Fortunately, most of the airlines insist I need window seats so they won’t allow me to sit anywhere else. H is ok with whatever seat he gets, tho we like it best when we are just in a row of two. He often gets a middle seat in a 3 row seat but is a good sport, especially if it’s economy plus.
I’ve read the entire thread. Truly it emphasizes the uncertainty and frustration in US air travel these days.
@cellomom2, I wonder if @Sweetbeet is referring to the requirement of some airlines that if booking for a cello, you are requested to call and book with a live operator - not on-line? You, most certainly, have more experience with flying cellos than I do. My biggest instrument haul is a viola - and that can be nasty enough. I didn’t know that double basses would be considered in passenger space. Every bass player I know (and I know several) packs the bass in flight containers and the instrument flies as baggage. But - every airline seems to handle things a bit differently, I’m sure I am far from knowing it all.
@jym626, I can appreciate your rants. I frequently book separate tickets for Asia resident kid and I to visit some location together. I book these separately - if I fly from the US and encounter delay, I want kid to be able to start off without me - we’ll catch up later. More than once, I’ve booked one ticket and had the next made-within-minutes booking for the same flight show a price increase. We have been very lucky with upgrades on our favorite Asian carrier. I have much more status and almost always get an upgrade at check-in. When it’s noted we are traveling together, kid’s reservation is marked - if there is last minute room, kid is invited to join me. I am also asked if I want the upgrade, or if I would prefer to stay with kid - both non-upgrade. I always take the upgrade - perhaps selfish, but kid can manage the cheaper seat better than me!
Re: the cello thing, I don’t actually know how it’s done, but after our experience and what I’ve read here, it’s obvious that you have to tell the airline clearly what you need the seat for, just as when booking two seats for a large person. If I’d been obese and wanting to use my son’s seat, which I’d paid for, as an extra for myself (or for my cello, or my lap baby), I’d have been out of luck. So obviously there is something you have to do “special” - I assume just be upfront about it when booking, presumably on the phone with an actual person.
As for changing names, if you have a corporate account on Hawaiian, you can make certain changes to tickets with no change fees. You can take people off, and change names. I have been involved in using these accounts for group travel (swim team, robotics team), and we have been able to “change the names” on tickets (which is probably actually done by canceling and booking a new ticket, but that is transparent to the consumer). And it sounds like Alaska allows you to do it in a roundabout fashion, by cancelling and using the credited funds to buy another ticket.
I really don’t get why everyone is making such a big deal about the difference between “changing a name” and “canceling and issuing a new ticket”. The result is the same. The people should have asked for this before boarding, and paid any required fees, but they just didn’t know they had to, and they responded/reacted badly when things turned out differently than they’d expected. I personally feel that it is appropriate to chastise them for their rude reaction, but not for their wrong assumption about how it would work.
A few years ago, I booked a ticket for D1 on Southwest. When the confirmation email arrived in my in box a few minutes later, I realized that I had spelled her name wrong. I immediately called Southwest and the agent was willing to change the name for me (she noticed the misspelling immediately; it’s a common name, and I had added an extra letter), but she did say that it was good that I had called so quickly because if I had waited some unspecified, but presumably short, amount of time, she would not have been able to make the change for me.
I did something similar a few days ago and booked two tickets for myself. I called and they changed it to my D’s name. This was also SW. We had a complicated situation where I had to make 3 bookings for 4 people due to a companion pass and some credits and I just was going too fast.
BTW, people used to commonly do multiple bookings for themselves under SW’s policy of being able to change or cancel without a fee. Let’s say you’re flying out somewhere for work and don’t know if you’re coming back on Tuesday or Wednesday, you could make a reservation for both days while the rates are low and cancel the one you don’t need later.
Their new reservation system will cancel that second booking now.
I had worked with a United agent to book a pair of tickets. After booking, I called the disabilities desk as I always have to do, to advise them that we were flying with medical equipment. The sharp woman noticed that H and I were booked on tickets for different days! Since it was literally minutes after I had hung up with the prior agent, she could fix it without extra charge and a lot of stress on anyone’s part. It was really a reminder to recheck and deal with all of this right away.
Huge difference. If you were able to just change a name, there would be no cost. If you cancelled a ticket for one person and bought a new ticket for another, it could be very expensive. If the fare on the first ticket was refundable and the new ticket price was the same, no problem. But in this case, it is likely that the fare on the older boy’s ticket was nonrefundable (particularly as the last leg of a round trip ticket), and that the new ticket for the younger son (bought at the last minute on a full flight…if that was even possible) would be very expensive.
Maybe no big deal for people who are extremely wealthy, but a big deal for the rest of us.
Another gaffe of United personnel. You would guess when there was a gate change the agents are told to watch for the passengers boarding the wrong flight.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3495896/united-airlines-apologise-fly-passenger-3000-miles-wrong-direction/
On the other hand normal passengers read the destination written at the gate. I do not believe they announce gate changes on the radio in Newark.
Actually, this is not just a failure of United personnel but also of their software. After 10 pages of debates about carefully matching passengers first names to their seats we now have a total stranger being able to board a plane. You would hope that when they scan your ticket you are matched to your record in their database, your status is marked as boarded, you are matched to your luggage and the software can alert that you do not belong to this flight. Obviously not. They just increment a counter with the number of passengers?
H and I found out about a last minute gate change only because he had signed up for text alerts. (I had signed up too, but never got the alert). It was horribly crowded and we had been waiting at the gate for a while and just hadn’t looked up recently and seen the sign change. I never heard an announcement, although there may have been one.
But geez, the lady’s boarding pass scanned properly? Scary.
Seriously, I am loving this. What a mess. I hope tons more happens so the airlines figure out better and safer
ways to do business.
This thread got me worried about how to check in on Jet Blue for three seats --two in my name.
We are on a red eye and decided to purchase three bulkhead seats that all together costs less than one
first class on Alaska (all that was left when we decided to book as we were not aware of the very many
University Graduations that weekend (our D included) or a middle seat in the last few rows (never).
Jet Blue has a code that indicates that I have two seats. They did not ask why I was booking two–
music equipment or obese (neither). So I am relieved as I do not think they can ask us to give up a seat in
any event.
I would probably call and ask them how it works. Do you check in for two seats, or does it just say it on the ticket? Last thing you want is for someone to think that seat is empty, and you have no proof that it’s yours.
That’s why I was asking how one can book two seats. Maybe JetBlue software lets you do it. It certainly does allow booking cabin pets. $100 a pet, no middle seats, and no more than 3 pets per cabin (have to indicate what pet since cats and dogs do not get to fly on the same plane).
But Bunsen, look at those cats. they would get along so well with my dogs. That seems rather exclusive, for a large airplane. Plenty of room for all.
My dog wants to come, too!
Species discrimination! What about bringing a rabbit along? Are they allowed in the plane with a dog or cat?
Back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I used to fly with my hamster, Matilda. I’d put her in my pocket when going through security because I didn’t want her getting x-rayed, and then put her in a carry case in my carry case. I also flew to from FL to CA with two Goldfish and a battery powered air pump. Of course this was way pre-911 when liquids weren’t forbidden.
It is amazing how different the airlines’ software systems are. Some will not let you do cabin pet booking online. Some will let pax from a wrong flight slip onto a plane. 
IMO, JetBlue and Alaska have the more advanced systems. It will be interesting how Alaska will integrate Virgin…
I have printed out Jet Blue’s information.
I am ticketed as Oregon101 and EXST Oregon101.
When I booked their software gave the option of booking more than one seat as an extra in
your own name.
Good to know, Oregon. Thanks! They let folks book both pets and cellos online.
Now, a small PSA. Do anything in your powers to avoid LAX in the nearest future. They are moving airlines around the terminals, there is construction on the runway, so every freakin’ flight in and out of that hole is messed up. Fly into any other small airport if you can.
Wow–good to know. How long will LAX be fouled up? Any time estimate? Our D normally flies in and out of LAX. I will warn her before her next flights.