So I've been planning a trip to England for months, had all my flight infor for months.
I just got a call a bit ago from the airline telling me that my flight has been overbooked, and asking me if I would be interested in changing my flight date(s).
They told me that they would give me a nice discount on my next booking.
OK. So, I told them that I really didn't know what I could do to salvage my plans and that I would call them within a few hours and let them know.

Calls to England.

Turns out that my "extended" family would have no objections to my coming at a later time, however, they're planning on doing some traveling mid-Oct. to Mexico and maybe I would like to go with them, if we could align up travel plans. Everything sounds good, right?

So to make a long story short, between several calls to airline and to England I've got a new plan. Going to visit England for 4 days and then going to Mexico for 4 days with them.

Well on my last phone call to the airline, the clerk said everything was arranged with my nice little discount. But then when my email confirmation comes, the discount is not listed anywhere... not even anything close to a discount! UGHHH!!!

So now we're playing phonetag calling each other back. I'm getting frustrated, disgusted and pissy and am seriously considering just cruising to England and back, disregarding any flying at all.

It pisses me off that knowing that my travel plans have been made, paid for and confirmed for MONTHS and then all of a sudden, just a few weeks from go-time, they figure out that their overbooked? HOWTHEWTF??!!
And now they don't want to honor their agreement on the reduced price, because I never speak to the same person twice.
::: sigh :::

End of rant.

CenterBHSFan;467084 wrote:So I've been planning a trip to England for months, had all my flight infor for months.
I just got a call a bit ago from the airline telling me that my flight has been overbooked, and asking me if I would be interested in changing my flight date(s).
They told me that they would give me a nice discount on my next booking.
OK. So, I told them that I really didn't know what I could do to salvage my plans and that I would call them within a few hours and let them know.

Calls to England.

Turns out that my "extended" family would have no objections to my coming at a later time, however, they're planning on doing some traveling mid-Oct. to Mexico and maybe I would like to go with them, if we could align up travel plans. Everything sounds good, right?

So to make a long story short, between several calls to airline and to England I've got a new plan. Going to visit England for 4 days and then going to Mexico for 4 days with them.

Well on my last phone call to the airline, the clerk said everything was arranged with my nice little discount. But then when my email confirmation comes, the discount is not listed anywhere... not even anything close to a discount! UGHHH!!!

So now we're playing phonetag calling each other back. I'm getting frustrated, disgusted and pissy and am seriously considering just cruising to England and back, disregarding any flying at all.

It pisses me off that knowing that my travel plans have been made, paid for and confirmed for MONTHS and then all of a sudden, just a few weeks from go-time, they figure out that their overbooked? HOWTHEWTF??!!
And now they don't want to honor their agreement on the reduced price, because I never speak to the same person twice.
::: sigh :::

End of rant.

That sucks.

CenterBHSFan;467084 wrote:Going to visit England for 4 days and then going to Mexico for 4 days with them

I'm jealous. Have fun!

"Well on my last phone call to the airline, the clerk said everything was arranged with my nice little discount. But then when my email confirmation comes, the discount is not listed anywhere... not even anything close to a discount! UGHHH!!!"

Did they already charge your credit card - can you check that online to see what they actually charged? If it is just an itinerary confirmation (and not a receipt), it could just reflect the fare that you purchased and not the actual charge. It is possible you got the discount despite the email.

You could have just said no you didn't want to change your plans and told them they better have your spot on the plane because it's not your fault their airline fucked up and overbooked then you wouldn't have any problems at all .

Iliketurtles;467109 wrote:You could have just said no you didn't want to change your plans and told them they better have your spot on the plane because it's not your fault their airline fucked up and overbooked then you wouldn't have any problems at all .

Not necessarily. Could've still been bumped at the airport day of travel. Would've gotten a free ticket or two out of it, but still wouldn't be traveling on that flight and would be back to step 1 trying to sort things out.

Iliketurtles;467109 wrote:You could have just said no you didn't want to change your plans and told them they better have your spot on the plane because it's not your fault their airline fucked up and overbooked then you wouldn't have any problems at all .

Turtles, for a split second, that was on the tip of my tongue. But then I second-guessed doing it thinking that a re-arrangment wouldn't be so bad, that is if my relatives were open to different dates. Well, since most of them (relatives) are older I didn't think that they'd have a problem and so I relented thinking it wouldn't/couldn't be that hard.
Well... as we see, things CAN and WILL be that hard.

I'm a sucka! lol

But, if I could just get the promised discount, I'd be alright with everything.

Based on your post, I am willing to bet this airline is Continental?? They suck!

CenterBHSFan;467084 wrote:So I've been planning a trip to England for months, had all my flight infor for months.
I just got a call a bit ago from the airline telling me that my flight has been overbooked, and asking me if I would be interested in changing my flight date(s).
They told me that they would give me a nice discount on my next booking.
OK. So, I told them that I really didn't know what I could do to salvage my plans and that I would call them within a few hours and let them know.

Calls to England.

Turns out that my "extended" family would have no objections to my coming at a later time, however, they're planning on doing some traveling mid-Oct. to Mexico and maybe I would like to go with them, if we could align up travel plans. Everything sounds good, right?

So to make a long story short, between several calls to airline and to England I've got a new plan. Going to visit England for 4 days and then going to Mexico for 4 days with them.

Well on my last phone call to the airline, the clerk said everything was arranged with my nice little discount. But then when my email confirmation comes, the discount is not listed anywhere... not even anything close to a discount! UGHHH!!!

So now we're playing phonetag calling each other back. I'm getting frustrated, disgusted and pissy and am seriously considering just cruising to England and back, disregarding any flying at all.

It pisses me off that knowing that my travel plans have been made, paid for and confirmed for MONTHS and then all of a sudden, just a few weeks from go-time, they figure out that their overbooked? HOWTHEWTF??!!
And now they don't want to honor their agreement on the reduced price, because I never speak to the same person twice.
::: sigh :::

End of rant.

I just made plans for one of my engineers from the UK to fly over to help me with a project of our new product $196.00 from NY to Canton and back to NY and Flight from UK to US and Back 778 pound 1/2 $389.00 round trip total 590.00 plus whatever

Make sure that discount is not just the standard pricing now....

That does suck. Only an airline could get away with selling more tickets than seats on the plane. They don't do that for anything else, do they?

Belly35;467212 wrote:I just made plans for one of my engineers from the UK to fly over to help me with a project of our new product $196.00 from NY to Canton and back to NY and Flight from UK to US and Back 778 pound 1/2 $389.00 round trip total 590.00 plus whatever

Make sure that discount is not just the standard pricing now....

Which is virtually impossible to do because there is no "standard" pricing really. The price you quoted could have many, many different restrictions - day of the week, time of the day, advance purchase, minimum stay, maximum stay, and class of service. That class of service is not what a traveler thinks of as economy, business, and first.

An airline will sell a certain number of seats with a certain code at a certain fare (with all of the restrictions I mentioned). Then, once those say, 10 tickets are gone, the next person can buy the exact same dates and still pay more for the ticket because they have to move up to the next class of service. They might sell 10 more tickets at that fare, then the next group of tickets costs more again. I've been sitting on a plane before with my nice window seat that I paid less than $200 for and the chump in the middle seat paid over $800.

So in theory, that agent could have sold a legitimate $1200 ticket to the OP for $900 and that is a significant discount (even though you paid over $300 less for the same route).

The bottom line is, did they charge you what they said they were charging you (whether you think it is discounted or not)?

BigAppleBuckeye;467157 wrote:Based on your post, I am willing to bet this airline is Continental?? They suck!

YES!!! I've never flown with them before, so I was flying blind, so to speak lol! But, I'll learn my my mistake.
I'm guessing you speak of experience?
.....................

Well, I finally got a plan worked out: flying from Pittsburgh to Heathrow (going to Northamptonshire); from Heathrow to Cancun; Cancun back to Pitt. - all under $4,000 with my discount.

Dayum, what a business! I've got a wicked headache now. Time for a drink!

Never had a problem with Continental and I've flown with them 10x or so.
Nice negotiation that is a hellofa deal for under 4k you basically got the 2nd leg FREE.

enigmaax;467223 wrote:Which is virtually impossible to do because there is no "standard" pricing really. The price you quoted could have many, many different restrictions - day of the week, time of the day, advance purchase, minimum stay, maximum stay, and class of service. That class of service is not what a traveler thinks of as economy, business, and first.

An airline will sell a certain number of seats with a certain code at a certain fare (with all of the restrictions I mentioned). Then, once those say, 10 tickets are gone, the next person can buy the exact same dates and still pay more for the ticket because they have to move up to the next class of service. They might sell 10 more tickets at that fare, then the next group of tickets costs more again. I've been sitting on a plane before with my nice window seat that I paid less than $200 for and the chump in the middle seat paid over $800.

So in theory, that agent could have sold a legitimate $1200 ticket to the OP for $900 and that is a significant discount (even though you paid over $300 less for the same route).

The bottom line is, did they charge you what they said they were charging you (whether you think it is discounted or not)?

The transact was confirmed via a credit card payment in full for the package ...and e mail confirmation of the tickets and pricing
There where a few additional fees but but nothing over $100.00 .... So I'm good and the price was right

Sent this engineer to China last month to check on production and calibration ..... $1900.00 air fare ...last year about the same time ... $800.00 Win some lose some ... have to do what you have to do ...

hotels do this also

In the age of computers it's hard to believe that anything like this could happen. But, I'm thinking that they like to overbook in case of cancellations? I don't know.

I should have orginally gone with Virgin, but there were no openings for the dates I was wanting. I could have taken a "standby" appt. but then who knows if that would have panned out. So I decided to use Continental.
For the record, I've flown all over the US many many times, but never out of country much less to across the pond. That's why I've never had experience with Continental. I'll be hardpressed to ever use them again, even though I probably won't experience the same scenario again. It just totally turned me off of them.

BUT, one good thing is that I'm now going to on another little side trip that 12 hours ago never occured to me! (yay!)

So now I'm gonna have to go look up what the weather's gonna be like in the UK and Mexico in Oct. Anybody know?

that really sucks for you man.

But.... on the bright side you're going to England and then going to Mexico. That's pretty bad ass

CenterBHSFan;467383 wrote:In the age of computers it's hard to believe that anything like this could happen. But, I'm thinking that they like to overbook in case of cancellations?

Yes...and all airlines do it. I hate Continental, too...but this could (and does) happen on any airline.

All airlines suck.
I'm flying with Continental in the morning. Heading to Mexico for a couple of days work. It's the only one that goes to this small airport.
I fly around 100,000 miles a year with all of them. Believe it or not Continental is not that bad compared to the others.

What gets to me now is the service and luggage fees. I use my miles for free tickets for family to visit one another and now the airlines charge a service fee to get a "free" ticket. The last one cost me $135 from Pitt to St Louis for a "free ticket" plus the cost to check luggage.

Pretty soon flying will be like the 5th Element only more cramped, where they were all lying down. The more bodies they can throw on the plane and charge fees, the better they like it. It's crap.

I recommend writing a firm email to the airline (Delta is horrible) describing your situation and filing a complaint. Make sure to detail and prove what you paid via your confirmation and flight number, and what discount they offered. I love how these companies, after you agree to fly at another time which saves the airlines ass, then make things complicated and frustrating. My father complained to Delta after they put his luggage on a flight to France, while he was on a plane to Australia saying it was a breach of international security. By doing so, he is currently relaxing on a free trip to Las Vegas for the week : )

CenterBHSFan;467084 wrote:
Well on my last phone call to the airline, the clerk said everything was arranged with my nice little discount. But then when my email confirmation comes, the discount is not listed anywhere... not even anything close to a discount! UGHHH!!!


End of rant.

If I am not mistaken... didn't they say that you will be given a nice discount on your next flight and not your current one? I think that is why there is no discount shown on your ticket currently. But somehow, SOMEWAY, make sure you get your discount in writing whether it is through email or something. This is coming from a person who got bumped (or at least they tried before I started making a large angry scene) by an airline on the last flight home for thanksgiving and it was continental!

tk421;467710 wrote:Pretty soon flying will be like the 5th Element only more cramped, where they were all lying down. The more bodies they can throw on the plane and charge fees, the better they like it. It's crap.

I think I'd rather that. More leg room.

I just hate how much fares change...by the second, seemingly.

Effing $967 to fly one-way to Auckland...the same flight, the day AFTER i booked that flight, was at $1200. And then, TWO days later, it was down to $850.

But, like Belly said, you win some you lose some.

Not looking forward to flying home over the holidays, i could barely afford the one-way ticket, round trip is going to be rough.

HAVE FUN CENTER!! Should be a blast.

enigmaax;467114 wrote:Not necessarily. Could've still been bumped at the airport day of travel. Would've gotten a free ticket or two out of it, but still wouldn't be traveling on that flight and would be back to step 1 trying to sort things out.

Rules at the airport say the first person bumped off an overbooked flight is the last one checked in.

So, get there early and you won't be bumped off .

Sad that I know this...traveled too much for work...

jmog;468061 wrote:Rules at the airport say the first person bumped off an overbooked flight is the last one checked in.

So, get there early and you won't be bumped off .

Sad that I know this...traveled too much for work...

True, but you don't know how early others are checking in. Thats why it could happen. And as you know, status means everything, too. I've been on a standby list in which they actually bumped someone for me to get on (don't tell that guy - he was pissed). I like to say, its the "last commoner to check in".