Unfiltered Story #281040

I’m trying to fly home for Thanksgiving from college. I have shown up early because it’s the Wednesday night before, but apparently it isn’t early enough because when I get to the counter to check in (this was the 80s and thus no internet checkin), I am told that the flight is overbooked. So, I ask what I think is the most logical question:

Me: How overbooked is the flight?

Agent: Excuse me?

Me: How overbooked is the flight?

[I’m asking this to determine what the likelihood of me getting on the plane is. If it’s just a few seats, there’s a good chance. Otherwise, I should start making plans.]

Agent: I don’t have that information, sir.

Me: How can you not? You have the passenger list. You know what kind of plane is coming in and thus how many seats it has. Simple subtraction. How overbooked is the flight?

Agent: Sir, it doesn’t work that way.

Me: How? I can understand if you have to change planes when you get here, but let’s assume that doesn’t happen.

[I’m slowly getting louder. Not yelling, but just enough to ensure the people behind me can hear that the flight is overbooked if they’re paying attention.]

Agent: Sir, do you think you can do this?

Me: Sure. Show me where the information is [and I make like I’m going to step behind the counter to see the screen]. What kind of plane is the flight?

Agent: Sir, you cannot be back here.

Me: I know. But you did ask. Look, I understand that you don’t want to tell me because that would be information to a customer who might try to use it against you, but it really is a simple question. Please put me on the stand-by list.

Fortunately, my ride to the airport was still with me and this was long before they wouldn’t let you past security without a ticket so we sat on the floor near the counter and had a slightly exaggerated conversation about how one might go about finding out how overbooked a flight is.

I made the flight. Looking back, I wouldn’t have blamed the agent for making sure I didn’t, but the flip side is that perhaps I was put on to get me the heck out of the airport.