Let me ask you airline guys a question:
I fully understand that there will be people who don't show up for flights or people who don't make connections leaving empy seats on aircraft, but what in the hell is up with oversold flights at outstations?
I was booked on a flight out of Redmond, Oregon on Horizon on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I showed up to learn that I was not on the flight because they were oversold and that the next flight out wasn't until the next day.
I had a contract with FedEx Ground to run a P and D route the next day. If I didn't get back to PHX and to work before Monday morning at 0600, I would loose my contract and the $42K that I paid for it.
I could not freaking believe that Horizon/Alaska had oversold a Dash out of Redmond on that particular day. I could understand overselling a flight from PHX-LA or the like wherein I could be bumped to another flight later in the day, but I don't understand how they could justify stranding me in central Oregon by overselling a 34-seat Dash on Thanksgiving weekend.
In the end, a husband/wife couple couldn't board because the husband has lost his wallet and they needed to find it....but by the grace of God was I not financially destroyed AND out of work.
Who makes the decision on how much to oversell a flight and how do they do it? I can easily see this someday soon becoming a national issue that will cause congress to move as quickly as they did to pass the "no call list" if overselling continues to be an issue.