Friday, February 19, 2010

Does Southwest Airlines put you up in a hotel if they bump you?

I'm going to be traveling tomorrow, and I noticed that all the flights out are booked solid, which basically means, they're totally overbooked.





Now me, completely wanting to avoid going back to reality, is ready, and willing to give up her seat. Now, my question is, if they can't get me out on a later flight tomorrow, will they put me up in a hotel until Tuesday? Either way I'd be willing to stay, but I was just wondering if anyone knew.





Thanks in advance.Does Southwest Airlines put you up in a hotel if they bump you?
As the above answers mentioned, yes, you can get a hotel for your flight. However, not too many people usually volunteer. The type of compensation is based on a matrix of how much the flight is oversold. If it's a shorter route, it won't be filled up as much because they have 20,000 flights a day between most short hops.





For their longer haul flights that are more infrequent, they oversell them by like 20-30 people sometimes! And those are the ones where no one wants to give up their seat. So how does the process of overselling and bumping work?





Simple, check in early! All customers who check in 30 minutes or less before scheduled deparutre are automatically ';bumped'; and are put on standby for any no-show customers who don't make the gate. When you hear them ask for volunteers, that's the sign that everyone has checked in, even all the oversold tickets.





When no one volunteers, and if everyone has checked in before the 30 minute cutoff, then they go by sequence number because they don't have a coach section to bump people from. The last few people will get bumped.





I would volunteer IF the question was asked and no one ran up. Trust me, you can barter with them for a hotel room!! They have deals with local hotels to put you up for dirt cheap and a meal voucher.





But Southwest, like all other carriers, have years of data informing them on a particular day how many no-show customers they can guesstimate by and oversell by to ensure a sold out flight revenue-wise and try to do as little compensating as possible. Look to see the early morning and late evening flights more oversold as traffic always catches a bunch of people!Does Southwest Airlines put you up in a hotel if they bump you?
yeah, if the flight is overbooked and they asked for volunteers, they will either put you on a different combination of flights or put you up in a hotel for the night... you'll also get a voucher for a free flight in the upcoming year!





you can only take advantage of something like this if your specific flight is actually overbooked and the gate agent asks for volunteers (and you are the first one to volunteer)
You should notify the gate agent that you are willing to give up your seat if necessary. And of course for a compensation which, depending on time of flight, may include a hotel.





Now, the airlines deal with this every day so they have standardized the compensation. I believe they just ask if anyone is willing to give up their seat for x amount dollar voucher. And then raise it until they have seats necessary.





But if they do bump you, you will be compensated.

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