If so many people are stranded, why are planes flying with empty seats?

Re:If so many people are stranded, why are planes flying wit... by brainid on Monday April 26, 2010 @02:58PM (#1295597)

My experience was this. On a call to Delta on 4/20 I was told it would be Monday 4/26 before a seat was available. 15 minutes later I booked a DELTA/KLM flight to my destination that afternoon through travelocity (at a high cost).

When I complained to Delta after returning I was told the travel websites buy seats in block and resell them, so that is why they could not give me a seat. Oh, and there were several empty seats on the flight.

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Re:If so many people are stranded, why are planes flying wit... by cperciva on Monday April 26, 2010 @03:42PM (#1295734)

Oh, and there were several empty seats on the flight.

Which just means that some people bought tickets and didn't turn up (and that there wasn't anyone on standby for that flight).

Airlines can't win: If they overbook flights, people complain about being kicked off; if they don't overbook flights, people complain about how there were empty seats even though they were told there were no tickets available.

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Re:If so many people are stranded, why are planes flying wit... by TheSOB88 on Monday April 26, 2010 @07:38PM (#1296630)

Didn't he just say Travelocity owned the tickets? If the airline's not directing the stranders to where they can actually buy flights (or the flights are too expensive on e.g. Travelocity), there will be empty seats.

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Re:If so many people are stranded, why are planes flying wit... by jrockway on Monday April 26, 2010 @03:39PM (#1295725)

I was told the travel websites buy seats in block and resell them

If anything, this is technically wrong, as airlines don't sell "seats", they sell tickets. You don't have a guaranteed seat until your butt is in one and the door is closed.

But as the blog mentioned, perhaps the airlines have decided that overbooking is going to make them look bad during this event, so they are only selling inventory for available seats. Unusual, but it makes sense.

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Re:If so many people are stranded, why are planes flying wit... by gaius on Monday April 26, 2010 @05:19PM (#1296121)

I am not sure that's true and here's why: If I book a BA flight on Expedia I can use BA's online check-in and sit anywhere on the plane I want, if no-one's got there first obv. There's no bit of the plane that's "Expedia class" all together.

I suppose any travel agent could do that on-spec, but in normal operation travel websites are just brokers sitting on top of the same API the airlines use for their own sites.

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Re:If so many people are stranded, why are planes flying wit... by dedward on Monday April 26, 2010 @09:18PM (#1296821)

Isn't that sort of like scalping concert tickets?

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