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Woman bumped from Air Canada flight misses $10,000 Galapagos cruise


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Guest toodle68

The fix is not to add cost to the traveler and for them to ensure they protect again this happening.. but for the laws to be changed so when we purchase a ticket, it means we actually get a seat and it can not be given to someone else. 

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24 minutes ago, toodle68 said:

The fix is not to add cost to the traveler and for them to ensure they protect again this happening.. but for the laws to be changed so when we purchase a ticket, it means we actually get a seat and it can not be given to someone else. 

This is but one example.  Bad weather, flat tires, airport closures and a variety of other unexpected issues could delay your travel plans.

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Guest toodle68

Yes.. but I was only commenting on that one example.  When we fly down depends on the cost of the cruise.  For a $10,000, you can bet we will be there the day before..  for a 3 day cruise out of Orlando, probably not.

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5 minutes ago, klaconqueso said:

Given that I have no choice but to fly in the day of my honeymoon that leaves the day after my wedding, I am going to choose not to read this article and hope that the honeymoon gods show their favor.

Living live on on the dangerous side! Hope it works out for you...but i would not take that chance, as I've seen too many people in the airports that have missed out on their cruises due to late arrivals, maintenance issues and weather. I prefer to book my flights for the first thing leaving the day prior and stay in a hotel. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.  Best of luck!

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12 minutes ago, klaconqueso said:

Given that I have no choice but to fly in the day of my honeymoon that leaves the day after my wedding, I am going to choose not to read this article and hope that the honeymoon gods show their favor.

I would think the best way to approach this would be to have an early flight ..... the chance of your flight being messed up by late flights earlier in the day decreases and the weather would most likely be better (vs. the normal afternoon thunderstorm) ---

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22 minutes ago, klaconqueso said:

Given that I have no choice but to fly in the day of my honeymoon that leaves the day after my wedding, I am going to choose not to read this article and hope that the honeymoon gods show their favor.

Or ensure that you have travel insurance to cover the cost of getting to the ship. Hopefully, your first cruise is Western as it's easier to catch the ship than on the Eastern itinerary. 

 

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6 minutes ago, DocLC said:

Or ensure that you have travel insurance to cover the cost of getting to the ship. Hopefully, your first cruise is Western as it's easier to catch the ship than on the Eastern itinerary. 

 

 

10 minutes ago, melski94 said:

This seems like another reason to buy trip insurance.

On my honeymoon almost 18 years ago, we flew down the same day as cruise...wedding was night before so no choice....took a 6 am flight out which was tough but we made it.  

 

15 minutes ago, coneyraven said:

I would think the best way to approach this would be to have an early flight ..... the chance of your flight being messed up by late flights earlier in the day decreases and the weather would most likely be better (vs. the normal afternoon thunderstorm) ---

 

19 minutes ago, mworkman said:

Living live on on the dangerous side! Hope it works out for you...but i would not take that chance, as I've seen too many people in the airports that have missed out on their cruises due to late arrivals, maintenance issues and weather. I prefer to book my flights for the first thing leaving the day prior and stay in a hotel. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.  Best of luck!

 

Yes - we DEFINITELY have trip insurance and a direct flight that leaves and 8 AM and should put us on the ground by 10:30 AM at FLL, which leaves us with a quick Uber ride to the port. 

We've flown in same day in the past and it's been fine, but given that our honeymoon is B2B and it's insured, our worst case scenarios put us at :

1) Fly in to Jamaica and meet the ship in Falmouth after staying there for a couple days or 

2) Spend a week in Fort Lauderdale on the beach and take our second week on the ship. 

Not ideal, but not exactly a vacation killer either. 

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Just now, klaconqueso said:

 

 

 

 

Yes - we DEFINITELY have trip insurance and a direct flight that leaves and 8 AM and should put us on the ground by 10:30 AM at FLL, which leaves us with a quick Uber ride to the port. 

We've flown in same day in the past and it's been fine, but given that our honeymoon is B2B and it's insured, our worst case scenarios put us at :

1) Fly in to Jamaica and meet the ship in Falmouth after staying there for a couple days or 

2) Spend a week in Fort Lauderdale on the beach and take our second week on the ship. 

Not ideal, but not exactly a vacation killer either. 

Given that it's in early October, the odds of a serious weather related problem are pretty low.  While there's always the chance of flgiht/mechanical issues, they don't actually occur that often.  It just seems that they do because it's only reported when something goes wrong, like on my flight AFTER the Allure in January.

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1 minute ago, DocLC said:

Given that it's in early October, the odds of a serious weather related problem are pretty low.  While there's always the chance of flgiht/mechanical issues, they don't actually occur that often.  It just seems that they do because it's only reported when something goes wrong, like on my flight AFTER the Allure in January.

Right, and even if there is a small delay, it wouldn't be immediate doom.

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I'm ok with airlines overbooking, but how about saying that on the ticket you purchase For example: "The flight you have purchased this ticket for is currently in an overbooked status.  Your ticket currently does not have a seat available.  Your are currently #x in overbooked standby queue.  In the event that a seat becomes available for you, we will notify you via e-mail, phone, text and/or by displaying your name on the Gate Information Display in the terminal.  If you are not able to be assigned a seat, then we will automatically rebook you on the next available flight to get you to your destination within 2 hours and compensate you by granting you $y.yy towards a future flight."

It's really not that difficult of a concept to me.

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4 hours ago, klaconqueso said:

Given that I have no choice but to fly in the day of my honeymoon that leaves the day after my wedding, I am going to choose not to read this article and hope that the honeymoon gods show their favor.

When my daughter got married in '07 (in Orlando) we sent them on Freedom from Miami for their honeymoon.  

We drove them down that morning and it all worked out... I was the only nervous one!

 

 

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9 hours ago, alamode123 said:

I agree. This was a sad story, but s**t happens, and you have to plan for the unexpected.

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10 hours ago, clmsnskr said:

I'm ok with airlines overbooking, but how about saying that on the ticket you purchase For example: "The flight you have purchased this ticket for is currently in an overbooked status.  Your ticket currently does not have a seat available.  Your are currently #x in overbooked standby queue.  In the event that a seat becomes available for you, we will notify you via e-mail, phone, text and/or by displaying your name on the Gate Information Display in the terminal.  If you are not able to be assigned a seat, then we will automatically rebook you on the next available flight to get you to your destination within 2 hours and compensate you by granting you $y.yy towards a future flight."

It's really not that difficult of a concept to me.

Most of your proposal sounds good, but it's not really how things work.  For instance, many destinations don't have another flight available within two hours.  Secondly, most of the time, flights are not overbooked at the time of purchase.  Third is that bad weather anywhere in the country can put any airline in a bind.

Where I draw the line is forcing paying passengers off a flight on which they purchased a ticket, were assigned a seat, showed up on time, and played by all the rules only to be forced to leave for another individual who did not do those things.  If the airline is in a tight spot, they should up the ante until the number of people needed come forward. 

What happened to United on the Chicago/Louisville flight was to accommodate a flight crew who needed to get to a destination (not paying customers).  Most pilot contracts are written so pilots would not have to wait more than 1 flight to be deadheaded when necessary.

I think the price listed on travel websites should actually have seats available for that price to be assigned at the time of booking.  Just last week, we booked our family on a trip.  At the time of booking, there were no seats available at the quoted price.  We had to upgrade (at about $10 per person per leg) to more expensive seats.

 Another thing that would help would be that airlines be forced to use other airlines to accommodate passengers who have been displaced through no fault of their own.  The airlines will do this, but they are reluctant to do so.

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4 hours ago, RCVoyager said:

 

 Another thing that would help would be that airlines be forced to use other airlines to accommodate passengers who have been displaced through no fault of their own.  The airlines will do this, but they are reluctant to do so.

I used to work in hotels years ago and the practice above is pretty standard. If we overbooked our hotel, as most hotels do at certain times because there is a certain amount of expected no-shows, and we did not have a room for a guaranteed reservation, we would send them to another local hotel and pick up the charge. This is fairly common practice in the hotel industry.

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On 4/21/2017 at 6:32 PM, clmsnskr said:

I'm ok with airlines overbooking, but how about saying that on the ticket you purchase For example: "The flight you have purchased this ticket for is currently in an overbooked status.  Your ticket currently does not have a seat available.  Your are currently #x in overbooked standby queue.  In the event that a seat becomes available for you, we will notify you via e-mail, phone, text and/or by displaying your name on the Gate Information Display in the terminal.  If you are not able to be assigned a seat, then we will automatically rebook you on the next available flight to get you to your destination within 2 hours and compensate you by granting you $y.yy towards a future flight."

It's really not that difficult of a concept to me.

Know what makes a lot of sense to me? Intentionally leave the last row of seats in coach on every large aircraft---EMPTY! Just don't sell 'em.

They will always be there for flight crew emergencies, people who missed their previous flights, people who require multiple seats, and people who have a lot of money and need to fly immediately.

 

What could be so hard?

 

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7 hours ago, bobroo said:

Know what makes a lot of sense to me? Intentionally leave the last row of seats in coach on every large aircraft---EMPTY! Just don't sell 'em.

They will always be there for flight crew emergencies, people who missed their previous flights, people who require multiple seats, and people who have a lot of money and need to fly immediately.

 

What could be so hard?

 

The problem with that is prices would go up for everyone.  If you take an average jet, say an MD 80, holds about 125 people in 1st class/coach combined and remove 10 available seats, you're talking about over 8% of available revenue.  They would have to make up that money, and those seats would be empty at least 50% of the time.

While it could use a few tweaks, the current system of overbooking and buying back a few seats (with restricted travel vouchers rather than cash) on a small percentage of flights works pretty well most of the time for the airline and the travelers.

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I am one of those people that fly in the day of the cruise. Luckily I have made every single one of my cruises, have been late, but never missed one. I always book the earliest morning flight, which most of the time is at 6 to 6:30 a.m. and make sure that there are least two other flights leaving after my flight to the port city, that way if something happens I have two more shots at getting on a plane and making it on time to the cruise port.

When I book, I always pick my seat. I know I can't do that with Southwest, which is one of the reason why I don't fly them very often, because I want to pick my seat. If I am not allowed to pick my seat, I will wait until the airlines releases more seats. 

My TA explained to me that airlines as well as cruise lines don't release all of their inventory on flights or cruises, some is held back and released at a later date. I don't know if that is true but it is what I have been told. I was told by American that is you call and book your flight directly with them, I would have a choice of all seats, but they charge $25 to book your flight. The same goes for cruise lines, when you look online, maybe 20 or 30 rooms in the category you chose show, but if you call the line they can give you many more cabin options.

And as we all know the fare changes constantly.

Candie

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