Overbooked flights happen all the time on all three of the legacy carriers. Most of the time these issues resolve themselves naturally and passengers are never the wiser. Some folks will cancel their ticket, no-show, or switch to a different flight. Sadly, others will misconnect. In all of these cases, nothing needs to be done…
Continue reading: Don’t Get Dao-ed: How To Tell If Your United Flight Might Be Overbooked
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I wonder how easy it would be to scrape this data. Seems like you could use it to compile a database from which you may be able to infer which flights were overbooked. If you wanted to, say, increase your chance of receiving a VDB voucher, that would be useful info.
Travis you forgot to mention how you can look at the upgrade tab and see how many people are booked in first and business and how many are checked in, which can also be used to estimate the load. If there is only 1 seat available in F but Y is showing full it is safe to assume the flight is at capacity or oversold.
Travis -- This is a good post, but inaccurate in one respect: If *either* first *or* economy shows availability on the stand-by tab, that generally means the flight is not over-sold. On the app, first-class will show up as full if all of the first-class seats potentially could be needed to accommodate economy passengers due to an oversold situation.
You can confirm this by checking the upgrades tab. On that tab, United will show the number of first-class seats that are "booked" (which includes both people who actually booked a first-class ticket and everyone who has already been upgraded to first class). On some flights, United will also show that a certain number of first-class seats are "blocked.". For example, if first class capacity is 20, you might see, in the "booked" row, "15 (+4 blocked).". On long international flights, one seat in first or business may be blocked for pilot rest, but if multiple seats are blocked, it's because economy is oversold. If first-class is not showing "full" on the upgrades tab, they'll be able to accommodate everyone because even if all the coach passengers show up, they can just upgrade folks and they'll still have at least one seat left in first-class for an upgrade.
Hence, you're only facing a risk of an over-sold situation if *all* cabins are listed as full. Even in that case, they might be fine because the flight could just be at capacity.
John -- That makes sense. I have seen the (+4 blocked) and hadn't known exactly how to interpret that. Thanks.
@John That's only the case if United actually blocks the seats in first. A flight could easily be slightly overbooked in economy but they're still willing to sell seats in both cabins to actually overbook the flight. In that case, you won't see seats blocked in first even though economy might be overbooked by exactly the number of first seats open.
Is this a joke? Inventory and availability are two different things plus the operational complexities involved at day of departure. The only way to know for sure is to work for UA and check loads real time. Even their nonrev support desk doesn't like sharing detailed loads with OAL non-rev ID-90 travelers who list through myIDTravel, so it's not like revenue pax absent from maybe nagging a PCE or res agent until
they oblige and disclose against policy.
@Chris: Go take a look at ExpertFlyer.com. Poke around YouTube for videos on how to use it. I believe under Awards you can see every single flight on a route with availability by fare code. ExpertFlyer's $100/year, but if you manage to get VDB'd it's more than paid for itself.
In fact... go back to the early years of this blog. Lucky did this A LOT on United back in the day and profited quite handsomely from it. I'll admit to intentionally booking flights with the highest chance of getting VDB'd when my schedule has room in it, especially with Delta since they handle this so well. $400/seat to arrive at my destination 2 hours later? Sure.
Expertflyer.com is much better and easier to use. However I've noticed some airlines intentionally zeroing out all fare classes some time before departure, even if the flight is half full.
How can I flight which flights (routing and dates) are the most common to be bumped? So if I need to buy (or use coupon) an extra flight/ticket. ( eg.maybe I should buy it for Christmas eve from LAX to NY.)
I have been trying to predict and use this exact method for some time, which I actually had planned for this thanksgiving weekend. It's kind of a gamble sometimes, but I'd like to feel like an advantage player in some regards. I haven't used it woth expertflyer, but rather with my teaching schedule limiting me to fly at peak times paying peak prices, I always volunteer. I'd like to watch you tube and check out expert flyer.
Dr. Dao's flight was not overbooked. You know better than to say otherwise.
Must Ride crew showed up at the last minute. They didn't have 3 seats left, so they removed Dao according the established boarding priority.
Pretty sure Dao staged this, telling a relative he was about to get paid. Click-bait by using his name. Shame on you, not on United. Jerks like this make me want to take the train.