Expert: Roberto Gomes - 3/6/2005

Question
Roberto, thank you for offering your service.  We have two travel vouchers on US Air from last summer. We have called trying to use them this August to fly to Seattle from the midwest.   From what they say they only have a few seats they allow for travel vouchers.  We have tried 4 different departure cities and no luck.  It seems an awfully long time before August to be all filled up to use these travel vouchers.  Is it the case that these "feeder lines" get booked up to take you to their hubs where they have non-stop service to places like Seattle?  In advance, thank you.  

Answer
Dear Lnce,

The airlines revenue management use flight history and sets in advance some seats per flight to be used for mileage redemption or travel vouchers. Specially during high season such as summer and major holidays, they tend to reduce this supply due to the high demand.
The "cheaper" seats are sold as first come basis and this happens in feeder lines and also in the mainlines.
Also you have to consider that depending on the market, airlines use aircraft with 50-80 seats on to feed the hubs  where they use aircrafts with 130-180 seats.

Hope this helps.
Best Regards,
R. Gomes