Is there a way to see if a flight is full?

[cruzinfamilyof4]

I was wondering if there is a way to check to see if a flight is full. I would love to try and catch an earlier flight. But I don't know how to check to see if the earlier flight is full and if it is worth my time to get to the airport that much earlier than my flight. We'd have to be there 3 1/2 hours before our flight then - that's bad for a nervous flier! :eek:

 

Thanks!!

[Travel Angel]

This site has been very helpful for me in the past.....

 

http://www.seatcounter.com/

[Shorex]

Yes, but not by checking the seat map on the airline website. Expertflyerdotcom, which is a subscription site, has up to date information on how many seats are for sale in each particular fare bucket for most major airlines. For example, the output for today's NW flight 250 leaving in a few minutes from SEA to DTW looks like this:

 

P0 F0 Y0 B0 M0 H0 Q0 V0 L0 T0 K0

 

Sold out -- possibly oversold. Chances for bumpland. The same flight a week from today is:

 

P9 F9 Y8 B5 M2 H0 Q0 V0 L0 T0 K0

 

Eight seats for sale in the Y bucket, nine first class seats for sale. Reasonable possibility that it will be oversold.

 

If you tell me your flight number and date, I can tell you how full it is now.

[Shorex]

Duh, I forgot the simple answer. Call the airline, they must tell you the truth. Just ask about the load.

[bqkali]

I was wondering if there is a way to check to see if a flight is full. I would love to try and catch an earlier flight. But I don't know how to check to see if the earlier flight is full and if it is worth my time to get to the airport that much earlier than my flight. We'd have to be there 3 1/2 hours before our flight then - that's bad for a nervous flier! :eek:

 

Thanks!!

 

The only way to tell for sure is to call your airline and confirm the day of your flight. They will tell you if there's room on the earlier flight, if you can be on standby for that flight with your current ticket, and any fees for doing so.

 

Alternatively, go to http://www.flyaow.com/classamex.htm and enter your flight details. It will give you a list of flight classes, each followed by a number, which represents how many seats are left in that class. If there are an awful lot of 0's or low numbers after the classes, the flight will be full or close to full (for example Cabin class: Y3 B5 H2 K2 M1 L0 W4 V0 G0 S0 N0 Q0 O0). Some other hints are that it displays 9 as a maximum of available seats, so if you see a 9, there could actually be 25 seats left. Also, this is not always completely up to date, so take it with a grain of salt.

[cruzinfamilyof4]

Thanks for the info and help!

 

We are on Southwest flight 420 out of LAX- on June 28th 7:15 pm. I would love to get on the 2064 5:05 pm flight.

 

I know that things can change a lot between now and then, but I'm just curious what our odds are now.

[Travel Angel]

SWA flight from LAX to FLL on June 28, 2008???? I see no flights that you are speaking of even listed.

[JJPNYC]

Southwest does not allow standby for earlier flights. If you want to catch an earlier Southwest flight, you must pay the full difference in fares between your original ticket and the earlier flight you want to catch as they treat this as a full change of flights.

[cruzinfamilyof4]

Oh we aren't flying into FLL we are flying into HOU.

 

Do you know when SW started that? I know that DH has been able to make an earlier flight without paying the difference. He has to fly for work often; could it be because of his employeer that he has never had to pay the difference?

 

Guess we will just have to stick with our flight since the price difference is over 100.00 pp and there are 4 of us.

[FlyerTalker]

Do you know when SW started that? I know that DH has been able to make an earlier flight without paying the difference. He has to fly for work often; could it be because of his employeer that he has never had to pay the difference?

WN has had that policy for many years. Perhaps there has been no fare differential, thus no additional fee. I doubt that it would be billed to the company with no notice to the traveler.

[parody]

could it be because of his employeer that he has never had to pay the difference?

 

He could have been flying on a "free" ticket.

[auntdot]

I just checked our BA transatlantic from YYZ to LHR and it shows 9 seats in every class! This was interesting b/c we booked last winter just as the price for the premium economy was to go up from $1400 to $5500 pp!!!! Can you tell me which letter indicates 'Premium Economy' on the charts? I wonder if the flights are really not full or, as someone mentioned, the information may not be up to date?

 

Thanks for the links - I'll tuck them away for future reference.

 

Dot

[Globaliser]

Can you tell me which letter indicates 'Premium Economy' on the charts?

On BA, the current booking classes for Premium Economy are W, E and T.

 

A flight can show 9 in every class and still be already overbooked. Airline booking and yield management mean that there is no easy answer to the question "Is this flight fully booked?"

 

After all, for that trans-Atlantic flight, BA's experience shows that each seat on the aircraft will, on average, be booked something like seven times during the year-long selling cycle (and cancelled six times).