On Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:07:54 +0900, "Ryan Ginstrom"
<ginstrom@hotmail.com> belched the alphabet and kept on going with:


>I think that travel agencies overbooking would be far less likely. They
>normally purchase a block of seats from the airline, and then sell those
>seats piecemeal for a hefty markup. But they will only put one body in a
>seat; otherwise you are "kyanseru machi," a phrase my family has become
>quite familiar with. The problem arises when an airline sells the same block
>of seats to two agents, or sells all its seats, then sells a few seats
>directly at full price, wagering that they can squeeze them in because not
>all agents will be able to sell all their seats.

I remember on one particular flight out of Narita (purchased through
HIS, I believe) I was told by the agent that a seat in the smoking
section was all that was available. I'm not militantly anti-smoke, so
I took it.

During the flight, the air waitress came around through the smoking
section and asked if there was anyone willing to swap seats with a
passenger in the non-smoking who was just dying for a cigarette. I
went and stood by the window while the other passenger sat in my seat
and had a smoke.

It turns out the other passenger had also bought a ticket through a
discount agency like HIS....but had been told that no-smoking was all
that was available.

It would appear that a "block of seats" means precisely that.





--

Michael Cash



"There was a time, Mr. Cash, when I believed you must be the most useless
thing in the world. But that was before I read a Microsoft help file."

                                Prof. Ernest T. Bass
                                Mount Pilot College


http://www.sunfield.ne.jp/~mike/