At least 50 percent of the ticketed passengers who go to the airport are already carrying boarding passes specifying seat numbers, according to the estimates of the Air Transport Association. The passes have been issued by travel agents, by the airlines themselves to advance purchasers or by corporations with travel departments that can print tickets.
People who travel for business demand advance boarding passes in order to go to the airport just before takeoff and simply walk aboard without standing in any line but the one at the gate. Usually, that is.
The airlines officially say that a passenger holding a ticket and a boarding pass for a domestic flight is indeed all set to walk aboard, provided he or she is at the gate on time, normally 10 minutes before flight time.
The announcement is often heard at the gate that passsengers with boarding passes need not report until the flight is called. But, in fact, an advance boarding pass may not be a guarantee, particularly on an overbooked flight with last-minute hurly-burly at the gate, or on a plane that is picking up the leftovers from a cancelled flight.
Recent travelers on overbooked flights have been told by airline employees that passes issued by travel agents must be revalidated by gate agents. But waiting until they get to the gate can produce a situation where boarding-pass holders toward the end of the line may be bumped from the flight if they cannot prove they were on hand the requisite 10 minutes in advance.
In a recent case, after a pair of travelers was seated for a transcontinental flight, a later passenger arrived with a boarding pass for herself and her child for the same seats. This passenger summoned the flight attendant, who berated the seated couple for going aboard without checking in at the counter, and moved them to other seats.
Hoyte B. Decker Jr. of the Consumer Affairs Department of the United States Department of Transportation, asked about the gray area involving boarding passes, replied with a question: ”If an airline provides a boarding pass, does that represent a right to the seat? Well, it`s a step in that direction.” If the airline rejects you when you are on time, with a ticket and a boarding pass in hand, he said, it ”verges on misrepresentation.”
Decker said a boarding pass was equally valid whether issued by a travel agent, corporate office or the airline.
An airline that shifts to another type of airplane or experiences some other crisis, Decker said, will certainly require that everyone report to the counter for revalidation or new seat assignments.
If you go to the gate at the last minute and discover that the flight is overbooked, you are going to need to demonstrate you were there on time if you want to keep your seat. If you don`t get seated, you will still need to show you were on time to claim ”denied boarding compensation” for being bumped and then unable to get to your destination within a certain time.
Decker said his department could not act on consumer complaints of failure to be compensated for bumping if the airline said that the passenger was late to the gate. Checking in at the gate is a sure way to prove you were on time.
If you have a boarding pass for a flight that is always crowded and is prone to being oversold, a Sunday noon trip from the West Coast to New York, for example, it is probably worthwhile to ensure a seat by checking in again at the gate or at the front counter.
On the other hand, if you are a prospective volunteer to take a later flight in return for an offer of money and a voucher for a future flight, you should check in early and await developments.
According to the Department of Transportation, for the first three months of 1991, 10 major airlines bumped 10,918 people while it boarded 90,918,016, a rate of 1.2 bumpings for each 10,000 passengers. For the same period, the airlines paid 127,500 passengers to give up their seats.
There are two ways of looking at the figures. One is as an indication of the accuracy of the airlines` computer predictions of how many passengers with tickets are not going to show up for a particular flight and thus how many extra tickets to sell. The other is as an indication that lines are cancelling so many flights daily that they cannot accommodate the passenger overflow.
TWA had the highest number of bumpings-1,789-as well as the highest rate of bumpings. And it had the third-smallest number of volunteers-7,899. Only Pan Am and Southwest had fewer volunteers, and they both carried fewer passengers than TWA.
Jim Faulkner, a TWA spokesman, said that the line`s main hub (St. Louis)
experienced terrible weather in January, causing cancellations.
One other factor has entered the boarding pass picture. On July 1, three more U.S. airlines finally put into effect regulations to meet the Federal Aviation Administration`s October 1990 rule restricting the assigning of seats in the emergency exit rows of planes.
According to Fred Farrar, a spokesman for the FAA, by July 19 eight major airlines had such exit-row rules in effect.
The airlines seem to be handling exit-row seating slightly differently, but the impact is the same: seats in emergency exit rows may no longer be assigned along with those in the rest of the plane.
The airline is supposed to ensure that passengers who ride in exit rows are over 15 years of age, strong enough to open the exit door, able to understand and speak English, and able to see. Also they must not accompany anyone who requires care, and be willing to perform tasks that would be required in an emergency.
United Airlines does not assign exit-row seats until passengers are at the airport; neither the airline nor travel agents can assign those seats ahead of time.
According to Sara Dornacker, a spokeswoman, the largest number of affected seats on a United plane would be 38, on a 747-400 set up to carry 378 passengers. Because of the seat arrangement around the emergency exits, none would be affected in a DC-10-30, she said.
USAir, according to Susan Young, its spokeswoman, has not allowed the advance sale of exit row seats since Sept. 14.
American is taking a different course. Boarding passes for exit-row seats may not be issued in advance, according to a spokesman, Marty Heires, but the seats may be assigned in advance to certain types of passengers: members of the line`s frequent flyer program who are at the ”gold” level; holders of American air passes, which provide a certain number of trips for a set price; passengers paying full fare for a ticket.
Boarding passes must be obtained at the airport before the flight, which still gives the airline an opportunity to look at and talk to the passenger. If the passengers do not qualify, seats are shifted around.
Delta is taking another route: exit-row boarding passes may be issued in advance but only after the travel agent or airline employee has read the requirements to a passenger and received the passenger`s agreement. If the passenger replies that she or he does not want that seat, a switch is made, at the airport if necessary.
Business travelers are usually the late bookers, which means they are the most likely to get the exit-row seats on a crowded flight. ”They usually fit the requirements anyway,” Dornacker of United said.
