slackercruster

I bought my tickets a few months before the flight. It had 4 flights for the trip. I was able to get seats for 3 of the 4 flights. (The flight with no seat was on my return flight coming home from Amsterdam.)

When I tried to get a seat for the fight with no assigned seat, the airlines said I will get the seat assigned when I take that flight 10 days later. The day of that filight I was at the airport 3 hours early. Upon check in, the airlines informed me I was flying standby. I preotested saying I had bought my tickets 2-1/2 months ago and I was not standby. They said the flight was overbooked and I did not have a seat and I could only fly if a seat opened up.

This ever happent to you? I used Delta.

november_moon

This has never happened to me, but overbooking flights is not uncommon. Usually the airline will ask for volunteers to take a later flight - they usually give some compensation. If they don't get enough volunteers, they bump people, which sounds like what happened to you. Usually they bump people based on who checked in for the flight last.

sludick

Yes, I have been bumped from a couple of flights. Always Delta, as you were, but they are by no means the only airline doing this.

Basically, it begins with not being able to get a seat assignment. You are told that it will be assigned at the gate, and Delta does update their boards to advise individuals to come up for new boarding passes. That has been my experience on a number of occasions; but it has also ended up with no boarding pass at all on more than one occasion and being bumped.

So essentially, no seat assignment is an indicator that the flight is overbooked and you are in jeopardy of being bumped (aside from Southwest and any other airlines that do not assign seats).

So, be familiar with your options. Print out your Contract of Carriage (Delta: http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...riage-dgr.html) as well as the laws that might apply. The airline might not offer compensation, or make some concession that is less than what you are entitled. You need to know what you can expect legally, and this will help you immensely at the desk.

Be polite, but knowledgeable and firm.

sludick

P.S. Last minute bookings are not the only time this has happened to me. At times I have booked (for business) at least several weeks ahead, at which time the plane is already overbooked. On one occasion, I reviewed other options (airports, times) and was able to suggest a different arrival that they could do, with a delay but less than waiting for the original airport. It delayed me a bit but was reasonable, and they still owed me compensation, so it worked out ok.

dulciusexasperis

Yes it is common. Simply put, if you do not have a confirmed seat you do not have a confirmed seat.

It could have stung even worse. I have shown up at the boarding gate at the last minute but before the gate is closed. That last part is important. Gate closed they don't have to do anything for me.

In one case, the gate agent said to me, 'The flight is full. You have a confirmed seat so I have two choices to offer you. I can put you on the next flight AND give you a voucher for a round trip ticket anywhere we fly or I can have someone come off the plane and board you. Which would you prefer?'

Now imagine I said, 'I want on the plane' and they then took you off the plane to let me board. That would sting you even more.

sludick

Yes, and that has actually happened to me too.. to be fair, I was a standby passenger (got on an earlier flight than I was actually supposed to take). Real bummer, to have to get back off the plane.

hetismij2

Since you were flying from Amsterdam I would look into the EU rules on such things. They apply to all flights leaving an EU country regardless of the nationality of the carrier.
Did you try checking in online 24 hours before the flight?

Tabernash2

You make a good point for being sure to check into your flight, and doing your best to get an assigned seat. I know on some airline sites, it isn't really clear how to get an assigned seat when you purchase your ticket, so you have to look for it. If I can't get one, I'm a worried customer.

NewbE

Well, SO had an assigned seat on a flight he checked in for, but when he boarded the plane it turned out the seat did not exist--literally. This came as a surprise to everyone, but there was nothing to be done about it, and he was booted off the flight.

Tabernash2

That's really annoying, NewbE. Maybe the website was showing a different type of plane than the flight was using. I hope he was well-compensated!

NewbE

I think that was the case, that the aircraft had been changed. Since they booked him on the next flight, leaving a few hours later, I don't think he was compensated at all, but I could be misremembering.

1hughes

I can top all of you. I was once bumped off an oversold flight even though I had a boarding pass and seat assignment!

It was a codeshare flight. I bought the ticket on the airline that wasn't actually running flight. Even though I got the boarding pass at the check in from the airline operating the flight, the gate agent just tore it up right in front of me. He said he had to look after their passengers first. It left me stranded to sleep overnight in a chair at the airport.

The airlines really are despicable.

Christina

It's never happened to me, luckily. I do book in advance and always make sure I get a seat assignment upon booking or as soon as possible (sometimes you have to call them, you can't do it online). I would be very leery of any ticket where I wasn't ever allowed to get a seat assignment in advance and would presume I was ripe for getting bumped.

On one flight I took, the airline had booked two people to lots of seats, at least a dozen. It was crazy, I forget the airline. I think it might have been a plane change issue but no explanation why so many people had the same seat numbers. But I think everyone got a seat eventually, just not what they wanted. That might have been United, I think they blamed their merger with Continental and somehow their computer system got messed up. Made no sense to me why merging with another airline would mess around with people's seat numbers.

I've had a seat assignment that didn't exist, also. But I found out I had been reassigned a different one than I had selected when I checked in. that was some plane change.