US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Backhanded bump--with no compensation

My sister had a ticket booked for ITH-PHL-IAH on Wednesday morning (day before Thanksgiving) with confirmed seats on all flights. She recently came down with a pretty bad case of mono, but her doctor said she could travel for Thanksgiving to see the family if she felt up to it, so she called US to arrange a wheelchair for the PHL transfer (walking = pain for her), and they told her all was cool.

She got to Ithaca at a reasonable time and discovered that her flight was delayed due to PHL weather. No big deal, right? But the agent told her that because they didn't know when it would actually go out, she might miss her connection to Houston. So they rebooked her on a flight from SYR, and sent her and one other random pax in a taxi (paid by US) to SYR (about 90 minutes away). Nice of them, right?

Except even if the Ithaca flight left an hour late, she'd still make her original Houston flight, and if she misconnected, she could presumably be put on the next Houston flight 2.5 hours later. But by putting her in that taxi to SYR, they guaranteed that she'd miss her original Houston flight, and if something went wrong with SYR-PHL, she'd end up missing the later Houston flight, too, and have to go even later (assuming she could get a seat on one of the busiest travel days of the year).

Unfortunately she didn't call me until she was well on her way to SYR. And when she did call me, being rather ill she wasn't entirely coherent in her explanation of what had happened. But the whole thing didn't make sense to me. If I'd been in her shoes I would have rejected the taxi to SYR "offer," stuck with the original Ithaca flight, and asked them to protect me on the later PHL-IAH flight in case I misconnected.

The SYR-PHL-IAH connection ended up working ok. Except, of course, the later connection put her in Houston 2.5 hours later than her original flight. And when I looked up the status of her original flights, she would have made the connection.

When I finally met up with her in Houston, I asked if her Ithaca flight had been overbooked (suspecting that they sent her to SYR mainly because they needed to clear seats on the Ithaca flight). "Oh yeah," she said, "They were asking for volunteers over and over again."

So I'm pretty pissed at US for this. As far as I can tell, they essentially bumped my sister to a later flight without any denied-boarding comp--even though she had confirmed seats, and checked in at a reasonable time, and was sick enough that she'd requested a wheelchair! And they essentially lied to her to get her to go with it.

Am I overreacting here? Or is it appropriate to write a letter demanding compensation for this backhanded bump? Is there any rule that allows US to do this that I don't know about? I can't imagine NW doing something like that. Or at least they wouldn't get away with it with me. :)

FYI, her original itinerary was:

US2259 ITH-PHL 8:22am-9:21am (actual time it went: 9:11-10:39)
US1633 PHL-IAH 10:45am-1:45pm (actual time it went: 11:39-3:10)

They rebooked her on:

US2481 SYR-PHL 10:52am-11:59am
US1655 PHL-IAH 1:20pm-4:18pm (actual arrival: 4:12pm)

So really, she only got in an hour later than she otherwise would have. But I still feel the US agent in ITH took advantage of her in a totally inappropriate way.

I don't think the agent took advantage of your sister at all. The agent was thinking of your sister ahead of time. Since she did not know of the original flight would go or not she re-booked her to protect your sister. PHL was a terrible mess the other day which your sister was flying. The gate agent was trying to avoid a further headache for your sister in case the original flight was delayed.

I personally think your overreacting. Your sister got there. Even though the first flight did not cancel. I think the gate agent was thinking that it had a good chance of doing so. PHL was having up to 3 hour delays the other day for the Thanksgiving rush.

Even though the original flight did not cancel. You should be thankful that the gate agent was thinking ahead of time to prevent a mess that could have happened in the event your sister would have totally missed her connection.

I would not be complaining. Many people that day missed their connections out of PHL and your sister got where she needed to be. I think the gate agent did the right thing. The gate agent was trying to protect your sister from a missed connection. However, she does not have a crystal ball to see the future to know that she would have made it.

I don't think US owes you anything.

Troy

Am I overreacting here?

Whether or not you are overreacting depends upon whether one views US optimistically or pessimistically -- in other words do you trust US in the first place or not?

If one takes the US agent at her word, that she believes your sister "might" miss her connection in PHL to IAH, then I'd say that the agent is simply trying to help on a hectic travel day.

The date of travel is afterall on the most heavily traveled day of the year and airports on the east coast and elsewhere are all experiencing weather-related delays ( for which an airline is not required to offer compensation ). Neither am I at all surprised that all sorts of flights are overbooked on this travel day.

So US sends your sister to SYR where she connects on a later IAH flight. The agent's fears are partially correct in that the ITH flight does indeed depart arrive late, but so too does the IAH flight. In retrospect, it turns out that she would indeed have made the original IAH flight. Instead , she arrives 4 hours later.

So is this deception by US? Does the agent deliberately lie to a pax on overbooked flight or was she looking at her flight info and trying to make her best judgement on the fly to help a pax? Some folks would say that the agent deceives. I myself say that your sister has a detour on the busiest travel day of the year and gets to IAH where she hopefully enjoys T-day with family.

It all depends upon if you trust US in the first place.

Barry

Thanks for the interesting (and well-balanced) responses. Unfortunately I don't have enough experience with US to know whether I trust them or not, although I am definitely skeptical about this incident. I know that if it was Air Wisconsin in the midwest, I certainly wouldn't trust them.

I agree with US AIRWAYS FAN that the agent didn't have a crystal ball, so the fact that the original IAH flight left late (making the connection possible even with the ITH delay) is mostly irrelevant.

The question really comes down to whether the GA in ITH honestly believed the SYR flight had a significantly higher chance of going out before the ITH flight. The problem causing the delay was weather in PHL--not weather or equipment at ITH. So putting my sister on a flight to the same weather-plagued airport that departs 2.5 hours later to "protect" her doesn't seem like very good protection to me. Like I said above, I would have wanted them to protect a seat for her on the later PHL-IAH flight in case she misconnected, but keep her on the original Ithaca flight. In my mind, odds are good that an 8:22am flight--even if delayed--will go out earlier than a 10:52am flight to the same weather-delayed destination. It's entirely possible, of course, that the ITH GA had some secret information I don't know that justified her decision (maybe ATC favors SYR departures over ITH?). But I'm skeptical.

Again, I am very appreciative that they got her to Houston when they did. If the SYR flight had suffered a major delay, I would be far more irate about this. As is, I'm only a little annoyed at the way they handled it--certainly not at the result. But I'm definitely curious to hear what other US regulars have to say about it.

Having flown out of ITH quite a bit, my first reaction was that perhaps the ITH - PHL flight was an Express Dash-8, and the SYR flight was mainline on a 733. And I thought that maybe, just maybe, the GA assumed that a mainline jet flight would get some form of priority over an Express Dash-8 coming into delayed PHL. Even so, this sounds kind of unlikely. Upon checking, however, your sister went from one CRJ express flight to another.

Hate to say it, but I think they did "backhand bump" your sister. Syracuse is over an hour away. There's no rational reason to think that sending her to SYR would do any more than take an hour's time. Other than solving the GA's over-sold situation, that is. Being as the flight was oversold (not surprising at all) I can easily imagine the GA looking for compliant people with funky connections to try and make the process of bumping pax a little easier.

I don't know that your sister has much recourse, but a complaint letter is an easy first step. Given the combination of the weather delay in the hub (blanket excuse for all that ails the airline whenever it happens), the comped taxi to SYR and the (only) 2.5 hour delay, I don't t know that US will be all that willing to do much. But I do think that your sister got taken advantage of, and a letter is worth a shot.

Really it ends up being a 1 hour delay since the original PHL-IAH flight was delayed.

Still, it feels like a bump to me. If they were really worried about the connection, the ITH-PHL would have at least made the later PHL-IAH flight (which she ultimately ended up on). There probably weren't any volunteers and they figured out this would be a way to get as much as possible to work out for the most people.

I'd write a letter, but ultimately I wouldn't be able to complain too much since ultimately the routing was completed without too much overall delay. They should have issued a comp bump voucher r/t, especially since that costs them almost nothing.

I very much agree that they were trying to find ways to "shave off" some of the overbooked pax -- otherwise all H@ll breaks loose when you tell 7 pax they can't fly on their booked ticket on Thanksgiving.

There is ** NO WAY ** that US would, in any other circumstance, go well out of their way to find ground transportation and pay for it to an alternate airport to get 2 pax to their destinations even BEFORE the flight they were booked on became a real problem.

However, I say drop it since things worked out well enough and it's altogether possible (maybe even probable) that the original flight plan may not have worked if the fates had worked a little differently. Since SYR is a much larger airport, there would've been more options from there than in ITH for certain.

I'm glad it all worked out for her and hope she's feeling better.

And the plot thickens (or at least gets more disappointing):

For my mononucleotic sister's Sunday-after-Thanksgiving (the other biggest travel day of the year) IAH-PHL-ITH return....

She checked in at IAH with tons of time. Seats for both segments were preassigned. Flight to PHL is delayed because of a mechanical affecting the inbound aircraft. She's probably going to misconnect so they agree to put her up for the night in PHL and send her to ELM first thing in the morning (with a cab to ITH), since hers was the last flight of the night and apparently the ITH flights in the morning are full. Remember, this is a mechanical, not a weather delay, so they are obligated to do the rebook-and-a-hotel thing. They're not doing her any favors.

She lands in PHL and the ITH flight is still there. The ITH flight is delayed, too (naturally) but she actually would have barely made it even if it wasn't delayed because they made up some time in the air IAH-PHL.

But... the ITH flight is overbooked. Of course. :mad: And when the IAH agents "helpfully" rebooked her to ELM in the morning, they also gave up her seat on the ITH flight. So she got to sit there and watch the last ITH flight of the night leave without her. Now she's sitting in some barebones motel awaiting her morning flight-and-a-taxi when she paid a significant premium for the privilege of flying from/to ITH rather than SYR or ELM.

That pretty much decides it. US is definitely getting a letter about this. They overbooked her flights both ways, found ways to bump her off both (despite her early checkin times, preassigned seats, high fare class, and illness), and have not compensated her one dollar for any of it.

I think that you're trying too hard. They've bent over backwards trying to accomodate your sister. Expecting to be put onto different flights, put up for the evening and so on and so forth (even though it's "no favor") and then also have your original seats held open just in case the original connection still works out for some reason is over the top. To all appearances they did a good job -- they thought ahead, acted proactively and didn't try to weasel out of anything. About the only thing they didn't do was to charter a private jet.

Sorry, this isn't a bump unless US forced your sister to take the alternate option. As a passenger you have a choice whether to be reprotected or to risk misconnecting. It's unreasonable to expect an airline to both hold your seat on the original flight AND reprotect you - sure, it would be nice, and it happens sometime, but it's not reasonable to expect. You CAN say "no" to the reaccomodation.

Next time I suggest she stays with her original routing and then volunteers to get bumped.

I saw US pull a similar trick in TPA, where a PHL flight was delayed by an hour. They announced that all international connections were toast and that all passengers connecting to Europe needed to go back to the ticket counter to get rebooked. This was obviously to weasel out of an oversell - because we landed in PHL with enough time to make the Europe flights.

Really comes down to a choice vs. being forced - the TPA case, it was worded as a DEMAND, but in your case it seems to have been a choice.

There is nothing to complain or be upset about here. Your sister should have gotten on the flight. If she would have misconnected she would have gotten a hotel that US Airways would have paid for. This was her choice. They could have easily protected her seat if she were to make the connection. Heck even if she were to miss the connection like I said above, they would have given her a hotel.

I always stick with my original plans. And I never take the last flight of the night out just because you never know if there will be problems.

T

They've bent over backwards trying to accomodate your sister... About the only thing they didn't do was to charter a private jet.

A mechanical, 2 cases of dodging paying denied boarding compensation (VDB/IDB) and agents sending off the sick and injured on scenic cab rides and impromptu Motel 6 vacation adventures???

Oh, and themican, I think your sister is in desperate need of re-training on the subjects of denied boarding, airline obligations in cases of delays, etc. It is YOUR responsibility as her FT-knowledgeable brother! :D

Oh, and themican, I think your sister is in desperate need of re-training on the subjects of denied boarding, airline obligations in cases of delays, etc. It is YOUR responsibility as her FT-knowledgeable brother! :D

I try very hard, and she and the rest of my family usually call me when stuff like this happens. But on the outbound I was still asleep, and on the return I was in the air myself when the decision was to be made. And in both instances she simply trusted the agents' advice. Like most pax, she doesn't know the ins and outs of her options, and when the agent says she's going to misconnect she believes it and takes the offered alternative--even when it wouldn't make sense to us.

After reading the responses to this thread, I'm somewhat conflicted. Again, I appreciate that in both directions they ultimately did manage to get her where she was going. But in both directions, the US agents were not entirely honest and were in my mind simply too aggressive in their attempts to "help" her.

I can see how it can be construed as "helpful," since there are more options from SYR if ITH gets cancelled, and by rebooking her to ELM before she'd even left Houston, they may have snagged her the last seat on that plane or something.

But I'm still skeptical, since US essentially weasled out of compensating her for the bumps by doing things this way.

I guess it all comes back to jerseyfinn's question about whether I trust US or not, and at this point I'm definitely leaning toward mistrust, unfortunately, since they twice proved that their advice is not to be trusted.

themicah, I'm sorry to hear about your sister's bad experience. I have to agree with some of the previous posters that this is not technically a VDB or IDB situation, and that if your sister wanted to stay on the original flights, she should have said so. From what I hear, the agents were trying to do their best on a hectic holiday.

On the other hand, I think the agent who rebooked your sister on the return flight should have kept her reservation on the original connecting flight (the one the agent thought she wouldn't make) AND protect her on the next flight to the other airport in the morning.

Again, sorry to hear about the bad experience.
Adam

A mechanical, 2 cases of dodging paying denied boarding compensation (VDB/IDB) and agents sending off the sick and injured on scenic cab rides and impromptu Motel 6 vacation adventures???

"Dodging"???

To me this looks a lot more like an agent going way out of his/her way to take special care of someone with special needs.

They don't issue crystal balls to these people -- they can only go by their experience and instincts. IMHO most infrequent fliers are more interested in reliably arriving at a predictable time that they can call ahead and tell someone about than they are in taking chances with misconnects. In that light everything the agents did makes perfect sense to me. The fact that the original flights operated better than expected isn't really relevant to anything unless you're going to claim that they deliberately and maliciously lied about what they thought would happen. I hope that you're not going down that road.

In my personal experience I find it very unlikely that an agent would spend extra effort "dodging" an airlines obligations as you describe -- people with the sort of attitude that might be linked with such actions are far more likely to simply let the chips fall where they may and then take an "I told you so" sort of attitude (while conveniently forgetting that they didn't actually tell you so...)

Oh, and themican, I think your sister is in desperate need of re-training on the subjects of denied boarding, airline obligations in cases of delays, etc. It is YOUR responsibility as her FT-knowledgeable brother! :D

That's what I mean by trying too hard. Weasling for maximum advantage usually results in maximum hassle.

Things almost always work out better if you stick with the original plan but get protected just in case.