What are they playing at?

[dave01]

One for the airline geeks.


Booked a flight with Thai Airways SYD - BKK.  Original booking was TG 472 2030 SYD ARR BKK 0250.   Slight alteration to timing, the flight was laid back 1 hour...  No problem.

Yet another alteration, the flight is lifted up 5 hours to 1600 hours arrive BKK 2220 hours .... ALL GOOD!!  EXCEPT, my travelling companion and I were bumped to a flight the following day...  Not gunna work for us...  So a quick call and we are both back on the 1600 flight on the day we booked and paid for.

No real explanation as to why we were bumped over the fence.  It has me stumped, because the fare we paid, and the category of fare was still being sold....

So in the end, really no harm, no foul, but can anybody with any idea of how reservation systems work, have a go at explaining why this would happen?  Why wouldn't the pax already booked on the flight just simply be migrated to the retimed (not renumbered) flight?

That is what we do if we retime a service...

[iaht]

I don't work for the airlines anymore but i worked for Qantas for 7 years . When re booking the passengers on a schedule change the airlines normally move the people that are worth more to them first eg . The highest Royal orchard plus members first ,soon followed by any passengers with onward connections . I would not be surprised that you were bumped because people that had connections through to the European destinations were given priority over yourself.Probably more than half of the passengers booked on your flight are probably not even planning to stay in Thailand. I don't think that you guys were personally selected it just happens that you were on the tail end of their list.

[dave01]

I don't work for the airlines anymore but i worked for Qantas for 7 years . When re booking the passengers on a schedule change the airlines normally move the people that are worth more to them first eg . The highest Royal orchard plus members first ,soon followed by any passengers with onward connections . I would not be surprised that you were bumped because people that had connections through to the European destinations were given priority over yourself.Probably more than half of the passengers booked on your flight are probably not even planning to stay in Thailand. I don't think that you guys were personally selected it just happens that you were on the tail end of their list.

 

 

Yeah I don't think we were "selected" either....  But we have ongoing internal flight about midday the next day.... that's why we were annoyed... AND the fact they were still selling our category of fare for the flight... ( I know  a little bit).  And when I pointed that out to them, they quickly fixed it up. BTW I am A Royal Orchid member..

 

There is a funny one I just can't work out....  A mate asked me to "Travel Agent" for him....  book everything for a trip to Phuket.  Again I found a very good Thai Airways fare of 795 return SYD -BKK-HKT-BKK-SYD.  

 

Anyway before booking that fare, I checked what a fare SYD-BKK return same flights same dates would be... It came in at 809 AUD...  Work that one out... they are giving a BKK-HKT return for minus $14?  They sometimes leave me stumped

 

 

[Scumbag]

I believe it is normal practice for airlines to over-book flights as they assume that some people will not turn up. Perhaps the flight you was booked on was over-booked above a certain threshold and the started bumping people to different flights.

[dave01]

I believe it is normal practice for airlines to over-book flights as they assume that some people will not turn up. Perhaps the flight you was booked on was over-booked above a certain threshold and the started bumping people to different flights.

 

 

I really dunno....  But they are still selling....all categories....  that is the thing that has me confused...  Nothing changed other than the timings...  I have never had any issue with Thai before, flown with them heaps of times, and tell anyone who will listen, that they are a pretty decent airline... and I still will... They were very good when I explained why we were unhappy to be bumped and fixed it quickly.

 

I am tipping the flight we were bumped to, is pretty lightly booked...

[Harvey707]

I believe it is normal practice for airlines to over-book flights as they assume that some people will not turn up. Perhaps the flight you was booked on was over-booked above a certain threshold and the started bumping people to different flights.

 

Correct my brother worked for Mearsk one of BA's partner airlines. As such I was entitled to staff tickets (standby) for 8 years. BA had 330 economy seats in its 747 at that time and would overbook 10% so 33 seats oversold. He could tell me in advance of going to airport on standby if flights were wide open or overbooked limiting my chances of getting on standby