Thread: JFK-BCN Oversold in Coach available in business

Lots of flights are oversold in coach due to no-shows and history. Do you have a question?

Yup. The only US airline that I know of that doesn't oversell is JetBlue. Except for day of departure, and not including weight restrictions, it's a shock when a flight is NOT oversold to an extent, except maybe a flight on a regional jet.

I would not be too terribly concerned about the overselling of the coach section just as long as the oversale does not exceed the total capacity of all
the seats on the aircraft and a Airport Standby List pages deep with upgrades.
With a lot of open seats in First or Business class - NRSA travel chances are relatively good that you will get a seat somewhere on the aircraft/flight.
The oversales in coach may be upgraded to the front of the aircraft - or a frequent flyer customer may be offered a complimentary upgrade to First
or Business creating a vacancy for the oversale in the coach section.

The norm now is frequent flyers are queing up on the Airport Standby List to be upgraded leaving a prime coach seat when they are upgraded.
So if there is an oversale - solution is simple. If no oversale the FF is upgraded to the empty front cabin seat and the NRSA gets a seat in coach.

Day by day it is getting more difficult for the NRSA to ride in the front cabin even more so with flights between hub cities: i.e. ATL-MSP-DTW-etc.
Dead heading crew members trump the standby system but that is life in the NRSA lane. One just has to deal and plan around it.

Best bet is start out early and stay away from the day ending totally unpredictable events with most everyone trying to wring the last seat out of
the last flight of the day!
With international travel and service once a day then perhaps travel a day or two earlier may be the solution.
Going to Europe think about an alternate city close by and use Eurail (yes trains!).
Alternate cities would be with our code share partners hubs - KLM - Amsterdam (AMS) --- Air France - Paris (CDG) --- Alitalia - Rome (FCO).
Think outside the box and every which way you can wrangle a seat to where you are going.

rma