Airport-assigned seats?

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

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There's a difference between showing up 10 minutes before flight time and expecting airline employees to do you a favor and showing up an hour before flight time expecting to get a seat BECAUSE YOU ******* PAID FOR IT. The airlines' practice of overbooking is absurd. If I have already paid for my ticket, I want my ******* seat. Period. Is this too much to ask?


I don't think it is too much to ask. What the airlines are doing is playing russian roulette with your plans in an attempt to maximize their profits. They want to fly with full planes, why can't you just play along?? They made their problem your problem and then act surprised when, after you did everything correctly, you get upset when there is not a seat for you.

Having said that the airlines are working through a bunch of stranded travelers who were impacted by the storms, which is not something even the best company can reasonably plan around, let alone airlines.

Depending on the importance and your financial situation, you may look into putting a flight on hold (AA lets you do this for free for 24 hours) traveling through a southern state like Texas an hour after your flight should leave in case the worst happens. You may be able to get a refund from the initial flight if they don't have a seat for you, but worst case is having to fly south and being stuck for both sets of tickets.

Also, no checked baggage for plan B.

Originally Posted by odoreater

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This is ridiculous. The agent is a representative of the airline, so "whining to the agent" is the same as complaining to the airline. And telling people that it's their own fault for not getting on a flight that they paid for because they didn't get their 3 hours before the flight takes off is similarly marsupialed. No wonder the airlines are failing.

It would make sense, but considering the airline agent has absolutely no say in whether or not you have your seat (unless the flight is not overbooked), it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Of course it could also be that I'm tired of being yelled at by people who know not of what they speak, I don't know. You would be surprised at how many things the gate agent has no control over.

If you are kind to the agent, chances are they will return the favor. As a matter of fact, I do hand out free upgrades for people who don't yell at/incessantly bother/physically assault me. Other agents do the same; I know of several who work for United. Treat others as you would want to be treated, or is that too much to ask?

Of course, if you claim to know more than I do about how we do things, than by all means take over the thread, because I am done. The original question has been answered. My apologies for inputting the insider knowledge.

Further questions, PM me.

Originally Posted by JetBlast

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It would make sense, but considering the airline agent has absolutely no say in whether or not you have your seat (unless the flight is not overbooked), it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Of course it could also be that I'm tired of being yelled at by people who know not of what they speak, I don't know. You would be surprised at how many things the gate agent has no control over. If you are kind to the agent, chances are they will return the favor. As a matter of fact, I do hand out free upgrades for people who don't yell at/incessantly bother/physically assault me. Other agents do the same; I know of several who work for United. Treat others as you would want to be treated, or is that too much to ask? Of course, if you claim to know more than I do about how we do things, than by all means take over the thread, because I am done. The original question has been answered. My apologies for inputting the insider knowledge. Further questions, PM me.
Your input is appreciated. I only responded when you alluded to the idea that I might be running late, yet expected to get help from an airline agent about my situation. Of the hundreds of flights I've flown so far, I can say that I've only been late once, and that was because of the cabbie not knowing the directions. When I got to the airport, I didn't ask to be rushed through security, or to get any special treatment otherwise. When I **** up (albeit indirectly), I take full responsibility. My general practice is to arrive at least 1 hour before flight time for domestic flights, just to have time to respond to potential problems. As I usually don't check in bags for domestic flights, I don't think I need to be 2-3 hours early. On one hand, you say the gate agent has a lot of control, on the other, you say they have none. Which is it? P.S. I've never acted rudely toward an airline agent. It's not my modus operandi. My gf is not a rude person either. In fact, she goes out of her way to be nice to everyone. Maybe this should stop. The **** that the airlines put her through the last couple of Christmases, I will do a victory dance if all of the ******* airlines go out of business tomorrow. I treat others as I expect others to treat me. With the airlines, the reverse treatment has been like getting fucked ********** by a bull.

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

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On one hand, you say the gate agent has a lot of control, on the other, you say they have none. Which is it?


I will at least respond to this so I don't look ignorant.

There are some things we do have control over, such as:
-making sure the aircraft gets out as on time as possible, not facturing in mechanical delays, etc
-making sure everyone is on the aircraft (to a reasonable degree, our policy is to usually allow 10 minutes afterward if everyone is not on board for the other passengers to get to the gate; after that 10 minutes we are closing the door)
-making sure all crew are accounted for and on board before pushing the airplane off the gate

Things we are not responsible for:
-the ridiculous security line (TSA)
-the fact that the flight is overbooked (reservations)
-the fact that the weather either at your airport of departure/arrival/along the flight path is f*cked (God)
-that the airplane is delayed due to a mechanical reason (tech/MX ops)

You are welcome to have your opinions of wishing my industry to run into the ground, I can't do anything about what you think of us and I'm not going to try to change your opinion.

Originally Posted by JetBlast

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You are welcome to have your opinions of wishing my industry to run into the ground, I can't do anything about what you think of us and I'm not going to try to change your opinion.

This attitude is why the airlines are going to hell in a hand basket. If you're (don't take this personal, it's just directed at airlines generally) at the front line of an organization, you do have the power to change what your customers think about your organization. All this hostility didn't just come out of nowhere. It came from years of being complacent, from not giving a **** what the customers think. The domestic autos are in a pile of **** because of this attitude. Thank God the car market is opened to foreign manufacturers. If the domestic flight business is fully opened to foreign airlines, I wonder how many current airlines will actually be in existence right now.

The airlines have received enough complaints from customers re: overbooking as it is. One more complaint from me ain't gonna make a difference. So, if the airlines don't give a ****, and the employees on the front line don't give a ****, it boggles my mind why the whole industry expects its customers to have nice things to say about it.

Tell me, where does the buck stop?

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

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This attitude is why the airlines are going to hell in a hand basket. If you're (don't take this personal, it's just directed at airlines generally) at the front line of an organization, you do have the power to change what your customers think about your organization. All this hostility didn't just come out of nowhere. It came from years of being complacent, from not giving a **** what the customers think. The domestic autos are in a pile of **** because of this attitude. Thank God the car market is opened to foreign manufacturers. If the domestic flight business is fully opened to foreign airlines, I wonder how many current airlines will actually be in existence right now.

The airlines have received enough complaints from customers re: overbooking as it is. One more complaint from me ain't gonna make a difference. So, if the airlines don't give a ****, and the employees on the front line don't give a ****, it boggles my mind why the whole industry expects its customers to have nice things to say about it.

Tell me, where does the buck stop?

Ask the airline management, I have no answers. I do my job because I love what I do, this is why I do not work for a domestic airline anymore.

As I said, it comes down to treating others as you want to be treated. Contrary to popular belief, I have no desire to see you get screwed over at the airport, and I would actually like to see you get to your destination safely and on time. According to the ever-so-educated flying public, this is not what I want to see happen.

Originally Posted by JetBlast

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Exactly as you said, arriving a few hours before your flight is supposed to leave. If the flight is overbooked and you show up 5 minutes before departure time, chances are you aren't getting on the airplane.

I don't see why people have a problem with allowing themselves enough time to get to the airport and leave room for error, it's ridiculous how many people show up 10 minutes before their flight begging to get through the security line. I know I work in customer service, but if I helped every single person who has come up to me asking me to take them through the crew line because they have two and a half minutes to get to their gate, I would never get any flights done.

I can't speak for everyone, but I've had the experience more than once of arriving plenty early, only to find that the airline f*'d up my ticket/reservation or changed/cancelled the flight. At LAX, you usually have to wait on line about an hour, maybe more, to talk to a United ticket agent. That tends to eat up a lot of "room for error".

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

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I can't speak for everyone, but I've had the experience more than once of arriving plenty early, only to find that the airline f*'d up my ticket/reservation or changed/cancelled the flight. At LAX, you usually have to wait on line about an hour, maybe more, to talk to a United ticket agent. That tends to eat up a lot of "room for error".

I can speak for myself (and I am a traveler as well, I do fly on other carriers other than the ones I work for that I do not get employee benefits on) that I have never had the "room for error" problem because I show up on time enough to expect spending a few hours in line. I guess I just don't mind waiting at the gate for a while as opposed to missing my flight.

Originally Posted by JetBlast

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I can speak for myself (and I am a traveler as well, I do fly on other carriers other than the ones I work for that I do not get employee benefits on) that I have never had the "room for error" problem because I show up on time enough to expect spending a few hours in line. I guess I just don't mind waiting at the gate for a while as opposed to missing my flight.
So you're the bastard who got my seat . . .

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

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So you're the bastard who got my seat . . .

It's possible, the rest of the bastards also showed up beforehand.

It still confuses me how people can say oh no, we're going bankrupt and this is why, but they complain about overbooking. God forbid we try to send out our airplanes as full as possible.

I'm sorry you folks hate me, my coworkers, my industry, etc but as I have said before, I only have so much control standing at a podium in front of the gate. I am done with this thread.

Originally Posted by JetBlast

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It's possible, the rest of the bastards also showed up beforehand.

It still confuses me how people can say oh no, we're going bankrupt and this is why, but they complain about overbooking. God forbid we try to send out our airplanes as full as possible.

I'm sorry you folks hate me, my coworkers, my industry, etc but as I have said before, I only have so much control standing at a podium in front of the gate. I am done with this thread.

Even if you have no control, you shouldn't be thinking "**** these people, why are they bothering me, they know not what they speak of, they know I have no power." You are the representative of the company that the regular consumer actually gets to interact with in person so you should accept responsibility on behalf of the entire company instead of just passing the buck off to another member of the company that the customer will never see.

In any other industry when someone has an appointment for something to happen at a certain time it's expected by all parties that the appointment will be honored. With the airline industry, if you get to the gate on time with your ticket in hand and ready to board the plane, they'll just tell you "sorry, we don't have a seat for you (in spite of the fact that you paid for one), you should have gotten here earlier."

Maybe I'll try that with my clients. Set up a meeting at 10:00 a.m., and when they show up at 9:55 a.m., tell them "gee, sorry, I wasn't sure if you were going to show up, so I set up three other meetings for 10:00 a.m. just in case you didn't show up. Those people showed up earlier than you, so I'm not going to be able to meet with you until 6:00 p.m. tonight, or maybe 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning - but you'd better show up early."

If I did that, I would have no clients pretty quickly, but the airline industry seems to think it's ok.

Oh, and by the way, I don't hate anybody, I just think your industry has a silly way of doing business, and you have a silly attitude about the way that your industry does business.

No matter what you say JetBlast the airline industry ******* sucks.

I'm generally cool with the industry, having status helps, but one thing that does drive me up the wall is when the flight departs 10-15 minutes prior to scheduled departure time, and yes, I mean really departs, not just closed. WTF is with this?! AS and DL are particularly guilty of pulling this crap. I've missed four flights because of this within past six months.
Oh, three out of four times I had no choice as to when I would or could get to the airport: the inbound flight was delayed.

I'm not reading this thread but answering the thread title:

Sometimes you can pick online before hand.

Sometimes it is assigned when you get your ticket at the counter (usually from those DIY machines) and even then you can view the seats on the plane and change to available ones at the computer

Some airlines to open seating but with certain people getting first dibs

I don't see often when you have no idea what seat you are until you step on the plane though.

Originally Posted by DarkNWorn

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Tell me, where does the buck stop?

With you, the customer. See, people seem to forget that having decent airline service is neither a constitutional nor a god given right. Want to get treated like a prince? Buy a full fare or first class ticket. But no, people ***** and moan about ticket prices being so high, then crack back on the airlines when they are not making any money. Its nothing like the auto industry, they are not peddling an inferior product, they are responding to customer demands. You want a cheaper flight, fine, but your going to have to give up X. If you dont like it, try amtrack, or greyhound, or drive, but if you want to fly, you have to deal with it. Show up early, dont be an asshole to the people you meet, and you would be suprised at how it will go.

Jet Blast and others in the industry do whats right, what they are told, and whats within the scope of their job. They are not miracle workers and candidly they get pretty well **** on both by thier 'customers' and thier employers. If your looking for over the top service like back in the 70's, try paying adjusted 1970's prices.

Originally Posted by odoreater

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In any other industry when someone has an appointment for something to happen at a certain time it's expected by all parties that the appointment will be honored. With the airline industry, if you get to the gate on time with your ticket in hand and ready to board the plane, they'll just tell you "sorry, we don't have a seat for you (in spite of the fact that you paid for one), you should have gotten here earlier."

Maybe I'll try that with my clients. Set up a meeting at 10:00 a.m., and when they show up at 9:55 a.m., tell them "gee, sorry, I wasn't sure if you were going to show up, so I set up three other meetings for 10:00 a.m. just in case you didn't show up. Those people showed up earlier than you, so I'm not going to be able to meet with you until 6:00 p.m. tonight, or maybe 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning - but you'd better show up early."

If I did that, I would have no clients pretty quickly, but the airline industry seems to think it's ok.

Thats not even close to a fair comparison. If your clients had a long and documented (and I mean documented, the amount of data the airlines mine is rediculous) history of not showing up for appointments, and canceling at either the last minute, or not at all, and you knew that you had plenty of other chances to see them throughout the day, then yes, you might want to double book. But again, that isnt even a realistic comparison, because you need your clients, however, and lets call a spade a spade, you need the airlines more so, then they need you (just you (one individual)). At the end of the day for as much as people say **** Northwest (Detroit and Minneapolis), **** United (chicago, DC), **** American (Chicago, Dallas), Etc, we are mostly stuck flying who has the cheapest and most logical flights. For every time I have a ****** experiance on NW, I still have over 500K miles with them because its my only legitmate choice out of my home market. So we can piss and moan all we want to, but they know they have us by the balls, because the next time you have a flight to take and they are cheapest all the sudden all that posturing means nothing. So why would they want to do (even if they could) anything about it?