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I had a stroke of fortune on my recent trip to South Africa for my niece's wedding.

Arriving at Brisbane Airport in the early afternoon for my flight to Singapore, we found that the flight had been overbooked. The airline was quite keen to have some people wait for a later flight (about 1 am the next morning).

To encourage people to volunteer to do this they offered:

- limo trip to the Crest Hotel for lunch and afternoon rest
- limo trip return to airport
- domestic flight to Melbourne to catch flight to Singapore
- Business Class upgrade from Melbourne to Singapore
- cash of $500 Singapore for each passenger (about $A960 in total for my wife and me, or about half the cost of a D200 from Poon).

Ordered the D200 on the day I arrived back!

For anyone interested, a D200 body only in the Orchard Rd area of Singapore is about $2200 Singapore, or $A1833. Why would you buy there?

Great news

I would buy it in Singapore if I couldn't get it from Poon
and we know we can trust ordering online through here.

Going to the shop is better that you get to physically check the gear before leaving the shop, but once again, we trust

You gottalove it when they overbook!
What a wonderful way to fund some new gear. Well done.
You must have been flying Singapore Airlines to have had to go via Singapore to South Africa?
I have heard many stories about these sort of upgrades, my neighbors recently fly back from the states , over booked flight so they were offered business class via Hawaii with a two night stop over. Trouble was all flights were full from Hawaii to Oz so they ended up being upgraded to First!
Wish I could have some of this luck!

Singapore Airlines is very good in their services as I've experienced and seen here

I too flew Singapore Air from London to Perth (via Singapore) and was offered a considerable sum of money by a desperate woman (with Singapore rep in tow) to offer her my seat and catch a later flight.

Overbooking seems like a normal thing for Singapore Air to do.

I begrudgingly had to refuse the generous offer as i had a connecting flight to get to.

I wish I could crack the 'upgrade' path, with my luck if I was flying business they'd downgrade me to cattle class!

It is not always good news though. In February this year taking a group to Delhi via Singapore the midnight flight was initially delayed, to 1am, then again to 3am, then again to 5 before we left at 8 or so the next morning. Where did we stay? On the floor of Brisbane airport which can be very uncomfortable. They supplied sandwiches. No time in Singapore before the afternoon flight to stretch the legs but almost straight on to the 4pm flight to Delhi. You win some you lose some I guess. I will know what to ask for now if this happens again.

Simon,

What an ordeal.

Killakoala wrote:
Overbooking seems like a normal thing for Singapore Air to do.

While all this was being sorted, I heard that they routinely overbook by 10%, and sometimes up to 25%. I can't vouch for the accuracy as I didn't know the person, but if true, they must spend an awful lot when everyone turns up.

I wouldn't fancy your experience Graham!

I used to work at an airline and I confirm that they all overbook by about 10-25%. It is not uncommon for a 747 to have 60-80 overbooked seats.

But then there are so many no-shows that normally it works out fine. The airlines are very good at estimating exactly how many to overbook. If they didn't then their flights would never be full.

A while ago, I booked with Air NZ for a flight to LA, but it was overbooked as well. They offered me a transfer to Qantas with direct flight to LA with earlier arrival time. Saved some hours of flight at a sacrifice of short visit into Auckland airport. But I dont think it was that bad, it was better service on-board the flying Kangaroo

I've been bumped up to business with Singapore Airlines, I've only flow them internationally and throughly enjoyed the service and all my flights with them.

Many years ago, flying to Chile (ex-Auckland, I think) using Lan Chile, we had confirmed our tickets and asked for a window seat in the non-smoking section (it was many years ago). When we received our boarding passes, we noticed that the exact opposite seating had been given to us. We commented but didn't make a big issue, and were upgraded to business class for the 10 hour flight! Free champers for the whole trip!

P

cricketfan wrote:While all this was being sorted, I heard that they routinely overbook by 10%, and sometimes up to 25%. I can't vouch for the accuracy as I didn't know the person, but if true, they must spend an awful lot when everyone turns up.

I don't understand this strategy of over-booking, if you have sold 100% of the seats available and you have been paid (there's no way of booking without paying the full fare), why on earth would you care about "no shows"? To continue to take money from clients knowing full well you can not provide the service they are paying for is tantamount to fraud as far as I'm concerned.

Cheers

Blackspear wrote:

cricketfan wrote:While all this was being sorted, I heard that they routinely overbook by 10%, and sometimes up to 25%. I can't vouch for the accuracy as I didn't know the person, but if true, they must spend an awful lot when everyone turns up.

I don't understand this strategy of over-booking, if you have sold 100% of the seats available and you have been paid (there's no way of booking without paying the full fare), why on earth would you care about "no shows"? To continue to take money from clients knowing full well you can not provide the service they are paying for is tantamount to fraud as far as I'm concerned.

Cheers

I guess they count on people cancelling just prior to departure (say 48 hours before) who are entitled to a full refund.

I personally don't have a problem with it as it hasn't happened to me. What really gets up my goat is the w#$kers who are late for flights and therefore delay takeoff. I have had flights (both domestic and international, with the much longer time for check in), and have always been on time. How hard is it for people to assume bad traffic and make plans to get there early with a contingency of getting there on time? (Sorry for the rant, but I have also been on the plane waiting for the w#$kers and have seen them eventually board the flight with their Gloria Jeans cups!).

P

Reschsmooth wrote:(Sorry for the rant, but I have also been on the plane waiting for the w#$kers and have seen them eventually board the flight with their Gloria Jeans cups!).

At which point, you organise for everyone to start clapping when they finally get on board the plane

I booked a flight to Paris for my son on Emirates through Webjet. There is no flight confirmation the day or so prior to departure. Either this was useless, they do not overbook, the cancellation fee is good enough for them or they do not give a damn. There is also the warning that if you check in less than 30mn before your flight you may not be accepted, so the other passengers won't be affected. PS: what about the signs at the airport that read something along the line: if one comments or laughs at the anti-terrorist measures one might be refused on board or arrested
Gerard

glamy wrote:PS: what about the signs at the airport that read something along the line: if one comments or laughs at the anti-terrorist measures one might be refused on board or arrested

I put that into the category of an intelligence test. One has to assume, these days, that terrorisim threats and the like will be taken very seriously, and rightly so.

Given that the so-called security people at the airport are low paid, and often share an IQ with their shoe size, anyone who feels a need to joke with these people probably has an even lower IQ .

Cattle class from one end to the other