seats for special circumstances.

So the airlines don't provide ETAs and don't include ontime arrivals as one of the metrics of their success?

 

[soggymoss]

So the airlines don't provide ETAs and don't include ontime arrivals as one of the metrics of their success?

It's a measure of success, basically goals they set, just like every other company out there does.

Let's use some numbers from united for 2016:
143 million passengers
~ 131,000 passengers bumped (129,825 voluntarily, 1,238 non voluntarily)

So you literally have less than a .001% chance of being asked to
give up your seat due to an overbooking, and less than .00001% chance of being forced off your flight. I would say that's a pretty damn good percentage to be at. Nobody in their right mind should expect them to be at 100%.

I used United because they bumped at a higher rate than any other airline.

How often United, other airlines bump travelers from flights

Now let's say they vacate 5 seats per plane to use as a just in case they need them.

4,496 daily flights (again using united)
5 seats per flight = 22,480 unsold seats per day

I'm sure it's way more, but just say average cost of those tickets are $100. Thats $2,248,000 per day that company is losing because someone like you is up in arms about 0.001% of fliers needing to be inconvienced. Would you accept losing that much money just because it may inconvenience 1 out of every 1,000 of your customers? No sane businessman in this world would.

http://newsroom.united.com/corporate-fact-sheet

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

It's a measure of success, basically goals they set, just like every other company out there does.

Let's use some numbers from united for 2016:
143 million passengers
~ 131,000 passengers bumped (129,825 voluntarily, 1,238 non voluntarily)

So you literally have less than a .001% chance of being asked to
give up your seat due to an overbooking, and less than .00001% chance of being forced off your flight. I would say that's a pretty damn good percentage to be at. Nobody in their right mind should expect them to be at 100%.

I used United because they bumped at a higher rate than any other airline.

How often United, other airlines bump travelers from flights

Now let's say they vacate 5 seats per plane to use as a just in case they need them.

4,496 daily flights (again using united)
5 seats per flight = 22,480 unsold seats per day

I'm sure it's way more, but just say average cost of those tickets are $100. Thats $2,248,000 per day that company is losing because someone like you is up in arms about 0.001% of fliers needing to be inconvienced. Would you accept losing that much money just because it may inconvenience 1 out of every 1,000 of your customers? No sane businessman in this world would.

United - Newsroom - Corporate Fact Sheet

which is all fine and good - the problem comes when you and BHM and the others who take up for corporations over people (even though you are one) is that you deride the woman for being upset
she's super excited about her trip, gets to the gate, gets screwed, gets super sad - how should she respond to her corporate overlords? she should thank them for taking her money and not supplying the service they implied?
it's absurd

 

[soggymoss]

which is all fine and good - the problem comes when you and BHM and the others who take up for corporations over people (even though you are one) is that you deride the woman for being upset
she's super excited about her trip, gets to the gate, gets screwed, gets super sad - how should she respond to her corporate overlords? she should thank them for taking her money and not supplying the service they implied?
it's absurd

Did they get her there? Then they provided the service they implied. Yes it is her fault for not planning ahead and allowing for unforseen circumstances. If her flight would've gotten cancelled due to a mechanical failure (which is far more likely to happen) , then she would still be upset and late for her poorly planned "dream vacation".

In short, could it be better? Sure it can always be better, unless you have a 100% satisfaction success rate (which is unattainable, you will always have unsatisfied customers no matter what).

 

[Krodwhodat]

Typically people travelling international or doing something time sensitive like a cruise are made a priority. This sounds like poor planning on the part of the gate agent. I know we have intentionally delayed flights to accommodate late arriving connecting passengers for such an issue.

Say what you what about United but they have held flights for me before on close connections. It pays to be a frequent flyer


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Did they get her there? Then they provided the service they implied. Yes it is her fault for not planning ahead and allowing for unforseen circumstances. If her flight would've gotten cancelled due to a mechanical failure (which is far more likely to happen) , then she would still be upset and late for her poorly planned "dream vacation".

In short, could it be better? Sure it can always be better, unless you have a 100% satisfaction success rate (which is unattainable, you will always have unsatisfied customers no matter what).

"Planning for unforeseen circumstances "?!?
This is the corporate equivalent of "look at the way she was dressed" or "comply"
Quit victim blaming

 

[saintmdterps]

When you purchase a ticket, it's not guaranteed you will get there at the time stated on the ticket. It just guarantees that you will get there. It's completely foolish for people like you to think that an airline should lose money on 4+ seats every flight, just in case they need those seats for special circumstances.

The premise that somehow or other the airline is not obligated to get passengers there on time may be on of the more inane ideas I've heard lately and, given the current White House administration, this is quite an accomplishment.

I guess I had no idea we were living in 1920s Italy.

 

[saintmdterps]

It's a measure of success, basically goals they set, just like every other company out there does.

Let's use some numbers from united for 2016:
143 million passengers
~ 131,000 passengers bumped (129,825 voluntarily, 1,238 non voluntarily)

So you literally have less than a .001% chance of being asked to
give up your seat due to an overbooking, and less than .00001% chance of being forced off your flight. I would say that's a pretty damn good percentage to be at. Nobody in their right mind should expect them to be at 100%.

I used United because they bumped at a higher rate than any other airline.

How often United, other airlines bump travelers from flights

Now let's say they vacate 5 seats per plane to use as a just in case they need them.

4,496 daily flights (again using united)
5 seats per flight = 22,480 unsold seats per day

I'm sure it's way more, but just say average cost of those tickets are $100. Thats $2,248,000 per day that company is losing because someone like you is up in arms about 0.001% of fliers needing to be inconvienced. Would you accept losing that much money just because it may inconvenience 1 out of every 1,000 of your customers? No sane businessman in this world would.

United - Newsroom - Corporate Fact Sheet

When you purchase a ticket, it's not guaranteed you will get there at the time stated on the ticket. It just guarantees that you will get there. It's completely foolish for people like you to think that an airline should lose money on 4+ seats every flight, just in case they need those seats for special circumstances.

Well damn Guido, it's "us people" who are completely mucking it up for the multi-billion dollar airline industry. How dare we expect compensation when the airline makes a mistake, overbooks, and we miss our vacation which we have planned for over a year. Shame on us.

He called us "you people"

 

[soggymoss]

The premise that somehow or other the airline is not obligated to get passengers there on time may be on of the more inane ideas I've heard lately and, given the current White House administration, this is quite an accomplishment.

I guess I had no idea we were living in 1920s Italy.

Airline give you an ETA (ESTIMATED time of arrival). It's not a guaranteed arrival, and there is nowhere you will see that they guarantee you will arrive at that time. As I asked earlier, would you take a road trip that is exactly 14 hours long without any traffic etc (perfect circumstances), and leave exactly 14 hours ahead of time, or would you plan ahead and give yourself extra time for unforseen circumstances?

As far as your comment about being compensated, the airlines do compensate people when they have to bump you, or of your flight gets delayed/cancelled.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I guess I had no idea we were living in 1920s Italy.

it's funny, as we were having this conversation, i was thinking of touring Italy in the early 90s - i probably went in and out of Italian airports maybe 20+ times in a 3 year span and one of my favorite things was looking up at the arrival/departure board and there was a column that said "scheduled time of departure" and another that said "probable time of departure"
these 2 times were often hours apart
now, i loved Italy and it's languid inefficiency, but it was clear that this was no business model that anyone wanted to emulate