161–170 of 335 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why cap at $10,000? There needn't be any cap.
If it gets really high, I imagine passengers would do their best to drive it up. Would you volunteer if the offer was $2k out of a $100k vs a $10k pool? It defies classic game theory to an extent, but humans like to roll the dice.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're going to collude with ~100 random strangers to prevent anyone else from taking the offer until it gets to the level you want it to get to, and then agree to split it somehow? Ha ha ha.
At a high enough price, you encourage exactly those conspiracies.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They could have just used a rental car or a taxi. Airline crews don't have to travel by air. The amount of inflexibility displayed by United is breathtaking.
Do you understand how expensive it is to take a taxi that far? Or the fact that taxi/rental car companies usually don't like you going over state lines?
The problem isn't overbooking. The problem is not auctioning the seats higher when overbooked. I've seen a number of overbooked southwest flights and people can't line up fast enough for a $300 flight credit + next available flight. I can't imagine it ever going over $1k. IMHO if any airline should continue overbooking it's SWA. No first class, no assigned seats. Most of the flights are short range with multiple flig…
So... my first reaction to your comment was "why don't they just turn this into an actual auction, with no price limits? This seems like such a good solution that I feel like I must be missing something." However, thinking about it more, I think there's a problem with that that's hidden by the nature of the United debacle. In that situation, the passengers had tickets, and they company was trying to seat their own st…
The passengers with tickets are still sellers in your second scenario; to the airline as a buyer. The airline needs to buy back the number of seats that they oversold for which passengers checked in.
The problem isn't overbooking. The problem is not auctioning the seats higher when overbooked. I've seen a number of overbooked southwest flights and people can't line up fast enough for a $300 flight credit + next available flight. I can't imagine it ever going over $1k. IMHO if any airline should continue overbooking it's SWA. No first class, no assigned seats. Most of the flights are short range with multiple flig…
Yea, I agree the problem is not auctioning seats high enough. But the proximate issue is that United didn't offer cash, but $800 in United Fun Bux that are worthless for most people. The vouchers they were offering were only valid at dates United decided. The vouchers expired after a year. And they are offered in coupons for which you can only use one coupon per flight, and the excess value is lost. Practically all n…
Now that it's too late, United is now offering up to $10k if they can't get someone to volunteer for less.
The problem isn't overbooking. The problem is not auctioning the seats higher when overbooked. I've seen a number of overbooked southwest flights and people can't line up fast enough for a $300 flight credit + next available flight. I can't imagine it ever going over $1k. IMHO if any airline should continue overbooking it's SWA. No first class, no assigned seats. Most of the flights are short range with multiple flig…
So... my first reaction to your comment was "why don't they just turn this into an actual auction, with no price limits? This seems like such a good solution that I feel like I must be missing something." However, thinking about it more, I think there's a problem with that that's hidden by the nature of the United debacle. In that situation, the passengers had tickets, and they company was trying to seat their own st…
In the U.S., plane tickets are a contract where all passengers agree to the standard overbooking process: passengers who don't have a seat are placed in a standby status. If they are bumped from the flight, they can get up to a certain amount of money and are placed on the next available flight.
It's shitty because no airline offers an alternative to this contract, so all passengers have to accept it... until Southwest decided to stop overbooking.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To offer a counterpoint, Southwest also offers the worst boarding procedure, unless travelling alone or with kids. My wife and I were going on vacation and it was impossible to get seats together as we were pretty far back in the assigned line positions and by the time we got on the plane, there were no two vacant seats next to each other. After landing we discovered that checking in at the right time might get us fu…
If you check in as soon as you can (within about 5 mins or so), you get either the end of A or the very beginning of B. I've always been able to get a row to myself as long as you check in early. Also, early bird check in is $15. Only one of you would need it (no one will fight you for a center)... So $30 for a round trip if you don't want to have to check in on time.
This response feels knee jerk. It's been demonstrated in countless other threads (1) and articles (2) how economically important it is to overbook. Overbooking is central to airline profitability and their ability to provide flexibility - like partial refunds, or SW's "open tickets" policy on business select. As a consumer I appreciate these things and find them incredibly useful. United's response of "We'll push the…
>how economically important it is to overbook. I still don't believe this claim. A 727 seats 129, a 787 seats 290, and a 747 seats 366. That means it only makes flights slightly less expensive. I only travel a few times a year and I'd rather pay 2% more than get bumped off my flight. Why do we allow airlines to overbook but not movie theaters or other industries? This seems like an artificial advantage we've given th…
I think it's the worst when hotels overbook. Typically the replacement hotel is less nice and has a bad location.