Quote:
Originally Posted by bolinp78
Of course they oversell the flight . But they will also oftentimes hold back seats for different reasons (i.e. frequent fliers) and release the seats oftentimes close to when the flight departs but that varies
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in the case of AA, with whom i'm exec plat on, they gate block 12 seats in coach (first 2 rows of coach) until the day of flight on most domestics, although YMMV on widebody/MD80 domestic service. no one is able to see that inventory unless it shows up on expertflyer/KVS after all seats have been shown to be assigned. but that's typically irrelevant to someone that books weeks in advance. very rarely do flights sell out that far in advance, let alone the day of. of those 12 seats, you're semi-correct about saving some of them for top tier elite pax. while they may sell them to kettle flyers, status trumps all. then there's also the upgrades...if all 12 seats get sold and a top tier elite is on a Y/B fare, they're likely to be upgraded out of coach anyway, which will just leave more room for a kettle in the bulkhead.
typically, domestic flights aren't oversold as much as international flights. on some international flights, i've seen them ask for as many as 10 VDB's. very rarely do you see domestic oversell/VDB's unless a top tier on a Y/B fare walks up and wants on a full flight. the airlines will gladly pay someone $250 in airline cash to let that full fare elite travel, as they'll be bringing in the big bux in the long run.