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Do Airlines Know How to Do Math?
Author: Jeannie Walters
June 24, 2008
I was recently in Houston, TX meeting with a potential client to see how we can help with their overall customer experience strategy. I flew in that morning and my return flight to Chicago was booked for 5:40 p.m. I arrived at the airport at 3:19 p.m. and noticed a 3:30 p.m. flight, so I hustled to E17 – of course the last gate of the wing – and arrived at the gate around 3:25 p.m. I was greeted by an attendant who said I was too late for the 3:30 p.m. flight. She also informed me that unfortunately, she wouldn’t have been able to help me anyway. Turns out, as of June 19, Continental Airlines doesn’t allow you to go directly to the departure gate and attempt to get on an earlier flight. If there’s room on an earlier flight, you have to go to the Service Center (way back at the entrance of the concourse), pay a $50 change fee and get a new ticket issued.
I thought about this for a few minutes. On my morning flight to Houston, the attendants were begging passengers to give up their tickets because they overbooked the flight. They were offering a $250 flight voucher and a breakfast voucher for any passenger willing to take a later flight.
So here’s the deal…
Airlines intentionally overbook flights, making them painfully crowded, (with the new checked baggage fee on other airlines, the overhead bin situation is ridiculous) and then reserve the right to bump people at will. Then, they routinely offer $250+ in compensation to those willing to switch flights. Yet airlines charge passengers wanting to switch to an earlier, and not fully booked, flight $50.
Yep, makes perfect sense.
The irony is that I was happy with my Continental experience on the way to Houston – nice people, didn’t seem to be charging for strange things like a muffin or checked baggage…
But guess what I’ll tell people about now?
I’d like to sit in on some of the board meetings where they make these decisions. “You know what? We could charge $50 to all those travelers who use up empty seats on earlier flights! What a great idea!” Arrrgh.
