The free-seat, the passenger and the ticket office
Thanks to Lufthansa, I’ve almost three hours time to write this post. I’m at one of the many cafés in Geneva airport, waiting for my flight. Because work went fine, I did reach the airport well in advance – more than 3 hours in advance indeed – and I stupidly hoped that I could change my ticket for an earlier flight. I’m used to do that and it usually works fine… Usually.
Today is another story, and when I first asked to change my flight at the check-in counter, I was answered that it was not possible. I did check-in for the latest flight, knowing that two others would depart in between. My plan was to try again at the gate. Flying without checked luggage usually make changes easy.
Changing flight at the gate revealed impossible, but I got more information from the sympathetic person in charge of boarding. The first part did sound good: there were many free seats in the earlier flight I wanted to take. It sometimes happen that passengers do not show-up for a flight (known to ground staff as no-shows), thus making seats free for passengers having the possibility to fly earlier. As there were free seats, I would not have to wait for the end of boarding, hoping for a no-show.
Then came the bad news. My ticket being a low-fare one (not low cost, just low price), it was not possible to change it for free. The price for a change would even be many times the ticket price. I can understand why some less wanted flights are less expensive, or why early bookings make lower prices possible. What I can’t understand is why an airline can decide to operate a flight with empty seats. If no one bought a ticket for the remaining seat once the boarding is started, why not take someone ? When flights are departing four hours apart or more, the possibility exist to find someone more, and sell one more ticket.
It’s fine for me to pay a bit more to have the flexibility to change my flight in advance like depart one day earlier or later, but I don’t see the point in not allowing a passenger with a ticket to use a free seat once it is too late for any sale opportunity. If any of you know the reason behind please leave a comment. I’m not good enough at marketing and customer service to understand this thing.
