The case of an overbooked flight – the two sides of a coin
It was the last day of our holidays and travel plans called for taking a Continental 737-800 from San Francisco to Newark where we would change to a Continental 767-400 bound for Brussels. The flight from SFO was uneventful and the five hours 20 minutes passed quickly. By the time we got to the gate of the Brussels flight in EWR, most of the passengers were already there and you could see that the gate agents were extremely busy although boarding was still more than an hour away.
We soon found out what the commotion was all about. The flight was overbooked and the people with confirmed seats on paper but none in the aircraft were obviously less than pleased with their predicament. As I ambled over to the gate desk to have our boarding pass and passports verified, I heard a guy with a German accent loudly proclaim to the young lady handling his case: THIS COULD NEVER HAPPEN ON LUFTHANSA!
Obviously, an overbooked flight is not something any airline likes to have on their hands but it does happen also at Lufthansa. In fact, no company is immune to this phenomenon but in this particular case a storm in New York the day before had left schedules in tatters and a lot of rearrangements had to be put in to keep things and people moving. OK the German guy was not expected to know this and he was of course entitled to love Lufthansa more than Continental but facts are facts and I told him saw. He was obviously surprised to find a fellow passenger (and possible overbooking victim like himself) side with the enemy… But after hearing me out, he had the grace to apologize to the Continental girls for his outburst.
Next thing, I heard the announcement asking for volunteers to give up their seat for appropriate compensation and travel at a later date. I have heard this kind of announcement before but each time my schedule was very tight and there was no question of volunteering. Not this time however. I was curious… what exactly were they offering?
As luck would have it, I ended up at the pedestal run by Marta, the Continental team leader for the night and she welcomed me with a broad smile and whispered “thank you”, obviously referring to the little incident of a few minutes earlier. So what is the deal, I asked her, with this volunteering. We have travelled with Continental a lot and I have always found their ground crew extremely competent, friendly and helpful. Marta was all that and then some.
Dealing with me, she was the ultimate sales person, keen on keeping this potential volunteer not least because the number of additional volunteers at that point was exactly zero. With the bright smile I was by now getting used to, she explained that Continental would pay the hotel for the extra days, provide meal vouchers for breakfast, lunch and dinner for each of the days and, best of all, would give us a travel voucher to the value of 400 dollars per person, redeemable for tickets within a year of issue. What about our checked bags? Those would remain in storage if we wanted and be put on the flight we would be taking. So, how long would we be “stuck” in the New York area? There were no seats available on Saturday or Sunday so we would be travelling on Monday. Three clean days in the Big Apple. Was that ok? You bet!
Once I said yes, in no time at all our bags were located and carried away for secure storage, the 800 bucks worth of travel vouchers were printed as were the hotel and meal vouchers. They put us up at the Crowne Plaza and said that if it was not to our liking, we could select another hotel! While this was going on, I watched how the gate agents, now armed with two additional seats, swiftly worked through the list of supernumerary people boarding some, rerouting others. That Continental ground crew knew their business for sure. Throwing in a bit of psychology where needed, they were the manifest incarnation of the airline’s motto: work hard, fly right. They did and by the time the Brussels flight pushed back, the whole overbooking situation had evaporated like morning dew when the sun rises. As if by magic, no one seemed to be upset any more and the proposed alternatives were being accepted in good grace. I think the ground crew made an excellent job, pacifying people with smiles, sound explanations and good proposals that people could accept. Work hard, fly right! Indeed!
We spent the three extra days in New York under glorious sunshine and munching a hot dog in Central Park my only worry was what would happen to our gear. Those three checked bags had a few important mementos that I would have hated to lose. To make things even more complicated, one of the bags had been hand tagged in SFO because it did not quite fit the overhead bin and had to be checked the last minute… Will we ever see them again?
Monday evening came all too quickly and in no time at all we were once again on one of a Continental 767-400. Their service, even in coach, is excellent and the leg room, even for a tallish guy like me, more than adequate. A little over six hours and some pretty bad turbulence later we landed in Brussels where the fate of our bags would be revealed.
Guess what? They all arrived, decorated with an assorted set of routing slips, hand written notes and what have you, but they were all there. After two unscheduled transfers and three days of storage… amazing. But may be it is not.
Work hard, fly right. Fly Continental.
Thanks for a wonderful week-end in New York and for the professionalism with which this case was handled by all concerned!