I have reported the "overbooking" story of United Airline on my Simplified Chinese version of website before, but have never thought of that I would personally encounter overbooking myself. Here is a brief recap of what I have witnessed and experienced myself:
My girl friend and I were supposed to take the Air Canada (AC8297) from Winnipeg to Saskatoon on May 13, 2017. We were at the airport an hour or so before departure time: and it proved to be plenty of time ahead given the fact that YWG was not busy at all on Saturday morning. When we were checking in, I was told that since I used United Airline Silver Status, they need to clear my identity before giving me the boarding pass. So I waited for around 20 minutes until they finally managed to get the phone call through and "clear my identity".
I never expected that I would not make it to the plane, so I asked my girl friend to go through the security and wait for me at the gate. Meanwhile, I was very confused because my girl friend also used United Airline Silver Status to check in but she had no issues. At the time that I was told " good to go" , it turned out that the flight was just closed. The male agent told me not to worry because he can make a phone call to let me in (it is just 1 or 2 minutes after the check-in deadline). However, after the phone call he said he felt sorry but the flight was totally booked already, so I had to change my flight.
My mind was suddenly blank: I could reschedule my flight, but my girl friend is already at the gate! So I told her that I had to reschedule my flight, asking her if she could change the flight to the same as mine. She went ahead and asked the agent at the gate, but was denied to change the flight reasoning that the checked baggage was already on the plane. Finally she had to fly with the flight...
Now back to my case here: I went to another kiosk to change my flight, and a female agent helped me this time. After pulling out the new tickets, she asked me to pay around 160 dollars for the change fee. I refused and told her that I was overbooked, and she did not insist charging me. I also noticed that the alternate flight was not a direct flight as my original booking, and I had to fly to YYC first; it is also a red-eye flight from YYC to YXE. I mentioned to the lady that if I could get compensation because I was overbooked and had wasted at least another 8 hours, but it seemed that she did not even agree that it is Air Canada's overbooking that bump me off the plane.
I talked to another agent there, but she also told me I could have avoided this if " I came to the airport earlier" . I explained to her that if we were "late" , my girl friend should not be able to make it on time for the plane, and she actually waited for quite a while at the gate for until boarding. Additionally, I mentioned that regardless of the reason, overbooking is overbooking, and I suffered from not being on the plane with my significant other. Again, she repeated that I could went ahead and contact Customer Relations, but nobody at the airport could help me.
Even if I think I know quite well about the terms and conditions about frequent traveler program, I felt helpless at that moment: nobody out there was really willing to help you but letting you contact the so called " customer relation" department, which could take you weeks to get a response. It also reminds me of the last dreadful experience with Air Canada when taking the flight from LAS to YVR: the flight was delayed by 10 hours so I had to stay at the airport late at night ( I had a connection flight to YXE), but after I contact Customer Relations, they did not offer any compensate other than their discount code.
Late at night I arrived in Calgary and felt under the weather after the long suffering day. I asked the airport agent if I could have the flight home next day and explained I was from an overbooked flight, and I had no issues having the new ticket. The ticket agent was also very surprised that Winnipeg Airport did not give me any sort of compensation.
One last thing to mention: I paid for the hotel at the Calgary myself, and now I am waiting for my flight home-hopefully not being bumped again...
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