Airlines reselling your seat when prices double/triple

I don't understand.

I believe that when you buy a ticket, it's a legally binding contract between you and the airline. As long as you fulfill your end of the bargain (you pay, you show up on time, do whatever else is specified), the airline is obligated to hold up their end of the deal. Prices have gone up a lot since then? Boo-hoo...that's the airline's problem, not yours.

Of course there are exceptions (if the airline goes out of business, if there's a terrorist attack and the airspace is closed, etc.). But just because they could make more money if they stiff you and resell it to somebody else? Nunh-uh.

Is there more to this story?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080813/news_1m13braun.html

Above is a link to the San Diego Union Tribune story about the family who had their seats sold to someone else.

What airline calls you to tell you ANYTHING?

Hmmm. The article says they were "bumped" from the flight. That term usually means something specific: the flight was oversold (a common practice). When flights are oversold, and you get bumped, you generally have the right to be compensated. Airlines typically first seek volunteers for a bump - they usually offer a guaranteed seat on a later flight (often just a few hours later) plus some amount of compensation in the form of discount travel vouchers. If they realy need the seats badlt, the compensation can be fairly substantial. From a pratical standpoint, getting bumped voluntarily is often a great deal (I've been bumped several times and made good use of the compensation: on a flight from Seattle to San Francisco, I took a voluntary bump and ended up with a free round-trip ticket to Cancun AND a seat on the next flight in first class - that flight was just one hour later). What usually happens is that the airline will "bid up" the compensation until they get all the volunteers they need. It's pretty rare that they have to bump someone involuntarily.

The article doesn't seem to be covering all the details -- it just sounds incomplete to me.

I get my tickets many, many months in advance -- and I generally don't even pay money for them: I use frequent flyer miles for virtually all my recreational flights, so if they're going to force someobody off the plane, I'd expect it to be me. That's never happened.

I suspect that either this was simply a big screw-up on United's part, or else the story is missing some important details.

To your original question, I don't think this is worth worrying about much. Personally, I'm more worried that if I book a flight 6-9 months ahead, by the time my trip comes up, the airline might be out of business.

Definitely a bump. Once you buy a ticket you have a binding contract between you and your airline, which is why they can't increase bag fees for you after you purchased your ticket...

Actually, this is not a unique story.

Airlines have been cutting back on capacity so more of their flights are flying full. They are also known to overbook many flights assuming some will cancel.

I'm guessing United realized this flight would be overbooked and other passengergs were for some reason more important than this family (it could be the money.) So, they were bumped. (It also could have been a tour to Hawaii suddenly needed more seats and they would get preference.)

Rule 240 says the airline must get you on the next available flight or refund your money. With limited capacity, and having to deal with a large group, there may not be much choice on what is available. (it's called a rule but in reality it's optional.)

The airline offered what they could and when the passengers didn't want to accept, the money was refunded.

Bad business, yes. Terrible customer service, yes. Legal, yes.

I wouldn't worry too much about one or two people traveling together. Even if you are bumped, the chances of the you getting on another flight is good. Large parties are when the problems occur.

Most people are familiar with bumping at the gate where compensation is offered. However, bumping can be done anywhere along the line.

If you show up and checkin early then your chances of being bumped from a full flight are lower. The poor people that show up at the last minute will be the ones bumped from the flight...check in early.

Phew! I feel much better. I recognize that times are brutal for the airlines and suspect more than one is going to tank. I always check in electronically 23.59 minutes before a domestic flight and have my smiling face at the airport two full hours ahead of time and so far I've never been bumped. I always travel either alone or with one other person but I can see how shifting a large group would be much trickier. Thanks for everyone's feedback.

The key is always to know what your contract (ticket) says and be sure to keep your end of the bargain regarding showing up and checking in. Be aware what the rules are for carry-on or checked luggage and abide by them.

Airlines aren't perfect. More often than not, however, they make an effort to accomodate people who ignorantly violated their contract (ticket) and may not be entitled to anything.

I think I am becoming a super skeptic of nearly everything I read in the papers and especially on the internet. First the San Diego report is from a columnist and not a news article or story as Marie represented. Second, all columnists have a view point and are under no obligation to provide a complete story. That is why they are called columnist. Is the columnist a cynic? I guessing that there is more to the story. Could be wrong. If I am it is a deplorable story and I would be looking at a small claims court action. But I don't think canceling tickets so that they can be resold at a high rate is a common practice. I think there are other things that are more important to worry about.

I agree with you Frank. There's at least a piece or two of the story that's missing. Note that they don't present the airline's side of things (they apparently tried to get a comment from United, but it's not clear how hard they tried).

Yes, people get bumped. But I've never heard of a bump like this unless it was just a screw-up. When they're going to start bumping, they look for volunteers first, they dont just quietly give your seats away to someone else. Even if they know ahead of times that the flight is way oversold.

Anyway, I agree - there are bigger things to worry about. If you follow the rules, show up on time, etc., you probably have little to worry about on this one.

When you book with an airline, make sure that you have your seats selected. One sign that the airline has oversold is that you can't get a seat reservation and when you try, you are told to go to the check-in counter. I've had this happen to me a couple times on United out of Jacksonville, FL. (45-seat CRJ plane). Once I got on and once I was bumped off. If you can't get seat reservations, show up early.

Also, your ticket contract with the airlines is normally cancelled 10 minutes before the flight if you haven't checked in by then. That's been a long-standing rule. That way, they can call stand-bys.

As a side note, my wife and I, as semi-retired seniors, have gathered several free tickets from United by willing to give up our seats in trade for a free ticket. We intentionally, book the first flight out of our local airport which United graciously overbooks on a regular basis. It flies out full to Denver every morning. It's often very easy for us to take a later flight in trade for the free ticket.

Some good and reasonable advice from Brad.

On Delta last month we were told that if they had to bump people who didn't volunteer that it would go by the price of the ticket. On the international flight they were only offering $400 as insentive. We already missed our connection the day before and since there was only one flight a day it would have ment another day in Altanta. They ended up changing planes and no one was bumped.

I think it is crazy that they would do it by the price you paid for your ticket. Maybe if it was by the letter class of your ticket but to say you are a class Y and I am a class Y but I bought mine 6 months in advance so I paid less so I am the one who gets bumped is messed up.

This is almost half question, but I wonder if there is an advantage to printing your boarding pass as soon as you can (24-hr before flight).

Lauren, I would think so (that's what I do), since you are actually checking in for your flight and can go straight to the gate when you get to the airport.

I have never heard of this, but I do have a recommendation for everyone who books far in advance, based on my own painful experience. I traveled last month on ff tickets purchased in January. On the return leg, I had 3 stops, and I didn't really inspect my boarding passes until my first stop, in Montreal. To my horror, I realized that I had a 5 hour layover, not 2 hours, and I would miss my flight in LA. There is not a lot of customer service in Montreal, but a kind desk agent looked up my flights for me. The flight I had reserved was taken off the schedule months ago, and I was not notified. The Lufthansa agent in Frankfurt simply issued the boarding passes for the available flights, and there was nothing in the computer to prevent her confirming me on 2 conflicting legs.
Lesson here: look at your boarding passes immediately and compare them to your itinerary. The airline doesn't always catch these changes. I was stuck in LA overnight, at my own expense.

I found the article. Apparently the problem was a flight was canceled and there was no substitute available. It seems like they bought a ticket from an American carrier to fly to Bangkok and the partner/foreign airline canceled the flight. They didn't make any seats available for the ticket class the customer had purchased (essentially nothing for the same price). They were given a refund. Of course the refund did them no good because they couldn't buy a replacement ticket at the same price?

If it's the whole story, it points out a loophole in the carriers responsibility that needs to be looked at.

One of the suggestions to avoid the situation is to purchase tickets 2-8 weeks in advance rather than 6 months in advance as this passenger had done.

Another is to check the status of the flight two weeks ahead of time instead of just the normal 48 hours.

I've had flights canceled by KLM/Northwest but had no real complaints. They originally emailed me a new return itinerary with an overnight layover in Minneapolis. I called, discussed my options and changed to an overnight layover in Amsterdam. Later still they called and readjusted my itinerary to short layover and no overnight.