Anyone else having issues with authorizations

[tadjr]

Was just curious if other cities have been having problems with oversales recently? Inventory advised us that new people are now in charge of authorizations. We've noticed that recently they have gone way up. We have quite a few 757s during the day and they are being authorized to 200-204 (they hold 185). Problem compounded by having to no rec customers whose reservations were canx in error on the way down because of incorrect flight closeout or rerouting during irregular ops and the records not being cleaned up. Saw one flight today that was actually showing booked to 208 at one time and 17 HKNS with time left for checkin. Today and last Sunday we were taking oversales like crazy. Sun is cruise ship day and we have 2 ships in town so that would take some of the slack out of the oversale game, but it appears someone struck out today on their numbers and we even took invols. (Whats the payout on the Rome customer going to be?) Once again, those of us on the front line dont know squat and the almighty pencil pushers are in charge. (After 22 years I understand its a numbers game and agree that flights need to be overbooked, but someone needs to get reigned in before season starts or its going to be nastier than usual.) Thanks for the fun day! :blink:

 

[PHX PHLyer]

We have quite a few 757s during the day and they are being authorized to 200-204 (they hold 185).

185 in coach....8 in first....193 total

 

[BoeingBoy]

185 in coach....8 in first....193 total

They don't overbook F/C so the only numbers that matter for overbooking issues are the seats available in coach and the amount booked in coach - in the example cited that's 185 and 200-204.

Jim

 

[PHX PHLyer]

They don't overbook F/C so the only numbers that matter for overbooking issues are the seats available in coach and the amount booked in coach - in the example cited that's 185 and 200-204.

Jim

Wow....that seems like quite a large number to overbook by...especially on a 757 route where I have to be thinking it is a leisure route and much less likely that no-shows would occur.

But I flew CO over the summer and my IAH-BWI flight was overbooked by 14 when I checked in for my LFT-IAH flight....when I got to IAH I went to the counter and tried to get 1st dibs on a voluntary bump because I knew that I was going back to LFT a few months later for a wedding....I never got called because there were over 14 no shows.

 

[Squonk]

They don't overbook F/C so the only numbers that matter for overbooking issues are the seats available in coach and the amount booked in coach - in the example cited that's 185 and 200-204.

Jim

Exactly! This has been going on for about 4-6 weeks. The software once used by our inventory people to set authorizations worked like a charm. We rarely took oversales much less invols but the flights went out full! Someone needs to look at the model for success that was used on the right coast for years. The people now setting the authorizations do NOT understand the market. We are going to have another major melt down starting with the Thanksgiving holiday! This is so typical of the left coast management style!

yet we are still...

 

[tadjr]

The numbers I quoted were just for coach since, thank goodness, they dont overbook FC. Just talked to an agent who worked until last flight and said they took 8 or 9 invols on a couple of flights that she worked in addition to the volunteers. They had trouble getting volunteers since everything else was full tonight and people didnt want to stay over.

 

[BoeingBoy]

The DOT report ranks reporting airlines on overbooking, but they do it by the rate of IDB's and don't count volunteers (they give the numbers but don't include them for the rankings). Using all denied boardings - VDB & IDB - these would be the ranking for non-express carriers included in the DOT report for the 2nd quarter (number of DB's per 10,000 enplaned passengers):

B6: 00.025 (who doesn't overbook yet had 14 VDB's)
AQ: 01.449
HA: 02.280
F9: 05.361
WN: 09.450
AS: 10.098
AA: 10.619
CO: 11.853
FL: 12.790
US: 17.909
NW: 18.058
DL: 18.517
UA: 21.060

Jim

 

[gizmo_sc]

Make a call to Inventory in INT and inquire who is the peson in TEMPE who is working the overbooking levels. Send email to this individual and if you dont get results have your station manager contact them. With SHARES sure does take along time to do an overbooking.

 

[tadjr]

Send email to this individual and if you dont get results have your station manager contact them.

Shift manager is already all over this this morning since she was having to deal with the invols last night...

 

[hp-csr-phx]

Too bad all of the invols don't have the analysts phone number? Maybe the analyst could explain an oversale better to the customer than the agent.