DL Buddy Pass - Payload Optimization?
 

Is there any way to gauge the chances of a person with a buddy-pass getting on a payload optimized flight? One of my in-laws is trying to get to England (lives in US) but he's currently in Bogota on a trip visiting his in-laws. The flight from BOG-ATL says it's payload optimized, so I don't really know if I should tell him to buy a ticket back to the US, and I'll book a buddy pass to England from there, or if he could save the cash and fly standby back to the States on the way to the UK. Anybody have relevant experience/guidance? Thanks!

My guess is that when you checked TravelNet that you got the popup window saying that the flight COULD BE subject to payload optimization, not that it IS payload optimized.

That said, since BOG is high-altitude, and is flown with the 737 these days, I would say the odds of the flight being performance limited are high (i.e. buddy pass riders won't get on).

I recommend that your relative buy a ticket.

How far in advance are we talking? If we're a few days out and there are plenty of seats >20, I think they'll be ok. With less then that you may encounter a weight issue.

I don't give out passes anymore. Too much hassle. I'm assuming you offered the buddy pass only because he's your in-law? :)

Thanks for the info. The flight is on Monday and right now, it's showing about 21 seats.

Haha, no. He understands all the risks. My in-laws go back forth to the UK a lot and it usually works out well for them, I just don't know anything about getting into/out of South America.

Dont forget to look at BOG - JFK, we do that daily as well. I have done that one many times, and we usually have a pretty decent load coming back, that with all the flowers in the cargo hold means all the flight is almost always payload optimized. The station manager told us once that the cargo pays the bills on that route and all the passengers are gravy....FWIW.