In a post last week I wrote about a problem with United Airlines’ automatic rebooking system which, when travelers were about to miss a connection, rebooked them 30 hours later.
In the end, with human intervention, I got them on a same day connection and all was well. Until it wasn’t.
These were seasoned travelers, flying on mileage award tickets, so they knew enough to ask the airline agent to make sure their return flights were still fine. The agent assured them the return flights were all set.
Then during the week the husband decided to check his return again. It wasn’t there. (Open note to anyone who wonders why our agency didn’t get a message — travel agents have no access to mileage awards.)
United told him the flights had been canceled with no explanation. At first, United offered him flights on a different day, which was a long way from acceptable. Eventually he was able to get a 1k agent to get the reservations back, with scattered seats in Economy Plus.
Had he showed up at the airport without having checked in advance, there’s no telling what would have happened. But with a sold-out flight, it was not likely to be pretty.
It could have been much worse; we still don’t know 100 percent for sure what happened. But, we have a good idea.
When last Saturday’s flight was canceled, the automatic system had rebooked the connection for Sunday. It seems likely that somehow, either the airport agent didn’t cancel the Sunday flight or, since they had already checked in, the cancellation didn’t fully register.
We do know the flights were canceled on Sunday. The most likely reason was because United’s computers thought they no-showed a flight, and thereby robo-canceled the rest of the trip.
Computers can also think passengers are no-shows when they successfully stand by for an earlier flight, or when they barely make a connection.
This sort of thing isn’t only a United problem. As airlines program their computers to be more and more proactive with yield management, flights can be canceled for all sorts of reasons, even when a human looking at the record could see they shouldn’t be.
Another issue with flight changes is that new flights may not match with ticket numbers. When this happens, it is like telling the computer that the reservation is unticketed, and thus subject to cancellation.
Sometimes a problem isn’t the computer’s fault. I’ve had situations when a helpful airport agent fixed a problem by changing a flight, correctly canceling the original, but accidentally canceling the return, too.
The fact is, any flight change on the day of departure can trigger a problem with return flights. That problem can manifest itself a day or so afterwards, depending on if and when the airline has offered an alternate return.
This kind of snafu fortunately doesn’t happen all the time. But it does happen enough that it’s worth checking, preferably with at least a few days notice before a return or ongoing flight. Once again, the time to find out you’re one of the unlucky ones is NOT when you get to the airport.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
