All seats taken but still got a reservation????

Question

i'm flying united airlines ORD-PEK in a week w/ my mom. i booked my flight a month ago but my mom did it a few days ago. when he selected the ORD-PEK flight, all seats were reserved on the chart but he was still able to make a reservation. is UA overbooking? how will we get on the flight? are we are required to be at ORD at a certain time and can't afford to miss the flight.

thx

Answer 1

The people who show up late are the ones that will get bumped and there are people who volunteer to be bumped.  There are also people who just plain don't show up!

Answer 2

By law, they are allowed to overbook. You'll get a boarding pass once you check in. You can get on the flight by getting to the airport extra early to check in. Who ever checks in earlier are given a boarding pass. Once all the boarding passes are given to the ones to check in, gate agents will usually give an annoucement saying the flight is overbooked, if you decide to give up your confirmed seat then they will usually give you a free round-trip ticket & confirmed space on the next flight. Can you check in early online? I'm not sure if you can on United, most airlines will allow you to check-in early and print out a boarding pass...which is another way to guarantee your boarding. JUST GET THERE EARLY!!

Answer 3

In addition to all of the above, airlines often stop allowing specific seat assignments as the flight date approaches to allow flexibility in dealing with families, et al.  It does not mean the flight is definitvely overbooked.  That said, web-check in the night before if you can, and get to the gate early as you can.  (2 hrs before flight at the airport earliest).

Answer 4

United routinely holds back a couple of rows in its standard economy section which it releases within 24 hours of the flight.  There are also seats that appear occupied because there are seats that you may not have access to pre-book (Economy plus, exit rows, etc.) that you may be assigned on the day of travel.

I wouldn't worry about getting a seat on the flight, but the key is to get to the airport and check in early.  If you are worried about an involuntary bump, the last checked in with the lowest frequent flier status would be the first to be bumped.

Also, if you haven't already done so, join Mileage Plus, United's frequent flier program.  They will involuntarily bump non-members before members on their priority list.

Good luck and safe travels!

Answer 5

People sometimes don't show up and others volunteer to miss the flight for rewards like money or gift cards

Answer 6

Some businessmen actually book several tickets on different airlines to make sure they get a flight when they need it, when they "clean up" the passenger list, those who didn't confirm, automatically get removed from the flight and so the people who were overbooked, get their place instead. Maybe you can ask your travel agent to contact you when your mother's ticket gets confirmed, otherwise just show up at the airport on the day of your departure.

Answer 7

Airlines usually overbook by a few seats. Thats incase some high fare customers change their tickets, and incase there are no shows, they still have a full flight and make money. They will give status holders and full fare passengers confirmed tickets, no matter how overfilled. Then connecting international passengers. At the bottom of the pickings for an oversold flight are low fare coach passengers who are not making a long trip with the airline (many stopovers). I say show up early, or do web check in as early as possible. Those flights tend to be very full!

Answer 8

You would be smart to reconfirm and get to ORD well ahead of time. Don't you have to get there at least 3 hours in advance for an international flight?

This story was in the San Diego Union Tribune just this morning:

A party of eight family members booked a trip to Hawaii 6 months in advanced, and then United overbooked and the day before the flight, most of them were refused confirmation, even though they had received an email the day before the flight saying they should confirm their reservations. United first said their reservation wasn't in the computer, then something about something going wrong with a computer or something like that, and finally admitted it was a case of overbooking. The family ended up not going.

This family think that United was trying to get more money by unfairly favoring customers who had made their reservations later, when the prices were higher, due to the recent gasoline crisis. Ideally, it should work the way one person answered you, and whoever gets to the airport first would get the seat, but that was not the problem in the case I read about today.

By the way, months later, the family got a refund, but they still haven't gotten back about $10,000 that they paid in advance for a cottage on a beach or something because, allegedly, United won't send a letter of explanation to the travel insurance company the family used.

There are usually two sides to a story, but it is common knowledge, at least, that airlines do regularly overbook. There must be too many "no-shows."  

Answer 9

Just because a seat is not available to you does not mean that it is actually assigned to someone. Many airlines freeze seat assignments (completely, or except for their most preferred customers) when a certain percentage of seats are assigned. Many also block out certain high-demand seats from assignment (except to the most preferred customers) until the day of the flight.

But you asked about overbooking. Yes, if UAL has an opportunity to do so, you can be quite confident that they will overbook. And it's certainly quite possible that's what has happened. It would look the same, reservation with no seat assignment. There's really no way to know for sure.