I thought your avatar was Bill Maynard

Its not my fault its the lack of nicotene and other poisons I've given up

Rosie

Nope sorry to disappoint but that's the real me.

you know steve I always wondered why you had selwyn on your avatar - you could be a double for him

Gaynor
x

Do you think there might be a chance of some employment as a stunt double for this guy?

definately!!!

Seeing as we're talking airline stuff - i'd like to ask a stupid question please. Is it true that airlines book more people onto flights than they have seats just in case some people don't turn up for their flights...?

See, told you it was a stupid question!

I have heard this also but never had a problem with a flight being over booked.

OMG - the last thing that you would need on y our one way flight

I dont think it's done deliberately, but the problems can arise due to the fact that the airline will have lots of 'agents/operators/consolidators' with contracted numbers of seats to sell, they all have different numbers and different contracts - some buy on a sale or return basis, some buy direct form the airline 'pot' some buy a lump amount of seats and then need to sell them all . This is also why you get so many differentiating prices too. I think its more the fact that the numbers just don't add up sometimes on peak flights........

Must say this is not specific to Zoom - all airlines are the same - i suppose some may just have better accountability systems in place

i think sometimes it is deliberately overbooked to make up for the no-shows!

i remember once flying to florida (with BA) and whilst waiting to check in someone came round the queue to see if anyone was willing to be bumped off our direct flight and be rebooked onto a different multi-stop flight, they were also offering around £200 per person iirc
we were very tempted since we'd got an agents deal on our flights and paid less than £200 but it would've meant a stopover in somewhere like chicago or detroit or some other transit airport for hours and then not arriving at our destination until the following day.
if you haven't got specific times to be places, this can be very worthwhile!

It's not a stupid question at all. It happens a lot. They really expect that some people won't show up. Usually they get it right. Sometimes they don't. I've had three experiences with it.

The first was a BA flight from London to Vienna. It was very over-booked. The counter staff were looking for volunteers to take the next flight, a couple of hours later, in exchange for a cash payout. I and another passenger did the whole trip in the cockpit jump seats (bet that wouldn't happen these days).

The second was being downgraded from business to economy on a Saudi flight. I guess someone more important showed up.

The third was an over-booked Air Canada flight from Montreal to Toronto. I was travelling with the cheapest imaginable ticket and didn't belong to their loyalty programme, so I was always going to be the first to be bumped.

And to add to the problem weather can cause delays which will cause planes to end up in the wrong place.

Zoom's vancouver to winnipeg to London the other week got caught in winnipeg during a Lightening storm no one allowed on the airfield to dock the plane for 4 hours. The pilot was over his flight time and they ended up with an 18 hour delay. So they then had to bump a place in the landing queue at London....
Definitely not the airlines fault.

So relax people it's not allows a conspiracy to make profits.

How you were not offended, but you do look a lot like Bill

Not at all.

But did you see what I've put over top of my avatar.

Cheers
Steve

Just to prove you do look like him


sorry