Saturday 21 April 2007 -- If the e-ticket says, "seat assigned at the airport", it doesn't mean that your arse is going to be in one of them. As the aircraft door closes at JFK, Seamus and the missus are seething at the counter, while the hapless gate agent tries to explain what Delta means by "confirmed". It seems that when they overbook the flight -- which they regularly do -- they ask for volunteers to give up their seat for a travel voucher. If they don't get enough volunteers, then they bump some passengers involuntarily. For your trouble, they book you on the next flight, offer you a $400 travel voucher, put you up in style at the JFK Ramada, and provide generous $7 food vouchers for dinner and breakfast. You have to wonder if they ever tried to get breakfast or dinner in New York for $7. I can't imagine why they have trouble finding enough volunteers. Oh, and did I mention, the next flight is 24 hours later.
"So let me get this right," offers Seamus. "For us to benefit, we have to fly your airline again. Right now, I don't see this happening." So far, the vacation in Ireland isn't off to a great start.
Seamus_yo: "Tell you what! Why don't you upgrade us to First Class on tomorrow's flight?"
Hapless Agent: "But then I couldn't offer you the $400 voucher."
S_yo: "I'll try to hide my dismay."
Hapless: "I guess we can do that."
Things are looking up. First class was almost worth the lost day. But we missed our day on Inishmore (Aran Islands).
