Overbooking on sq 973

[LordGarlic]

I was on sq 973 from bkk to sin on 16 april 2017. Approximately 25 mins into the flight, I noticed that a person in civilian clothing ( not in sq uniform)exited from the coughpit to use the toilet and returned to the coughpit. Out of curiosity, I asked the flight attendant if the person was an airline staff. I was told that the person was a flight attendant holidaying in bkk and he was bumped off a seat in economy due to the flight being overbook by 20pax. Permission was sought to allow him to seat in the jump seat within the coughpit. Does anyone know if this is a standard industry practice??

 

[Freq Flier 2013]

Is it me or is 20 pax - a lot to overbook?

 

[tizey]

I was speaking to a Qantas employee last week about this. At least with Qantas, it's solely at the discretion of the captain as to if they allow airline staff to fly in be coughpit on an oversold flight.

 

[Boris spatsky]

Yes, jumpseaters are fairly common. Company policy and federal legislation dictates who can do it but generally in Oz they must be a company employee and must have a valid aviation security ID on them.

 

[LordGarlic]

Is it me or is 20 pax - a lot to overbook?

I was definitely told 20 pax. I suspect the reason why it was overbooked was that there were a number of sq flights flying on the bkk-sin route each day and given it is also a long weekend in sin, many were returning to work on sunday.

 

[Rareified Air]

It seems very unusual that SIA is overbooked at all let alone 20 seats......

 

[dajop]

It seems very unusual that SIA is overbooked at all let alone 20 seats......

Not on the trunk short haul routes. Not unusual for BKK, MNL, KUL & CGK to be (presumably) overbooked. You get a lot of last minute movements on these flights. People arriving early because traffic was better than expected. People running late because traffic was worse than expected. Changes of plans. There are also a range of re-accommodation options available. Flights can be very fluid on these sectors although I expect SQ 973 to be less so being first departure for day.

 

[Flying Fox]

Sounds like an AWESOME upgrade to me!

Much better than getting punched in the face by UA

 

[oz_mark]

None of it sounds unusual to me.

I have heard the SQ overbookings can get up to 40 or so on some flights.