Delta - Yikes!

[mrcjab]

We flew Delta out of Orlando last Sunday. We had booked our tickets a long time ago, requested seats, confirmed a few days before we left, etc. When we got to the airport, we did the self-check-in and when it got to the part about seats, we noticed that there were only asteriks, no seats. Turns out, the plane was overbooked. Fortunately, we were really early and got right on line and were able to get seats. But, there were 35 people on stand-by! Is that normal? I know airlines often overbook but 35 seems like an awful lot of people to leave stranded. And in Atlanta, there were about 20 people on stand-by.
So, if you're flying out of Orlando on a Sunday late afternoon, be there early!
We flew Song down to Orlando and had no problems, and the plane was in a lot better condition and the flight attendants were super friendly!

 

[seashoreCM]

But you were not on standby, you had a reservation even though you did not have a seat assignment any more. Many of the standbys you saw may have really been standbys.

They have to ask for volunteers before kicking anybody off the plane. Based on my experience trying to volunteer, Delta's bumping people against their will is extremely rare.

Some airlines (not sure about Delta) when a flight is cancelled, all the people are automatically put onto another flight based on artificial intelligence by the computer. Then, as time permits, reservation staff tries to sort things out and move people around yet again to reduce overbooking. If you find out that your flight was cancelled, you should try to call the airline and nail down a new flight as soon as possible, or if you like the flight they automatically assigned you to, you should call and "accept" it and ask for seat assignments.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

As far as I recall, every Disney flight I took (about ten trips) I either tried to volunteer or tried to stand by on an earlier flight.

 

[mrcjab]

That makes more sense. The Delta person I spoke to made it seem like they had actually sold 35 extra tickets. I don't fly much (as you can probably tell) and I was totally taken aback by that. But the way you explain it makes more sense. They were asking if anyway wanted to stay over. We thought about it (because it came with a $400 travel voucher too!) but we both had to be at work the next day.
Thanks for the explanation!

 

[alexturner74]

The Delta flights between Atlanta and Orlando are routinely overbooked. However, I believe that the involuntary bumping is still a very rare occurrence on these flights.

 

[gallaj0]

I flew Song 2 weeks ago from Boston to MCO and then back to Boston last week, and both flights were severly oversold. For the flight down, a Delta rep called me at home a week before to try and get me to change flights to the next day; all flights for that day were already overbooked. They had stoped selling seats on that flight 2 months ago. I didn't jump, some people did, because the very next daym the flight was listed again, and they were selling more seats on it. I got to the airport 3 hours early, and sure enough, they were overbooked by at least 15 seats. They delayed the boarding trying to get people to take the vouchers, they were only offering $250, and a flight the next evening.
On the flight back, they were overbooked by 5-7 seats, and offered the same thing; $250 and a flight the next day.

 

[Vinnie The Pooh]

Was the $250 a travel voucher or actual cash?
Delta/ Song called us the other night to inform us that the flight numbers have changed for our BOS to MCO and return flights and oh by the way the return flight is now 3 hours earlier and sorry there is no direct flights later than that. We tried to get them to change us to the next day and give us some compensation for our extr nights hotel and rental car but they didn't bite. We purposely chose a 7:00 PM flight so we can still have a full day of WDW and leave after dinner but now we will be cut short. I am not even sure if I should use my passes for that last day.

 

[gallaj0]

The $250 was in vouchers, not cash. I'm surprised they still had your 7 PM flight this late in the game, almost all ofthe late flights back to Boston were cancelled back in May or June; this also cancelled the first flight to Orlando the next day, since that plane was the last flight in. Song never had any intention of keeping that plane in Logan overnight; it is the same plane scheduled to San Juan Puerto Rico, where it overnights adn then comes back to Orlando in the morning.
It seems Song keeps putting the early flight down and the late flight back on the schedlue to get people to buy the tickets, and then cancelling both flights and forcing people onto lousy flights nobody wants to travel on.

 

[Vinnie The Pooh]

We are considering taking advantage of the situation and staying another night if the Holiday Inn Family Suites has availability, and seeing if Song will book us on the 11:30 AM flight the next day. $73.00 for the hotel (including breakfast) and maybe $20.00 or so for the rental car extra day may be worth having that last full day.

 

[alexturner74]

Originally posted by gallaj0
It seems Song keeps putting the early flight down and the late flight back on the schedlue to get people to buy the tickets, and then cancelling both flights and forcing people onto lousy flights nobody wants to travel on.

Not true. Flights do not get added and taken away like that.

 

[gallaj0]

When Song first began booking there Boston to Orlando flights, the first flights down every day was at 7:35 AM. The last flight of the day back up left Orlando at 6:35 PM. they kept this schedule for about a month, oversold both flights on many days, espeecially Saturdays and Sundays, and then cancelled the filgths entirely, moving everyone onto a later flight down, and an earlier flight back.
According to Vinnie the Pooh, he was able to book the later flight back, then they cancelled it and put him on the earlier flight back, 3 hours earlier. That would have been the 6:35 PM cancelled and the 3:35 they put him on.
Airlines cancel flights all the time and put them back on the schedule if they think they can make some money off of it; if it doesn't pan out they just cancel it and move people to another flight. Do a little looking around at some of the other threads on the transportaion board before you make a statement like "flights do not get added and taken away like that"; because it does happen.

 

[alexturner74]

Originally posted by gallaj0
Airlines cancel flights all the time and put them back on the schedule if they think they can make some money off of it; if it doesn't pan out they just cancel it and move people to another flight. Do a little looking around at some of the other threads on the transportaion board before you make a statement like "flights do not get added and taken away like that"; because it does happen.

Please provide some proof of this. I read these boards all the time and haven't seen any evidence of what you're saying.

So the real question is, when did Vinnie the Pooh book the flight? I bet it was before they were discontinued.

Those flights were carryovers from before Song, and Delta decided to discontinue them long before Song ever started service. Yes, they did continue for a month or so after Song started flying out of Boston, but I'm pretty sure the 7:35 am flight out and 6:35 flight back haven't been back since they were first discontinued. I check everyonce in a while.

If there are people out there that can say they booked those flights over the last 30 days or so, for flights in the future, then I'll admit I'm wrong.

Yes, airlines try out different routes and flights, but they're typically over months at a time. The way you explain how things are done is just not true, or at least it doesn't apply in the case of the BOS-MCO flights. I stand by my statement as intended in response to your post.

 

[Vinnie The Pooh]

I did book the flight back in March prior to Song starting up. The flight we were booked on back to BOS was 7:00 PM and we have been changed to 4:25 PM (not quite 3 hours). We are just dissappointed because we had planned on a nice day at the WDW parks and a nice dinner at Epcot and then heading to the airport but it is not the end of the world either.

 

[cindy_k]

You need to becareful of Schedule changes too.
I've had it already where we were all booked with seats, 3 months out. At 1 month to go, Delta changed the Schedule slightly and this is the important part, the Size of the plane. It was now a smaller plane. So our nice near the front seats were now gone, because they wiped all seat assignments.

When I redid the seats we wound up mid plane. Not horrible, but our orig seats were better. If I hadn't been checking though, we would have had whatever seats were left over when we go to the airport.

Its a good idea to regularly check on your flight info at your airlines website.

 

[Vinnie The Pooh]

Song only has 757s so I don't think that will be a problem unless they try and bump us due to over-booking or something. The last 4 trips to WDW were always on tiny 737s which had little leg room. According to what I have read Song has increased the seat pitch a bit to allow a little more room that is one good aspect of the change for me personally.

 

[alexturner74]

Yes, the pitch of the seats on Song is 2 inches more than on Delta Express.

 

[seashoreCM]

As far as I know: The evening flight Orlando to Boston and morning flight Boston to Orlando was discontinued effective somewhere around early July when service at those times from ORlando to San Juan began. The announcement and reschedulings of passengers was made somewhere around April or so, with no re-institutions or subsequent re-deletions made. For travel prior to the date Orlando to San Juan service began, Boston passengers were unaffected.

Next trip planned: November 2003 from Boston via Song, staying at All Star Music.