A free hotel room? Ha!

[smellthejeta]

My question is this: If you pay $89 dollars for an airline ticket, is it reasonable to demand a hotel room which will cost just as much, if not more from the airline? I could understand it if you paid full fare for a first class int'l ticket, but does anyone else find this ridiculous? :angryfire

My question is this: If you pay $89 for an airline ticket, is it reasonable to expect to actually get on the flight on which you've purchased a ticket?

If an airline oversells a flight, it is a risk THEY take, not the pax, even though pax are aware that "flights may be oversold." One of the reasons that last minute tix are so expensive is that the airline figures that if the flight is going to be put in an oversold situation, that the high revenue they generate from that last minute sale can be used to compensate the pax being denied boarding. EVERY airline that I've flown will pay for a hotel if they cannot get you out the same day.

Once upon a time, I was bumped by AirTran on a $111 (roundtrip) ticket. I had left my car at IAD and used mass transit to get to BWI (I had time to kill and too cheap to pay for parking and gas). I did not like the hotel accomodations (too far away from the airport for an early AM flight with uncertain security lines) so I talked them into paying for a $90 ticket out of IAD, where I could sleep in my own bed and use the express security line (employee) in the AM.

 

[g-code]

I love the drunken hillbillies who scream "I am never flying Southwest every again!"
Happens atleast 3 times a show.

Thats their bread and butter.

 

[dabandermac]

Does it really matter how much he paid for the ticket? Everyone is riding on the same plane and deserves the same service. Someone with a $300 ticket should be treated equally as someone who paid $89. Bumped from his flight (not his fault), buy the fella a hotel room. End of story.

 

[YourPilotFriend]

Don't worry, when the airlines hit rock bottom the only thing left will be to compete in service.

 

[COOPERVANE]

Southwest supposedly almost used:

"We know you'll be back, because we're cheap, and you are too!!"

Priceless!!

It is amazing how SWA gets away with so much. The flight attendants play games, and are free to make non politically correct jokes. I have heard several people talk about "toilet paper roll races" down the isles during climbout. If Delta did that, the pax would freak "So, you have plenty of money to waste on TP, so why are our ticket prices so hi?" We can't even say "Merry Christmas" without getting letters. Good for them

lower expectations I guess

 

[PSPFAWILL]

How about the drunk when denied boarding who said "I am not abbreviated".