Today’s airline culture makes it such that getting bumped is becoming almost an everyday occurrence. Of course, not everyone is getting bumped every day, but somebody is getting bumped every day and every day someone’s getting bumped. There are two sure-fire ways to avoid this happening to you.
First of all, remember that if you have a ticket for a flight, you arenot obligated to give in to the queries for volunteers to give up their seats. Forthose of you out there who are apt to want to help others, resist the urge ifit’s not something you want to do today. You have no obligation to do it, andall those people sitting around you don’t feel obligated to do it, and youdon’t have to either. If you have a ticket and you want to use it, here aresome ways to avoid getting inadvertently bumped. Once you have a reserved seat, you cannot be bumped off the planeunless you go up to the counter and volunteer to be one of the people waitingfor the next available flight. There are a couple of ways to go about reservinga seat on the plane so that you won’t have to risk getting bumped. The firstthing that you can try is reserving a seat as you make your ticket reservation.If you are reserving through a website there is usually a link that you canclick on to choose the seats that you would like to have for that flight. Ofcourse, it’s not just about getting a coveted aisle or window seat; in thiscase we’re talking about reserving a seat so that you’re sure that you haveone.
Even if there are no ‘good’ seats left and you have to take a seat in themiddle of a row of five chairs in second class, you should still reserve it andthen ask, on the day of the flight, if there’s any possibility of changing it. Check-inagents are usually very good about this; if there’s another seat available,they will switch you to it. If you’re booking through a travel agency, sometimes the airline hasgiven the agencies restrictions about the number of seats that they canreserve. Somewhere around 70 or 75% is where the airlines usually ask agents tostop reserving seats for customers buying tickets. What this means is that if your travel agent‘can’t’ book a seat for you, maybe he or she really can’t; it is possible thatthe airline has blocked it. If your travel agent tells you that it isimpossible to reserve a seat, try calling the airline directly after you’vefinished booking your flight. Representatives from the airline itself cansometimes get around these restrictions. Try all of these ways to make surethat you have a seat reserved; once you have a seat reserved, you are no longera candidate for inadvertent bumping. In addition, get to the airport and check in foryour flight as early as possible (well, as early as recommended). While it’strue that on very rare occasions someone who checks in late will get to gothrough security faster because they don’t have to wait in line, and in evenrarer instances they get a seat in first class because there was one unsold, inmost situations, you are just opening yourself up to getting bumped if youarrive at the airport after the scheduled check-in time has ended. If you want your seat to be held, get to iton time.
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