Flight No-shows

The other day, a friend commented on the number of people who were no-shows on the day of the flight. I was appalled. Imagine, planning a trip, booking a flight, paying for it, and then letting the travel date just slip past!

Perhaps my reality slipped in there. I'm a budget flyer. I plan carefully, end up with special deals, non-refundable tickets -- and go on my trips. (I've also heard of people who don't quite read their tickets, and arrive at the airport after the plane has left, or go the next day....but that's a different post!)

So, in preparation of a rambling blog post on the silliness of people who pay for trips and don't go, I did a bit of searching -- and discovered that it's more the trickiness of people who get their travel agents to book two different flights, to keep their options open. Then there are the people trapped in traffic, or subject to faulty alarm clocks (6 a.m. flights have higher no-show rates, as do flights "scheduled around Chicago rush hours").

If you're one of those people who hopes to be bumped, read these tips. But, you should also read this interesting article on how airlines are reducing the number of no-shows, and thus the over-booking rates...and then, of course, the number of people who can volunteer to give up their seats for great goodies! (Then there is this article that contradicts some of what the first one says about what the airlines are 'required' to do for passengers they've bumped.)

I have no intention of being late for our honeymoon trip to Paris. Metro found tickets so cheap on Yahoo travel that people have asked us if it's 'on a real airline'...yes it is. We do have to leave from Seattle, stay in a hotel, park the car for the 10 days we're gone...but it's all an adventure.

Lori