Do they overbook B&S Routes??

I know this might sound a bit strange but we are now booked on VS76 instead of the cancelled VS74, and according to expert flyer the flight is almost full. What is the chances of that flight being over booked?? Do you think they would do this on a B&S route??

I ask as fancy staying another night if possible!! Is it worth turning up to check in at the last minute possible??

Turning up last minute for the homeward flight would be very risky in my opinion, thats the one time your more likely to be moved, split up, bumped etc with Gold Card businessmen wanting to get to England.

Take advantage of downtown Disney and get checked in, ground staff stateside are not quite as sweet and bubbly as this side of the pond
when it comes to last minute requests.

Originally posted by easygoingeezer
Turning up last minute for the homeward flight would be very risky in my opinion, thats the one time your more likely to be moved, split up, bumped etc with Gold Card businessmen wanting to get to England.

Take advantage of downtown Disney and get checked in, ground staff stateside are not quite as sweet and bubbly as this side of the pond
when it comes to last minute requests.

We have used DTD before but spend the majority of our holiday in Clearwater Beach so tend to just drive over fairly late and get more time there rather than getting up early to get back to Orlando to use DTD.

I know it sounds daft but quite fancied idea of getting "bumped" pardoning the expression! [:I] and travelling back next day if possible.

Originally posted by Boyle73
I know this might sound a bit strange but we are now booked on VS76 instead of the cancelled VS74, and according to expert flyer the flight is almost full. What is the chances of that flight being over booked?? Do you think they would do this on a B&S route??

I ask as fancy staying another night if possible!! Is it worth turning up to check in at the last minute possible??

In all my years of travelling to Florida with VS I've never had it happen.

Having said that I did get 'OP Upped' from PE to Upper in November 2004 when they combined the 2 Orlando flights on a slow day.

This was in J2000 days when there were more UC seats to Orlando.

i have had three occaisions where they almost begged me to move seats be split up at the last minute, i was offered a bump but the problem was they don't want you to go another day they want you to go to Atlanta and fly out of there. When in Upper they said if I fly EC they will give me 40,000 airmiles if i go in Economy, I refused because at that time 40,000 was only enough for a return flight in Economy and if I liked flying that way I wouldn't have booked UC in the first place.

[HighFlyer]

Id be very careful about turning up late for a flight in an attempt to get a bump. You may well end up in a situation where your cabin is oversold and you actually end up being downgraded. Its just not worth playing ball. Your ticket clearly tells you how many hours early you need to be at check-in, and unless you are on a fare class that offers flexibility, VS do not have to bump you up or even accomodate you if you are late for check-in, status or no status.

All routes are frequently ovesold, not just B&S routes, and in the event that there are too many passengers, those turning up late to check-in will likely not have the picking of bumps and Select vouchers.

Just my $0.02 .. i wouldnt risk it for an extra day.

Originally posted by easygoingeezer
if I liked flying that way I wouldn't have booked UC in the first place.

Very true.

Sadly despite my day dreams of another day I hadn't thought of other possible ways they could send me home! The scenario of going via Atlanta doesn't sound particularly appealing.

Never mind thanks for your replies, I think we will find internet access somewhere and us OLCI to be on the safe side.

Originally posted by HighFlyer
Id be very careful about turning up late for a flight in an attempt to get a bump up. You may well end up in a situation where your cabin is oversold and you actually end up being downgraded. Its just not worth playing ball. Your ticket clearly tells you how many hours early you need to be at check-in, and unless you are on a fare class that offers flexibility, VS do not have to bump you up or even accomodate you if you are late for check-in, status or no status.

All routes are frequently ovesold, not just B&S routes, and in the event that there are too many passengers, those turning up late to check-in will likely not have the picking of bumps and Select vouchers.

Just my $0.02 .. i wouldnt risk it for an extra day.

Hi HighFlyer

I wouldn't risk turning up after check in was closed I was meaning turning up at the last point before check in closed.

It seemed a fairly good idea until I realised the alternatives so we won't be doing that!

Thanks again for your thoughts.

Am I missing something here (and I probably am as I only skim read these you know), but Boyle73 seemed to want to get bumped off the flight not bumped up. Now I would say if you are travelling as an individual or small group and you do not mind being split up as a worse case scenario, then yes, turn up last minute (but don't turn up after Check-In has closed) and take your chance. Also you can ask if they are looking for volunteers to stay behind. If all you want is an extra day in MCO (or wherever 76 comes from) then go for it. I have experienced once a few years back at MCO VS asking for volunteers to stay behind at the gate area. I nearly took up the offer, but needed to be back for an important meeting.

If you are not trying to manipulate an Op-Up then I see no harm.

Paul

[HighFlyer]

Paul,

Good point. Although i cant help wondering how uncooperative some check-in agents might be if you turned up late. Not sure what the official stance would be here. I guess if you are a Y passenger then there isnt a lot else to do but to stick on the next days flight.

However, if you are on a very restricted ticket i believe they are within their rights to charge you change fees or even a full new ticket as you did not turn up at the 3 hours prior to take off advice that you are given in your booking, so its not really the airlines duty to bust a gut to accomodate you.

You may be right about the change fees as I do not know for sure, but I would have thought that as long as you turn up before check-in closes you should be OK.

Alternatively turn up early and offer to be off-loaded if they are overbooked.

Paul

[Scrooge]

HighFlyer is righ,if you show up late be prepared to take out your wallet,unless you can come up with a good reason forbeing late you'll end up paying fee's to get home which is never a good thing.

you could always change your outgoing flight to the previous day,
wouldn't that be like adding a day on, lol

Originally posted by easygoingeezer
you could always change your outgoing flight to the previous day,
wouldn't that be like adding a day on, lol

hmmm, good idea (not!)

I think I haven't been particularly clear, I wouldn't turn up after check in has closed [V] That would be really stupid and yes I would expect to have to buy another ticket

I meant turning up say 45 minutes before check in closed to see if there was a chance of being bumped.

What I think we will do is use the online check in at our hotel and then travel over and offer when we arrive at the airport and see what happens.

Thanks again for your comments.

the best thing to do is to book flights that are heavily sold you can use expert flyer to find these and at checkin you can request a voluntary denial of boarding (you'll usually get a select voucher or 40 K miles)
That way you'll be bumped off first before they look for others

Another skim reader here - but surely if your turning up last / near end of queue - wouldnt matter as long as you were at airport within the allocated time? No?
Someone has to be last to checkin for all flights!
DowntownCheckin & OLCI obviously reduces some of the waiting time @ airport - but presumably if your at the airport within stated timeframes then an airline surely cant charge a change fee if you have to be moved flights... Otherwise it would be in all airlines interest to reduce the number of flights, have them all overbooked & then charge everyone at the back of the checkin queue because they werent there earlier to make the front of the queue!!
Did you check availability on next flights?? If you went with it, it could backfire & you might wind up being bumped 2 or 3 flights, if not rerouted.
Also, havent seen it mentioned before - but if you have got more flexible tickets - surely you could also phone up in advance & see if you can move the return back by 24hrs for no fee...

I went for the bump to later flight option last Oct., sadly they managed to squeeze us onto original booked seats @ last minute - guess they found someone further down the queue that offered to be bumped @ less cost to the airline (In my case it wouldve been usd$800 for me & the wife, which was 1/4 the total cost paid for the flights [}:)]

Hi,

I understand what you are trying to achieve here, and the best way of doing this would be to arrive early for checkin, offer to be bumped if they need to and then wait around to see what is offered. They may already know they they need to find x number of volunteers, but they will still make you wait around the airport until boarding in case of no shows, and you may be got on at the last minute!

Also please bear in mind that BA fly from MCO to London and I have heard of people being moved from BA to VS and vice versa with a connecting flight to MAN. Also 30 mins away is the lovely(!) Sanford Airport, home of most of the UK's charter carriers. A friend of mine traveled to MCO with BA a couple of years ago and was bumped on the return. He was put on a bus with about 30 others who all thought they were going to a hotel for the night. Just before they left a BA staffer got on and annouced that they had all been booked on a flight from Sanford and would be flying home from their with Airtours. Some of them were from London and they had to get BA connecting flights from MAN!

If the flights the next day are pretty full they will certainly want to get you home by other means rather than compounding tomorrows problem! And a flight the same day, via Sanford, Atlanta or even New York is possible they will do it to avoid hotel costs.

Anyway good luck whatever you choose and have a great holiday.

Neil.

Originally posted by Virgin Lover

have a great holiday.

Neil.

Will do! Thank you to all who have posted replies.[oo]
Lesley