Phl Trans Atlantic Oversales

[Dont call me Shirley]

It looks like inventory management's forecasting skills were a bit lacking this past weekend. Most flights from PHL to Europe took many, many oversales. Some of which were involuntary. It has been reported that the worst affected was a flight to MAN which had well over 30 denied boardings, with almost $20000 paid in compensation. Not travel vouchers, but actual payments to the passengers.

I guess that can happen when the inventory wizards authorize the flight 40 seats above capacity! Where did these people learn statistics anyway?

 

[Light Years]

Maybe they'll start a second daily flight with a CRJ. You know they would if they could!

I hate to see US p** off the transatlantic customers. Im my experience US seems to be held in high regard in alot of the cities we serve in Europe.

 

[ktflyhome]

That is absolutely ridiculous and assinine. Why on earth would we oversell TransAtlantic flights by that much. Duh. Stupid.

I would gather that going to Europe mostly involves Vacationers. Those that have saved and planned this around work and other schedules. I would be royally pissed if I paid for round-trip ticket over the Big Pond for my yearly or maybe once in a life time Vacation over there, to get knocked off the flight. No matter what they give you back, it could very well ruin your whole trip and lose many days of having fun.

Although, I don't know but maybe it is cheaper to oversell and compensate the pax's. :huh:

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Inventory's mission is not to oversell flight. Especially to Europe because the compensation is (often) actual money instead of trave vouchers. Inventory's mission is to fill the plan and I respect that. I also understand that it is not an exact science. But selling 260 seats on a 220 seat airplane does seem risky, especially since the show factor on a flight to Europe is firmer than, say on a Friday PM flight from San Diego to Las Vegas.

Inventory also has several resources at its disposal to "firm" flights and weed out reservation records that are likely no shows or duplicate records. Once a reservation to Europe is ticketed, it is likely that the passenger will be traveling.
Unless she is arriving on Mesa and misconnects!

I know that inventory often gets it right. But sometimes they err in the forecast (just like a certain groundhog in Pennsylvania). And there are times when they really blow it!

One does have to wonder how accountable they are.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Is there anybody that works in inventory management out there to give some insight? My admittedly random sampling on the 737 - I check the loads for the flights in my trip - seems to show that the booking limit is an almost constant number except for peak holiday times when it is higher. One would think that some variation would occur with time of day, day of the week, and market.

Jim

 

[MarkMyWords]

From what I can see, Friday night the flight went over by 26 customers. Then on Sat it went over by 35 and on Sun it went over by 45. It is my assumption that when the first flight went over, the manager/supervisor in PHL elected to roll the 26 customers to the flight on Sat, then the 35 customers on Sat to the flight on Sunday. "Rolling" the customers compounded the problem on Sat and Sun. If there was no other protection available for the MAN customers then there was no recourse but to book them for the next day. This "problem" cost us nearly 50,000.00 in denied boarding compensation!

 

[ClueByFour]

I have to believe that if US wanted to actually pay the premium, the BA 747 and 777 that come to PHL could get folks to London and from there to MAN--if they tried to bump me, that's exactly what I'd be going after.

 

[nycbusdriver]

I have to believe that if US wanted to actually pay the premium, the BA 747 and 777 that come to PHL could get folks to London and from there to MAN--if they tried to bump me, that's exactly what I'd be going after.

Sorry, Clue. Tha just makes way too much sense to be a viable plan.

After all, "We know how to run an airline" with "cool, northern efficiency."

 

[AKA_trvlr64]

Well your bosses keep saying that WE (the public) are not flying!! What a load of horse sh_t. We all know that customers are showing up for their flights. I am really getting tired of being bumped. It happened again today to me. The only good thing is that I did have a flexible schedule and could ACCOMODATE your bosses foolishness.

US management needs to wake up.

 

[USFlyer]

FWIW, lots of flights were oversold this past weekend. Anyone try flying out of ATL on Sunday? Walking down the terminal in CLT I saw "Volunteers Needed" at probably 1 in every 3 gates. Ditto with PHL.

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

. I am really getting tired of being bumped. It happened again today to me. The only good thing is that I did have a flexible schedule and could ACCOMODATE your bosses foolishness.

US management needs to wake up.

I do hope that you volunteered and were not an "involuntary DB". (Invol DB are about the worst case scenario for gate staff.) If indeed you were involuntarily denied, I hope that US Airways made you aware of yout DOT mandated options.

 

[Piedmont4US]

Maybe this explains why there as so many positions in Yield Management open in CCY.

 

[reznc]

I am not in Inventory, but interact with them daily, and know that all European flts were sold out this weekend on all the major carriers. We are still trying to get people to MAN tomorrow. They were rolled from one oversold day to the next by PHL, which normally is OK, however does noone ever take credence to sources outside the industry. More people are going to Europe this time of the year and summer than ever before, fares are lower.

 

[ISP]

Maybe this is a silly question, but say $50,000 was the figure that was paid out in compensation. How much would it cost to run an extra section for one evening.

What if MAN & LGW were both oversold. US could run something like PHL-MAN-LGW-PHL.

Once it was clear bookings were so strong, maybe they should have done this and opened up the remaining seats to be purchased!

On another note... if there were no extra widebodies to run a ferry flight, think US would ever run an ETOPS narrowbody to Europe (obviously with a midpoint stop)?

 

[crusher]

On Sunday night Phl took 45 OS for MAN and 25 for FRA. The total CASH outlay was over $34,000 plus hotels and food. Another fine job done by our young wizards in inventory. Phl had a 1-2% no show factor in Int'l this past weekend , yet the flights were booked up to 45 pax over. These bookings prove a few things , we need either more Int'l flights or bigger aircraft, because apparently we don't have much trouble filling them. Imagine what kind of Int'l market we could have if we had a presence in JFK rather than to try an shove everyone through PHL. JFK is it's own market , not much hubbing is necessary there.