Get your seat booked!!

[John H]

Just seen this on the Torre forum;

On th 25th Lesley went to fly back to England to see her new born grandchild who had arrived earlier than expected, we booked her on the first available flight which was Easy jet flight £160 ouch! when booking we usually buy a seat for speed of check in but the system would not allow us to do this and just said go to baggage drop! I dropped her at the airport and arrived back only to get a call saying she may not be able to fly as the flight was overbooked and three people were waiting to see if they could fly, they were told to go to the gate and wait until boarding to see if they could have a seat no explanation was given at this stage, once boarding was complete all three were told that they could not fly and a manger would speak to them, when they got to see the manager they all protested the other two passengers had booked flights at least two months earlier! Lesley asked as they had computerised systems surely they should not be able to overbook she was amazed at the response she was told this was common practice as if some people do not fly they can fill the seats!! they offered her a flight to a different airport 10 hours later or was told the next available would be Saturday 28th she just could not believe it and told them she wanted a refund and would fly with another airline they gave her a leaflet and told her she would have to put in a claim for a refund!! I collected her from the airport returned back and booked on the next available flight and she is now with her grandchild. The moral of the story is if you don't book a seat you can be left high and dry. this is the first we have had this happen in many years of flying but apparently it is commonplace. BE WARNED. http://www.which.co.uk/news/2013/08/air ... d--331108/

Regards all

John

[BeachLife]

First time I have heard of this on the "lo-co" airlines. When I used to travel a lot more than I do now with the bigger "flag carrier" airlines to The US and Japan it was common practice to overbook. BUT the reason the was that many business travellers would buy "open" tickets which were freely transferable between flights, so if I was delayed in a extended meeting or needed to stay another day, there was no penalty.

However I don't see why that model applies to easyjet- their seats are all non refundable - they are in practice double selling the seats. Not good

As you say John, prebook your seat to be safe. But in this lady's case with a need to travel at short notice that might not always be possible


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[John H]

As you say Rich on flights like this it is very bad practise.
I must admit we always pay a few quid extra for priority boarding and reserved seats.......saves the mad rush and it means your hand luggage is above your seat and not the other end of the plane!!
It's getting to be good sport watching them trying to pack all the hand luggage into the lockers now a days!!

Regards all

John


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[granalacant]

my last flights have all been with normal airlines

Norwegian (very cheap, inflight internet even)
Lufthansa
Vueling

In all cases, flights full and no overbooking (anyone ever heard about the European fines and compensation?). In all cases, when I come with luggage the stewards or airhostesses come up to help you to put it in the overhead lockers and even in the luggage hold without any extra charge or comments.

The last flight out was with Lufthansa (and had some 60 kos with me - no extra charge): they just started laughing when I told them I had 4 tins of olive oil with me to explain the extra weight.

Low cost - I think you mean low service airlines.

Come on, still remember discussing with some you CAN take an extra bag with airport bought cigarettes. Stopped when I asked them to call the Guardia Civil.

Know your rights ...

[Joe1965]

Never heard or seen this happen although I'm sure it does for many airlines occasionally.

I can't fault low cost airlines like Easyjet , Ryanair because simply if you read their conditions and know how they operate then there is no problem.

In the next month I will be taking 4 flights to various destinations - 3 with Ryanair and one with Easyjet and am confident that each one will be fine.

I don't do the speedy boarding thing and don't take much hand luggage -  it's not going to get you there any faster !