JERRY: I don’t understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?
RENTAL CAR AGENT: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.
JERRY: But the reservation keeps the car here. That’s why you have the reservation.
RENTAL CAR AGENT: I know why we have reservations.
JERRY: I don’t think you do. If you did, I’d have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to hold the reservation and that’s really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.
I don’t think so, I think more than maybe they’re accommodating other passengers who are stranded/delayed not due to their fault. And it is possible amongst those are people with frequent flyers who are ahead of their “preferred customers” line than you.
Did you formally check in for the flight before arriving at the airport?
A reservation for a seat typically conveys your intent to use that seat but doesn’t confirm your butt in that seat as the reservation can be made months ahead of time. Checking in online or ahead of time at the airport (one reason to get there early) confirms that you will be in that seat.
Since airlines overbook (a frustrating practice that makes total business sense but sucks for customers), the overbooked percentage of passengers are typically competing with the capacity passengers to get to seats on a first-come, first-served basis. If you check in, you get the seat. If you don’t check in and wait too long, the seat will be given to someone else. In that case you may be put on standby for another seat, that may have been reserved by someone else, but that person hasn’t shown up, so the seat is yours. This is why reservations for a window seat often turn into last-minute middle seat assignments.
Most airlines allow you to check in 24-72 hours ahead of the flight - always make sure you do so, as that is the final confirmation of your seat.
Personally, I only fly westjet in Canada as they do not overbook. I get that they want the planes full but when they have presold all the seats on a flight, they sure as hell don’t give the money back if someone fails to show.
If I’ve paid for a seat and don’t show up it should stay empty! (like that would ever happen) 
If they overbook, they should seat people by when the ticket was sold.
They do give money back if the person bought a refundable ticket.
Even with non-refundable tickets, most airlines allow the passenger to cancel up to the time the plane leaves. Some airlines (Southwest for example) allow full credit towards another flight, most others charge a fee. If a passenger cancels 10 minutes before the flight, it isn’t always easy to find someone to buy that seat.
My cousin, my Wife and I where flying together and they tried to bump my cousin. Don’t know why she was singled out. Poor thing she had just broken her knee cap and was in a leg brace. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave her behind.
Any way, what pissed me off was there where CLEARLY airline employees deadheading on the flight. Two of them in first class. AND at least four vacant seats in coach.
Shouldn’t they bump deadheaders before trying to boot paying passengers? It really pissed me off. I assume somebody just fucked up. Hope so.
I believe it depends on why they’re flying.
I had something like this happen, but it had to do with someone else failing to return a car as scheduled. Fortunately, it was a big city, and they found a car at another rental location, and brought it over. I had to wait a while, so they gave me a discount.
Most airlines use price/class of ticket and frequent flyer status to choose people to deny boarding. They may use time of check-in as a tie breaker. It seems strange that your cousin was denied boarding when there were empty coach seats unless there was a weight restriction on the plane.
But actually deadheading crews have high priority. I doubt you can tell which crew members are deadheading and which are commuting or just non-reving simply by looking at them.
Deadheading means they are actually working. For some reason, their last flight left them “out of position” and they are needed to operate a flight leaving from another city. If the airline doesn’t get them to that other city, they will not have crew to operate a flight and will need to cancel it. The choice the airline has is bumping two or three passengers on this flight or canceling a flight and stranding a whole planeload of passengers.
There may be other airline employees on board the plane who are not deadheading. These include commuters who choose not to live in the city where they are based or others who are simply on personal trips. These people generally get very low priority (with some exceptions).
Where deadheading crews sit is determined by their union contract.
If by deadheading, you mean uniformed, on-duty crew, they are more than likely going to the destination to fly another plane. Sometimes planes and crews get out of sync, and the company has to move a crew to where an airplane’s at. If the crew doesn’t get there, that airplane won’t fly, and the flight most likely would be cancelled. That inconveniences a whole boatload of people instead of just a few. We don’t like it either usually.
Is there any purpose or function of rental car reservations that serve the customer? The first three times I reserved a rental car for a destination, the car I supposedly rented was not available when I arrived on time to pick it up. Since then I have never bothered and just go to whichever desk has cars available.
I worked at an airline in the late nineties and early two thousands. Before 911 there were lots of flights and often about 20% empty seats. After 9/11 the economics changed, flights were reduced to the point that every flight was oversold to the average amount of no-shows. Employee passes are usually standby/space available an it made taking advantage of that employee benefit much more challenging. I do miss flying first class most of the time. I gladly pay the small upgrade fee at Westjet for the bigger seat / more legroom now.