On the evening my parents were due to fly home we decided to eat out on the East Coast Parkway, the logic being that as this was halfway to the airport, it would mitigate any traffic disasters for getting to the airport on time. I’m going to take the highly unusual step of outsourcing the story of this meal – firstly as Shirin has done such a great job of it on her blog, so why reinvent the wheel? Here’s her brilliant blog entry:
http://shirinpang.blogspot.com/2008/05/long-beach-east-coast-seafood-centre.html
The second reason for outsourcing is so that I can move onto the story of the debacle which unfolded at the airport later on - unbeknown to us at the time. Just to set the scene: The flight was at midnight so we dropped my parents off at the airport at 10pm. No problem, we thought. Unfortunately when my parents got to the check-in desk the airline staff told them that there was no record of my mother’s existence. On further probing, it transpired that the plane was over-booked and mother had been bumped.
A supervisor bearing an aircraft overbooking form headed over, breezily explaining that it was no problem – they could simply go on the next flight in the morning. BIG mistake on her part! If Singapore Airlines had assumed my parents would be easy-going pensioners they were in for a shock. My Dad hit the roof and told her to “get on the plane and kick one of those bloody backpackers off” – or words to that effect. This prompted two hours of fretting, hushed conversations between the airline staff – and it turned out, stewardesses going up and down the plane begging people to give up their precious seat in exchange for a night at Changi airport. To cut a long story short, my parents got on the plane about thirty seconds before take off, having had to sprint from immigration all the way down the travellators to the gate. Whilst they might have made the plane, their luggage, sadly, did not – and it would be two days before it put in an appearance.
Now I was pretty shocked to think that overbooking could actually happen but it turns out that all the airlines do it and in a sense I can understand why. Unlike budget airlines, where if you don’t turn up you forfeit your fare, on other airlines where you are allowed to re-schedule you always get a certain percentage of no-shows. Unless the airline overbooks they will run the risk of never carrying a full plane, which is financially ruinous. Clearly it’s a fine art and balancing act, which on this occasion went horribly wrong.
So what can be done to avoid getting bumped? Well, if you’re a frequent flyer or premier customer it’s unlikely to happen to you anyway – if anything you are more likely to get upgraded if the flight is full. For the rest of us mere mortals, the best defence (apart from turning up ridiculously early) is to check in online, which you can do up to 2 days before your flight. This allows you to choose your seat and even print your boarding pass – and it’s boarding passes which count in these situations! Now if you have bought your ticket five months in advance and have every intention of travelling it’s pretty annoying to think that you should have to check in online, but the fact is that many airlines use this as a means to decide who to bump. My parents checked in online for the outward journey but not when going back - and that, I believe, was the fatal error. Future visitors, be warned!
The second reason for outsourcing is so that I can move onto the story of the debacle which unfolded at the airport later on - unbeknown to us at the time. Just to set the scene: The flight was at midnight so we dropped my parents off at the airport at 10pm. No problem, we thought. Unfortunately when my parents got to the check-in desk the airline staff told them that there was no record of my mother’s existence. On further probing, it transpired that the plane was over-booked and mother had been bumped.
A supervisor bearing an aircraft overbooking form headed over, breezily explaining that it was no problem – they could simply go on the next flight in the morning. BIG mistake on her part! If Singapore Airlines had assumed my parents would be easy-going pensioners they were in for a shock. My Dad hit the roof and told her to “get on the plane and kick one of those bloody backpackers off” – or words to that effect. This prompted two hours of fretting, hushed conversations between the airline staff – and it turned out, stewardesses going up and down the plane begging people to give up their precious seat in exchange for a night at Changi airport. To cut a long story short, my parents got on the plane about thirty seconds before take off, having had to sprint from immigration all the way down the travellators to the gate. Whilst they might have made the plane, their luggage, sadly, did not – and it would be two days before it put in an appearance.
Now I was pretty shocked to think that overbooking could actually happen but it turns out that all the airlines do it and in a sense I can understand why. Unlike budget airlines, where if you don’t turn up you forfeit your fare, on other airlines where you are allowed to re-schedule you always get a certain percentage of no-shows. Unless the airline overbooks they will run the risk of never carrying a full plane, which is financially ruinous. Clearly it’s a fine art and balancing act, which on this occasion went horribly wrong.
So what can be done to avoid getting bumped? Well, if you’re a frequent flyer or premier customer it’s unlikely to happen to you anyway – if anything you are more likely to get upgraded if the flight is full. For the rest of us mere mortals, the best defence (apart from turning up ridiculously early) is to check in online, which you can do up to 2 days before your flight. This allows you to choose your seat and even print your boarding pass – and it’s boarding passes which count in these situations! Now if you have bought your ticket five months in advance and have every intention of travelling it’s pretty annoying to think that you should have to check in online, but the fact is that many airlines use this as a means to decide who to bump. My parents checked in online for the outward journey but not when going back - and that, I believe, was the fatal error. Future visitors, be warned!
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