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Blimpie
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How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Sun May 26, 2019 10:35 am

How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Let's say one is flying out of BWI on a small carrier that we'll call, I don't know, for the sake of discussion, called FORK, who flies a multi-configuration B767. FORK only has a few aircraft and destinations; therefore has limited fleet bandwidth. The flight is canceled, and all 280 pax require rebooking; however, FORK only has one daily flight a day out of BWI, and they are flying in to a smaller airport such as, again for the sake of discussion, JST who has very limited service, and next to no other carriers presence. FORK's next flight is tomorrow, yet every flight for the next two weeks are nearly filled because Johnstown is hosting the National Welsh Corgi Breeding Competition so there is a mad glut of people trying to get in there.

How would FORK accommodate 280 pax in a situation where there are no seats, and no other carriers available?
 
APYu
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Sun May 26, 2019 10:42 am

That competition doesn’t last two weeks!

They could lease the flight out or transport them via method other than air.

Remember too that some of the 280 will choose not to travel, or rebook to other dates. Some will choose an offer if a flight to a different destination. You rarely have to rebook everyone.
 
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Blimpie
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Sun May 26, 2019 10:45 am

Yeah, I did consider the reality that some would say "nuts with this", and without a hard guess, of say, 80 pax or 30% give or take choose not to, there's still a large number who get shafted.

It could take that two weeks, corgi dogs can get pretty lazy.
 
smokeybandit
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Sun May 26, 2019 11:08 am

Your whole theoretical is invalid because, well, no one actually wants to get *to* Johnstown.

I kid, I kid (for those familiar with the town that has struggled since the end of the steel mill era)
 
mattyfitzg
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Sun May 26, 2019 11:13 am

Blimpie wrote:
Yeah, I did consider the reality that some would say "nuts with this"


You missed a golden "FORK this" opportunity there...... :lol:
 
MIflyer12
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Sun May 26, 2019 11:14 am

The OP's hypothetical is specific enough that he knows the answer yet chooses to dance around it: the cancelling carrier wouldn't accommodate - it would just process a bunch of refunds, as permitted under U.S. law.
 
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PatrickZ80
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Sun May 26, 2019 11:54 am

They might be the only carrier that flies this route non-stop, but they're rarely the only carrier that flies it one-stop. More often than not, passengers are rebooked on one-stop flights on other airlines. This means they have to make a transfer somewhere, but they'll get there.

Sometimes they're rebooked on flights to an alternative destination from where there's ground transportation to their final destination. In case of Johnstown they might find themselves on a flight to Pittsburgh. At Pittsburgh there's a bus waiting for them to take them to Johnstown.
 
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klm617
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Sun May 26, 2019 12:27 pm

Here is how it's done in Atlanta. "I'm sorry sir you've missed your connection please check the departure board for flights going to your destination and go to that gate and see if you can get on that flight if not keep doing that until you can get rebooked."
 
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cathay747
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Sun May 26, 2019 2:43 pm

One simple solution would be to just fly an extra-section the next day with the airplane that's still sitting there which FORK needs to get out and back in their system. I'm presuming here a MX cancel, or a major weather-even-cancel such as a snowstorm where the issue is cleared up by the next day.
 
freakyrat
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Sun May 26, 2019 5:16 pm

I was on a MX cancel on Spirit several years ago from DFW-ORD. After we were all given the runaround and held hostage at the airport for 5 hrs by rookie ATS contract gate agents which resulted in the airport police being called out twice for passenger mutiny's they finally cancelled the flight. I relaly didn't need to go to ORD that bad and Spirit refunded my ticket at the counter.

Several years later I was flying on Frontier from DFW-DEN to go skiing and the flight had to RTB back to DEN because DFW ran out of deicing fluid. Flight was cancelled and I followed the steps on Frontiers website as per the counter personnel and obtained a full refund in three days. As F9 had no seats available for a week I was able to book a flight on AA fro the next day for the same price and only missed a day on the slopes.
 
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Flyingdevil737
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Sun May 26, 2019 10:26 pm

I’ve had a re-book on Singapore Airlines due to overbooking TWICE in the same night on a flight from SIN-MEL. SQ gave the 7 or so of us that were bumped free dinner for the first flight and then $1000 cash after not being able to get a seat on the second. On the plus side, I did get a seat on the 3rd flight.
 
APYu
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Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 10:23 pm

Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Mon May 27, 2019 6:46 am

MIflyer12 wrote:
The OP's hypothetical is specific enough that he knows the answer yet chooses to dance around it: the cancelling carrier wouldn't accommodate - it would just process a bunch of refunds, as permitted under U.S. law.


Lucky it’s a US carrier. An EU one would have to offer refunds but if the pax wants to be re-accommodated the carrier would have to find a way to.
 
e38
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Tue May 28, 2019 2:20 am

APYu, so rather than just stating, “if the pax wants to be re-accommodated the carrier would have to find a way to,” please explain how passengers would be re-accommodated if subsequent flights are full.

e38
 
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stl07
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Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Tue May 28, 2019 6:18 pm

klm617 wrote:
Here is how it's done in Atlanta. "I'm sorry sir you've missed your connection please check the departure board for flights going to your destination and go to that gate and see if you can get on that flight if not keep doing that until you can get rebooked."

That's because there are flights from ATL to every small town in America every 30 min to an hour
 
jetblueguy22
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Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:26 am

Re: How do airlines rebook pax on canceled sold out flights?

Wed May 29, 2019 4:16 am

klm617 wrote:
Here is how it's done in Atlanta. "I'm sorry sir you've missed your connection please check the departure board for flights going to your destination and go to that gate and see if you can get on that flight if not keep doing that until you can get rebooked."

Yeah, as opposed to DTW where you hop on a fairy’s back and get lifted off to your destination.

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