If your answer is “never,” congrats, it will happen soon 
. My last time was about two weekends ago. I was trying to get on a Lufthansa (LH) flight on a Friday morning from Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) to Berlin, Germany (TXL). When I got to the gate and checked in, I noticed that I was #29 out of 31 on the list! At least I was not #31 huh? Well, as it turns out, only 12 of us made it. Not bad I thought, although I was not one of them.
My next option was another LH flight, but I figured I’d perhaps be the same place on the list. I had checked the schedules using passrider.com and realized that there is an Air Berlin (AB) flight about an hour and a half or so later. I changed terminals and thankfully, there were seats available and I made it.
So how has it been for you? How bad was the list the last time you got bumped? What were your alternate plans? We want to hear all about it.
I really needed to get to Atlanta from Chicago O’Hare on a Friday afternoon. Flights were full to begin with, and all sorts of paying passengers had been bumped for some reason, so 30+ names on every flight’s wait list. They blamed ‘Spring Break’ – that goes on for two months, doesn’t it? Anyhow – glory be – I got the last seat on the last flight out that evening. A fluke, but much appreciated.
My partner and I decided to non-rev from Dallas to Honolulu during spring break this year. We got bumped off of our plane in ABQ from our own carrier and it was the last flight of the night. Fortunately, the hotel just outside the airport had rooms available. ABQ Grand Hotel gave us the airline discount rate and had $1 beer in the bar! Not a bad place to get stuck if you ask me! The next morning, with the snow falling, we boarded our flight to LAX with no problems. The flights from LAX to HNL were wide open so we didn’t have any problems getting there! We spent 7 wonderful days on the beach! Coming back, the plane to LAX was half empty. And we were lucky enough to get the last 2 seats on flight back to TX.
The last time I ‘almost’ got bumped was BOS-ATL a couple weeks ago. The flight was 115/117 and I was 13 deep on the standby list. SOMEHOW I got the last seat and wasn’t stuck. That was lucky!
My wife and I went to see her Grandfather in Lansing. Flew to DTW on F9 w/ mother in law as buddy pass rider with us. Then flew out of MDW back to DEN. Just happened to get to MDW after the worst snow storm of the season. I was the only F9 employee traveling and was at the top of the list with us. Mother in law got the last seat since she connected final destination of ICT. Wife and I were stuck in MDW and got bumped from the rest of the flights and ended up buying 2 ZED tix on WN and got the last 2 seats on the flight minutes before departure.
One other word of advice: Always show your employee ID in the security lines! You can sometimes go through the employee line when not at your home base and not have to wait in the paying passenger lines. This saved me when I was in MDW because there were so many people in the lines I wouldn’t have made it back to the gate in time to catch the ZED flight. I was through security in 2 minutes instead of 1 hour.
My partner and I decided to non-rev from Dallas to Honolulu during spring break this year. We got bumped off of our plane in ABQ from our own carrier and it was the last flight of the night. Fortunately, the hotel just outside the airport had rooms available. ABQ Grand Hotel gave us the airline discount rate and had $1 beer in the bar! Not a bad place to get stuck if you ask me! The next morning, with the snow falling, we boarded our flight to LAX with no problems. The flights from LAX to HNL were wide open so we didn’t have any problems getting there! We spent 7 wonderful days on the beach! Coming back, the plane to LAX was half empty. And we were lucky enough to get the last 2 seats on flight back to TX.
+1
Atlanta – Salt Lake City on Monday – didn’t even try Sunday. After getting bumped off FIVE, count ‘em FIVE straight flights jumped on a Sacramento flight where ALL the stand by pax got on and rented a one way to drive to final destination of Reno. Lesson ? Have a backup if you want to get from Atleanta to Salt Lake.
Last time was also my first time. My husband calls me and says meet me in CLT and then down to SAV for my over night. Get to our base airport and got on no problem. He landed in CLT not too long after me and I got on the SAV flight no problem. Coming home SAV to CLT easy flight. Then we got to the counter in CLT. There was a FA in front of me and 3 paying passengers in front of her. Three min before the door closed the gate agent said there was 5 seats left. As we were tagging our bags to be checked plane side…two people caming running up. Needles to say the FA and I stayed in CLT while my husband flew the plane home. The next flight 2 hours later was delayed over 2 hours but we finially got on and got to sleep way late that night!!!
I was at LAX trying to catch the red eye back to DTW,(Sunday night) I was number 10 on the list. At the time, I only had three months on the job and Non reving was/is new to me. I was not aware that it was Spring break all over the United States. LOL
Coming out of MCO (I’m sure a lot of eyes rolled reading that airport code) going to DFW. We wanted to hang out at the pool at the Polynesian and get our money’s worth. I looked at flights closely and nothing was overbooked through out the day. In fact the last flight was the best. It was scheduled to leave at 7:30pm. I checked the loads one last time before leaving for the airport at 5:30. It was an MD-80 booked to 90/140. Wide open. We got to the airport at 6:15 and wow- what a turn of events in 45mins. The flight was overbooked all the sudden and delayed till 9pm. Continental sent passengers over that were supposed from IAH flights and there was a HUGE Brazilian family that flat out missed there flight to MIA so they were going through DFW instead. It quickly added up and caught us all by suprise. My GF got the last seat on the plane and I sat in the jumpseat. By the way, part of the Brazilian family took the remaining first class seats and the kids drove the F/A’s nuts.
A few years ago I was a on a flight from IAH-OKC. It was a 9pm depature last flight on an ERJ. It was booked to 45. Holds 50 and I was the only non-rev. The agent said she’ll try to get me a row to myself. No problems anticipated. About 2mins later one of the electric carts pull up to the podium with five 400lbs+ ladies from OKC with frizzy-hair, no make-up, and wrinkled clothes. One of them had a little boom box blarring “We like to party” out of the speakers and they were all dancing in there seats. The wheels were literally bottomed out and it looked like the cart could have been catching the carpet on the ground as it was driving down the concourse. The cart literally lifted up a few inches as each one of them got off. They were very obnoxious and kind of rude and kept bouncing around as they got up to the podium. A lot of people were just rolling there eyes at them including me. The agent gave me 19B and said I would have the whole row to myself. I thanked her and headed down the jetway. Once on the plane I noticed one of the fat women sitting in 19C reading a book. I said I was in 19B. I literally had maybe 1/4 of the seat available. She looked over her glasses and said in a sqeely voice “Sorry, no more room! Hehehehehe! Finders keepers! Hehehehehe!” She was assigned to a different seat but took it upon herself to relocate because she couldn’t fit in her assigned seat. This woman was actually the smallest of the 5. The agent came on and they had to bump me off because the only empty seats was next to them and not even a toddler could fit in the seat next to them. The rare time that flight wasn’t overbooked and I still got bumped. Its beyond me how some of these groups in OKC get to travel. They say that OK has some of the most obese people in the US and Golden Coral does well in OK. It showed that night.
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My DP and I needed to get from DEN to SEA for a wedding. I checked the loads the night before we left (a thursday) and there were between 4 and 11 seats on each F9 flight. Just as a precaution i bought passes on a couple other airlines. When we got to DEN for the first flight out there were 4 seats open and 3 nonrevs including us. Just as we were about to board we were informed that at the last minute they sold the seats. We were then bumped from the next 4 flights on F9 and 6 flights on the other airlines. Finally a gate agent from alaska air told us that the only way she knew of for us to get to seattle was if we could make it to billings, mt in time for a six am flight. Billings is 550 miles from Denver. We drove all night and made it with 45 minutes to spare we got the last 2 seats on the plane. Coming back from seattle on sunday was even worse. We got to the Airport early for the 6am flight and found out that the flights were overbooked for the next 2 days. After checking with the other airlines and hearing the same story we ended up getting on a Greyhound and sitting on the bus for 23 hours ending up back in Billings where we rented another car and drove home. What a nightmare.
Today. The company wants to send me to work in Hawaii to work for another one of our subsideraries. They tell me I’m positive space but when I get to the gate, Mainline says I’m only stand-by. I was 6th on the list with 13 non-revs. Then the shady company that I work for calls me after dutying off and asks me to non-rev on my own dime and time. Without pay. Try again tomorrow. That is about the millionth time I’ve been bumbed and not the first time the company has suggested that either. I told them to buy my ticket so I don’t lose my flight benefits. Bet you can guess the company!:)
A family member had the misfortune to travel to London on a buddy pass this past July. No problem getting there, but getting back – quite another story! Basically, his 3-week trip turned into 6 weeks. Not that bad if you’re young, on summer break, and have lots of friends in London to stay with. But still, some long days (and nights) were spent fruitlessly at LHR trying to get on a flight. At one point, these oversold flights had up to 85 names on the standby list! Eventually, the wait list whittled down, until one Sunday morning – lo and behold – he heard his name called for the last seat on a flight to JFK. He could scarcely believe it! And he was even more surprised to find himself tearing up as he boarded “I’m actually going home!!”
To all flightcrew that jumpseat to thier various workplaces, if you ever have a Captain name Tim Weismann you might want to choose a different flight to commute on. He will not only deny jumpseating because he doesnt feel like it, he’ll make no effort to get a positive space employee on when they are attempting to get somewhere for work related purposes. No matter how nice or courteous, there’s always someone there to screw you over.
Thanks to Tim
Last time I got bumped was in DEN. For UA DEN is purgatory, where unless you’ve a handy indulgence or an act of contrition available you’re probably going to spend all day there. For AA it’s the same in DFW. My god those GAs are nasty there. First they don’t speak English, the language of aviation, and second they threaten to revoke flight benefits for questioning why they put you on the plane only to come fish you out. The non-rev lounge in A terminal is ok, but due to the lack of vacuum cleaning I would suggest avoiding it. As for DEN, it’s a pretty place to get stuck at least. I suggest being nice to the GAs and let them know you understand their plight. If they get an obnoxious self anointed rev passenger that merely wants to take an early flight they sometimes forgo calling them in favor of a kind Pilot, FA, or non-rev.
Got 3 coach middle seats IAD/NRT on our way to BKK. Got bumped in NRT Nov 3, 2010. The next day I purchased $1100.00 worth of back-up tickets on Thai Air and ANA to try to get to Bangkok. They were useless as they were full as well. We got lucky and finally got three of the last seats on United. On our way back, in order to avoid getting 3 more middle seats in coach from NRT to IAD, we decided to go the NRT/SEA route. We did get business class. However, we got bumped trying to get to IAD. Our final destination was MCO. I purchased another $180.00 worth of tickets on Alaska Air and once again it was useless because they as well were full. We spent another night inside SEA airport. The next morning the SEA/ORD flight cancelled and every other destination out of SEA was full. We got lucky and got the last 3 seats to DEN. However, DEN/MCO was full and we took a flight to TPA. We had a relative pick us up and drive us the 2 hours home. It’s so nice to have flying benefits to enjoy a vacation like this. Next time i drive. This is the third year in a row this has happened. HKG is the worst. The United ticket agents should all be fired.
The question should be, “When was the last time you non-rev’ed and didn’t get bumped?” To which I would reply, I can’t remember.
May 2010 me and my 5 months pregnant wife went to Kauai. We went DEN to LAX to LIH no problem! Coming back, we were #29 and #30 for 6 seats on UA. The guys at the ticket counter were great in LIH for UA. They scanned all the available flights to the mainland and told us we would have to spend another night in Kauai….DARN!
We got listed on AA for the following evening, spent the night near LAX and flew back to DEN the next day. Took me 3 days to get back to DEN but it was worth the adventure.
Man – it’s been long .. I really don’t consider myself bumped if I get to my destination the same day as planned, and I haven’t failed here for at least 15 years. Single flight bumps, yes, several times, but I always get there. Planning, a bit of luck and nice colleagues that accept me in jumpseats have been the key.
ATL… I was trying to get to PNS to help my son (a Sailor) and his wife after the birth of their new baby. The gate agent called my name and was actually handing me my seat assignment when he turned and looked at the woman beside me and said, “Sorry, you didn’t get on.” She literally stomped her foot in anger! The gate agent took my seat assignment/ticket, tore it up, reprinted another one and handed it to her. He said, “Go on, get out of here.” He obviously wanted her out of his hair. Not only did he not apologize to me, I stood there for nearly half an hour and he wouldn’t even make eye contact with me. I didnt’ get to PNS at all… I ended up going back home and not meeting my new grandson until weeks later. Selfishness abounds.
I am just learning of all this non-rev stuff , it seems to me that being extremely conscious of the PSA is the key and to stay out of areas that are hard to get out of
like the UK in July
Denver and Orlando , ect,
I guess it really comes down to doing your homework and knowing for a fact that some flights will always have PSA
any other advice for a Newbie?
Our son flies for a regional carrier and we had just taken our first non-rev trip (DEN-ONT). Trip to ONT was great, lots of seats, and no problem. Checked loads for the return and found that the first flight back was overbooked but second had lots of seats and few standbys. So we arrived at ONT as they were boarding the first flight to DEN and I heard one of the gate agents comment that they were full. Went to get my wife and I a breakfast sandwich and coffee. When I returned a few minutes later I heard the same agent comment that there were a number of empty seats. Doors were closed and too late to board.
Lesson learned…always check in with the gate agent even if you aren’t listed on that flight. Also, do not leave the gate until the doors are closed. Maybe, just maybe, there will be empty seats on an overbooked flight.
The flight we had booked on somehow suddenly became full….guess from those who had “missed” the first flight.