Overbooked flight on United in June

[emerymt]

On our flight home in June, we're on a flight that I think will be oversold. I bought the tickets on-line and when I went to pick seats, there weren't enough on the plane to pick!

Here are my questions:
1. Has anyone been bumped by United? What did you get for it? Were they easy to work with? We might volunteer to get bumped if the deal is good enough. We did this with Delta and got a free roundtrip ticket to anywhere in the contiguous 48 states with no blackout dates. Since there are five of us, that was pretty sweet.

2. If we don't want to get bumped, we need to check-in early. Is there anywhere in or around Disney that we can find a computer & printer to check-in online?

 

[kaytieeldr]

Your flight is NOT oversold (not yet, anyway). It’s just that the number of seats designated for preassignment has been reached, and the remaining passengers will need to (a) get their seat assignments at the airport the day of the flight or (b) keep checking the website or calling UA, because it’s always possible other passengers will change their plans.
One tip: Exit row seats can generally not be assigned until the Gate Agent sees you and confirms that you are able and willing to assist in a (virtually non-existent) emergency. So, some seats will definitely open up as some passengers switch to those seats when they arrive at the gate.

 

[emerymt]

Yes, I quite agree, my flight is not oversold yet. I think it will be, though. Any thoughts on my particular questions? I'm not worried about getting seats.

 

[dudspizza]

Yes, I quite agree, my flight is not oversold yet. I think it will be, though. Any thoughts on my particular questions? I'm not worried about getting seats.

You have a good idea on compensation for getting bumped... depends on how desperate the gate agents are... the longer no one vols, the higher the price goes.

As for checking in, you have some options. Go to your hotel front desk if staying on site and have them do it. I go to the lobby concierge. I have also been at MK at my 24 hour mark. I simply took the monorail over to the Contemporary and used the computer in the business center. They did not charge me for the Internet time, just $1 per page to print my boarding passes. I was back to MK in an hour.. my family continued to play while I did this... very easy!

Duds

 

[emerymt]

Thanks! I assume there is a concierge at Old Key West? I really prefer online check-in since we usually have only rolling carry-on size luggage and can go straight to security, regardless of the capacity situation. I just never knew how to do it!

 

[bavaria]

United has the Economy Plus section and only elites can preselect seats there at time of booking. Also, the system blocks the middle seat so right now on my flights I am in 6c and 6b is 'blocked' ie nobody else can book it.

On the day of flight, those without seat assignments (ie you) will be told to check with the gate agent for a seat. You have some choices. If there are seats in E- at time of online check in, book those and request a seat change at the gate.

If there are no seats showing, you may be offered an 'upgrade' to E+ at time of check in, if there are seats avaible. At that point you will have to pay if you want the E+ seats.

If you choose not to pay, you will wait until the gate agent works the flight and about 30 minutes before departure you will be assigned a seat.

You could also pay $299 and have you and a guest seated in E+ for a year, so for a family of 4 it would be $598 for E+ access.

United does have a 'change seats' function on their online bookings, so continue to check that before your flight.

 

[bavaria]

One tip: Exit row seats can generally not be assigned until the Gate Agent sees you and confirms that you are able and willing to assist in a (virtually non-existent) emergency. So, some seats will definitely open up as some passengers switch to those seats when they arrive at the gate.

United does allow exit rows to be preselected - an online 'form' comes up and one has to accept the terms. But they are only offerd to elite members at time of booking. Chances are that there won't be any left when the OP goes to check in.

 

[bavaria]

Also, OP, this is very important - are you on a TED flight or mainline United? on TED there is only E+ and E-, so nowhere for elite to upgrade.

On mainline flights, elites use certificates or miles to upgrade, so sometimes seats will open up in E+ 72 hours/48 hours/and shortly before the flight.

There is a very slim chance that your flight is oversold at this early date. I have been on the standby lists for flights oversold as much as 32 pax and still made it on board.

 

[bavaria]

one last comment - United has become very good at forecasting noshows etc. I fly with them almost weekly and pretty much every seat is full, yet I have not been on a flight in over a year where they were looking for volunteers and actually bumped them (the oversold by 32 flight was ORD-IAD and they were looking for volunteers; nobody got bumped in the end)

 

[emerymt]

I'm not that worried about getting involuntarily bumped, I know the airlines are pretty good at estimating cancellations. But the flights I've been on over the last year have been oversold more than once- when we were in Hawaii they offered to put people up for two days until the next flight out! We'd have taken it but my husband had to work (though I thought about letting him go back alone ).

So we might volunteer to be bumped, though, depending on the compensation and how long to the next flight out (we do have to connect in Denver and there are a limited number of flights into our home airport that we can catch on the second leg of the trip). We volunteered to bump at LAX two years ago and were connected to a new second leg without a problem. That got us free roundtrip tickets, which, considering where we live, is a major bonus. Airfare here is really, really high.

This leg of the flight is Ted, which we have never flown before. I don't think paying to upgrade to E+ will get us seated all together, so I am not all that willing to pay for it unless it does.

 

[bavaria]

Again, I doubt that the flight is oversold at this point. Are they still selling tickets on that flight? that would be a better indicator. Also, on United it has 'flight info' when you go to book a ticket, and it will tell you how many seats are left in each fare bucket, so you can tell that way as well.

 

[emerymt]

Heh. Well it's a good thing that I went to check the seats today (there were three open seats in E- when I booked and I didn't take them). There's a message there fore me to call United as "There has been a schedule change." What's up with that?

 

[emerymt]

All right! They moved the flight back by 47 minutes and now our layover is shorter. That's great, I'm all for spending more time in WDW and less in DIA.
There are two seats left in E+ and they are still willing to sell five tickets.

Thanks for the help!

 

[emerymt]

I mean there are two seats left in E-. One less than when I booked them three days ago.

 

[bavaria]

glad that the schedule changed for you - hopefully you won't encounter any more by May. United normally does them seasonally