Anyone experience the same thing as Capt Rick has as stated
below?
From: Capt767er@aol.com
Date: 7/21/2013 10:15:44 PM
Subject: Non Rev
Mark,
Curious if
anyone else has the experience of the numbers on the TravelNet not being
anything close to reality at the airport? I generally check listings for Buddy
Pass friends 12 hours before departure to be sure about the reality of
boarding. We all know about IROPS,etc. As a commuter for 30 years and now 10
years retired I have seen this go in cycles where for some reason the numbers
were not believable. At one point it seemed to be to hide real
market numbers from competitors who could track our actual bookings?
I make it a practice to check after midnite to give the system an
opportunity to update. After some significant negative feedback in the past I generally
only offer a Buddy Pass for an emergency situation or if I give as a gift and
pay the fee myself. It is difficult to complain about free. Even with
40 years experience in NonRev travel I now find it impossible to make a
realistic estimate of probablity. Apparently this is a significant
element of revenue for the corporation but some agents seem to think these
riders do not deserve the same customer service. Instead of becoming Delta
promoters some go out of their way to book on another carrier after the
experience when it came time to purchase tickets. Others have also
declined the offer of another Buddy Pass.
Also wonder what is happening when one gets
to the gate in ATL and there are 150 standbys on a 757? Not once in awhile but
routinely over a long period of time. Seems a work around to the screens
that are supposed to show what is happening real time?
The stated practice of accommodating
over booked passengers to occupy First Class or Business Class seats has all
but eliminated non revenue travel in some markets.
Some markets are published on the TravelNet
and seems many are not. This combined with taking away carry on luggage and
booking to a final destination versus returning at the next stop makes it a
real crap shoot that one could end up with your critical items somewhere else
in the world and no chance of retrieval for minimum of 24 hours. That is if
they are located at all. Meds,Jewelry,expensive items like
cameras,laptops, and emergency bathroom items and emergency clothing in reality
are at serious risk. Delta warns against checking these items and then demand
that you check them later. When I told an agent I had meds in the "non
lockable" bag the answer was I could choose to not travel. Since I have
had expensive items stolen in TSA screening I am more than reluctant to pack
anything valuable in checked baggage. Seems the regional jet people can manage
returning bags on each leg but Delta insists on booking carry on luggage thru
the ATL hub. Since this is a labor intensive function I understand this but? Some
FA are kicking the can down the road and cutting off carry on when they have
failed to monitor how things are being stored in the first place. It takes
time to rearrange the mess made by the first passengers to board who
ignore the announcements. Again to be fair since minimal staffing
has been in existence for some time I believe they get tired of fighting this
every leg they fly. The result: Damned if you do and Damned if you don't!
One more item. I just had a conversation with
a Delta Agent (US) after failing to find additional info on Buddy Passes
from TravelNet. I have a friend stuck overseas. When I clicked "More
Info" , I kept getting cut off. After 3 times I gave up and placed a
call. The call back period was one hour? When I inquired about the actual
definition of Available and Authorized thinking I was missing something with
the numbers posted. The agent responded: "When you find that
answer please tell me" The agent was most helpful in answering other
questions but could not answer this one. The company might respond to use the
email function at "My Delta" "Sorry Charlie" I have never
had any luck with that but eventually able to get answers by direct contact
when I did not receive an answer in the stated time by email If you have
not tried that recently some agents are obviously working from a call
center somewhere in Asia. I could not identify the accent and inquired as to
the location since I was curious. I was told for "security reasons"
they could not reveal that info. The English ability was excellent by the way
but clearly not a native speaker. Extremely polite and assure you they will be
able to fix your problem or question.
Regards, Rick Bauer
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1 comment:
It's a new world of non-reving out Rick. Computer generated reroutes will fill every available seat on every possible connection to accommodate HK's. Checking flight 12 hours prior to departure??? You can check flight 12 minutes before getting in your car to go to the airport and it would make any difference. which is what I did recently for a flight to MSP. getting to the airport I find my flight (and the next 2) oversold. Why? The direct flight to DEN had cancelled and the passengers were all rerouted through MSP, DTW, and MEM. I ended up connecting through ORD 4 hours later. If your going to pass travel you'd better bring a computer and a creative mind with you to the airport.
My understanding of AV/AU is AV is a pretty good estimate of seats remaining. AU is a statistical algorithm attempting to predict the misconnects and no-shows. They can be helpful, that's all.
Buddy pass are expensive and inconvenient when considering they are for standby travel, the last penny (make that dollars) of profit for DAL on each flight. The benefits are flexibility, refund-ability, and the chance of business class on int'l flights.
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