As airlines try to cut staff and costs, more and more of the travel process has become automated. From reservations to check-in to customer service, it’s hard to tell sometimes there are actually still humans involved in the process.
With all the automated “enhancements” though, the automatic rebooking program “enhancements” seem to be the most complicated, confusing and just plain frustrating.
Used by many airlines these days in one form or another, this program looks for delayed or canceled flights and automatically rebooks passengers on the next available flight. In principle, it sounds simple, right? In practice, not exactly so simple.
Here are just a few stories and warnings for travelers dealing with flight issues, which might be enhanced by these programs:
Rebooking programs can kick in even with a possible missed connection.
When arriving on a delayed flight, successfully running to make the connection might make you happy to be at your destination earlier, but it may confuse the automatic rebooking program that has already “rebooked” you on a later flight. Even though you may be winging your way across the countryside, back at the airport the computers may be flagging you as a no-show for a later rebooked flight.
More than once I have had clients get their return flight canceled because of this, and it takes some discussion to convince the airline involved that they actually did make the earlier connection.
Rebooking programs never look at alternate airlines.
This means when a flight cancels and there several alternatives on “Brand X,” the program will ignore all those flights, and find the next flight on the ticketed airline. Even on full fare tickets. I recently had first class passengers from Miami to San Francisco, and the American program ignored several decent options in favor of a later connection on American, in coach. American grudgingly put them on Delta eventually, but it took some work.
Rebooking programs don’t always seem to prioritize the class of service.
Even with full-fare first class tickets, the system might automatically rebook in coach, without an automatic refund. Often when coach is sold out on the next scheduled flight, passengers won’t automatically end up in first class, even if available.
Rebooking programs have no sense of multiple airport cities, let alone nearby airports.
For example, if your flight is canceled between JFK and Los Angeles, the programs look for the next exact match. Thus, no connecting flights from La Guardia, for example. Also, for a flight into San Francisco, the computer will not consider San Jose, about 30 miles south, or Oakland, about 15 miles to the east.
It’s not as if these automatic programs malfunction every time. Often, especially in simple situations with another flight an hour or two later, they work very well, but it’s worth being aware of the limitations.
To avoid having them make a potentially bad situation worse, however, always double check your return flight when there are any outbound delays, ask about other airline and airport alternatives when you are told there is nothing for hours. And if the answer is still nothing, it doesn’t hurt to politely ask about first class.
In any of these situations, a travel agent or airline reservation agent on the phone can usually override the computer. Ditto an airline employee at the airport, if you can find one.
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.)
