Gotta love overbooked flights! feel good story

[Sue (mom of 3 boys!)]

I'll bet that if you ask that family with the 2 little girls if it was indeed Disney magic caused by the OP's family, they would say yes.
What a great story.

 

[donnaf516]

I'll bet that if you ask that family with the 2 little girls if it was indeed Disney magic caused by the OP's family, they would say yes.
What a great story.

 

[DaniB]

I'm sorry, I agree this was not Disney magic (at least not intentional). Were the OP's family members told BEFORE they agreed to be bumped about the family's situation? Or were they simply told "we need volunteers to take a later flight"? Did the "standby" families situation factor into the decision at all, or was it discovered AFTER the decision was made?

I'll bet that if you ask that family with the 2 little girls if it was indeed Disney magic caused by the OP's family, they would say yes.
What a great story.

Magic often happens, without the person who created it, even knowing it! It does NOT have to be intentional.

All through your life, the choices you make, things you say, ect., affect everyone around you. You can NEVER truly know the ripple the spreads out and touches people all around you.

In this case, the OP's family was lucky to discover the first ripple of their decision. A young family on their first Disney trip being able to have seats on their flight after all. Who knows how the ripple spreads after that? Having been touched by pixie dust, this family is likely spreading more of their own.

And I totally agree that the airlines are at fault for overbooking flights in the first place. No offense to the OP, but with her family booking that late - they shouldn't have been able to get seats since the flight was filled already.

 

[PHXscuba]

DD11 and I were flying home from a short weekend trip a couple weeks ago and almost got voluntarily bumped. I would have totally sat around the airport for an extra three hours for $700 in flight credit, especially since I will likely be giving the same airline a lot of $$$ for 6 tickets to WDW this fall! They didn't end up needing to bump us and I was a little disappointed that I had gotten all excited.

PHXscuba

 

[LeslieG]

I read a similar story in, I think Reader's Digest? Anyhow, here's the story, as close as I can remember: the last one to board a particular flight was a young man, and he was going to have to be bumped, because there were no volunteers, and the logic was, last one on, first one bumped. When he heard that, he gasped and started sobbing into his hands.

He explained quietly to the flight attendant that he was trying to get home for a short military leave. As it was, he'd only have something like 12 hours with his family, and now it would be down to 8 hours.

The attendant explained the situation to the cabin, and then asked again for a volunteer to be bumped, or else the soldier would be.

Everyone in the cabin raised their hand.

duffy, I love your kitten story. It also makes me crazy when people want to add apostrophe s to make a word plural. What's so hard about that rule????!!!!

 

[duffy]

duffy, I love your kitten story. It also makes me crazy when people want to add apostrophe s to make a word plural. What's so hard about that rule????!!!!

I' kno'w!

 

[hannah_03]

Awwwww

 

[Sølvi]

That was so nice of them.

 

[funcinderella]

Thanks to all of the positive comments. Agreed, they did not know who would be taking their seats before they got off the plane. I'm not saying it was a solely altruistic act. But, it still felt good to them to SEE the people that were now able to fly; icing on the cake! Our family goes to Disney all of the time, so losing a few hours wasn't a big deal.

To the poster who mentioned they shouldn't have been able to get seats that late, I totally agree. But it's not like they knew that it was overbooked when they picked their seats. (We usually fly Jetblue, and I don't think we've ever been on an oversold flight with them, so we just don't have that much experience with that. We see a seat available, we take it.) But that is definitely the airline's fault for overbooking.

As one person mentioned, it does sound like an idea to book during spring break and just allow yourself to keep getting bumped for free flights! lol

Love the other feel good (and truly altruistic) stories! It restores your faith in humankind!

 

[cm8]

Thanks to all of the positive comments. Agreed, they did not know who would be taking their seats before they got off the plane. I'm not saying it was a solely altruistic act. But, it still felt good to them to SEE the people that were now able to fly; icing on the cake! Our family goes to Disney all of the time, so losing a few hours wasn't a big deal.

To the poster who mentioned they shouldn't have been able to get seats that late, I totally agree. But it's not like they knew that it was overbooked when they picked their seats. (We usually fly Jetblue, and I don't think we've ever been on an oversold flight with them, so we just don't have that much experience with that. We see a seat available, we take it.) But that is definitely the airline's fault for overbooking.

As one person mentioned, it does sound like an idea to book during spring break and just allow yourself to keep getting bumped for free flights! lol

Love the other feel good (and truly altruistic) stories! It restores your faith in humankind!