b720 wrote:well you might be right about BA. as for Arab carriers they seem to be making a few bucks too...USD 1000 DAMASCUS-DUBAI without all charges and taxes is not really charity..MEA is not operating as its hub is under attack its fleet grounded..millions of USD losses per day and still they make sure that all their passengers are reimbursed or endorsed...that is what i would call "chic"....they could have shut their offices and hid in the shelters instead..
Well the so-called ship- side-sales SSS are always the best revenue.
I must say I have also applied the SSS-fares for Sabena in Africa in the '80.
The system is simple.
You wanted to go to MUC. The sales was eg in EBB, then you paid the OW-fare MUC-EBB in DMK in the pre-Euro era.
How do you proceed in such circumstances?
For all the empty seats you issue a boarding pass after cancelling all the commercial upgradings. You have a number of boarding passes in C-class, in Y-class. At your ticketing desk you announce the number of passes for sale and start listing. On first come, first pay, first serve you issue the documents. That's SSS-procedure.
Your aircraft would leave asap, that means as soon as all pax and luggage where on board.
Do not forget, as airline manager you were with the ones that stayed behind, the money would travel with the 'ship' to base.
When the aircraft climbed in the air, you had water in your hands and try mouth, when you heard far away gunshots at the airplane...
I remember, after such a departure, I went home, it was curfew, there were no lights. When I got home, the house came under fire, and bullets rained on the roof. That were the moments you wondered why you did that job, and if it were not safer to be a fireman in Belgium.
In the same week, I got shot at nn the way to the airport, the car got a hit, I landed it off road in the high elephant grass.
It is an unwritten rule that is such cases all coupons are endorsed. Sooner or later you hoop the passenger will come back
