Independence Air iClub - What recourse do I have?

I booked my first trip on FlyI (ATL - IAD) a month ago to attend a 50th Anniversary party. Our flight was supposed to leave at 10:20 am. When I checked in online, I looked at my boarding passes and they said leave at 6:00 pm / arrive 8:57 pm!!!

After sitting on hold for 30 minutes, the agent explained my flight was cancelled this morning due to mechanical problems. Of course, they didn't call me. The only options the supervisor could give me was:

1) Cancel the entire ticket and get a refund.
(not an option since I must be there and pre-paid for hotel and car)

2) Cancel the outbound for a refund for what I paid.

3) Have me drive to another airport they serve - the closest one is 5 hours away - could have caught the 6:00 pm flight to get there faster.

When I asked about booking me on another carrier, they said they do not have any code share agreements. They finally transferred me upto another supervisor at IAD and they dropped my call.

What would you do?

Should they have booked me on another airline or paid for a ticket on another carrier (the cheapest I could find to book on the web last-minute was $189)?

After I got off the phone, I called DL Medallion Desk and the agent found us $69 OW tickets. Delta Rocks!!! :)

Maninpulating another phrase, cancellations happen. Like WN and B6 (and maybe FL too), they have no codeshare agreements or interline agreements to put you on another carrier if they're not available. It's unfortunate they didn't call you, but there's a possibility that your account doesn't have a phone number attached to it.

Interestingly enough, I see two other flights in the schedule between the 10:20am and 6:30pm departures. I'd have expected them to be able to find at least one seat on either the 12:47pm or 4:30pm departures for you -- did you ask about being able to get on those?

AirTran does have interline agreements with US, DL, and a few other carriers. Most other LCC's, unfortunately, do not.

Just because of they don't have interline agreements doesn't mean they can't or won't put you on another carrier. Air Tran used to not have interline agreements but when flights canceled they would write a check for the fare and send you over to DL or whoever. As wahooflyer posted, they do now, but one of my friends who used to work for them still has a few boxes of Air Tran checks from back when they had to write checks to send passengers to other airlines.

I believe AS will put you on WN if they have to with this same method: write a check for the full Y fare and send you on your way. (I remember reading about this in the AS forum). I seem to remember a story about the same happening with FlyI when they first started up; a cancellation and they bought a ticket for the poster on UA. However, nothing in FlyI's CoC requires them to do this. I personally think the DOT should require airlines to put you on another carrier if the delay exceeds a certain amount of time and the delay is the airline's fault, but that's just my humble opinion.

I typed this message as the crisis was happening. I needed to act fast because time was running out. I didn't think about checking the other flights on Independence Air...I immediately started researching what other flights would get me into IAD around my original time.

While I was on hold, I did a quick search and asked Independence Air about buying us a ticket on another flight (the cheapest I could find was $178 OW), but they refused. The only options they offered me were the ones I mentioned above.

After being disconnected, I called DL Medallion Desk and they were able to find us a $75 last minute fare. An angel must have been looking over my shoulder that day. :D I was AMAZED!!!

I then called Independence Air back to cancel the first portion of our ticket and this agent admitted the cancellation was not due to mechanical problems or anything with Independence Air, but with a "problem at the airport". She refused to give me details, but it sounded like a security breach.

When I checked in for my DL flight about 90 minutes later, I asked the agent about it and she said there was a fire at the airport and C Gates were closed (I assume it affected the D gates too since Independence flies out of there). I have not been able to confirm.

As it turns out DL cancelled our 10:50 am flight, but flew us on the 12:15 in F.

Too bad the original agent lied (assuming it was not mechanical problems and there was a fire) and the second agent could not tell me about the fire. It would have made it easier to understand why the flights were cancelled.

Just got the same treatment -- only worse -- from Independence Air.

My son & I were scheduled to leave on their 10:45 flight IAD-ORD. No phone call, no e-mail (although both were provided),just the "word" from the skycap as we tried to check our bags that our flight had been cancelled.

The very nice Skycap took us to the Independece counter. They could do nothing for us: ALL of their flights to Chicago were full. To top it all off, their personnel were horrible. They just gave robo-responses like "we dont' have arrangements with other airlines" and "there's nothing we can do." Isn't this kind of behavior a violation of CAB rules?

Suggestions re how to deal with them? :mad:

Just got the same treatment -- only worse -- from Independence Air.

My son & I were scheduled to leave on their 10:45 flight IAD-ORD. No phone call, no e-mail (although both were provided),just the "word" from the skycap as we tried to check our bags that our flight had been cancelled.

The very nice Skycap took us to the Independece counter. They could do nothing for us: ALL of their flights to Chicago were full. To top it all off, their personnel were horrible. They just gave robo-responses like "we dont' have arrangements with other airlines" and "there's nothing we can do." Isn't this kind of behavior a violation of CAB rules?

Suggestions re how to deal with them? :mad:

out of curiosity....did this happen last sat?

out of curiosity....did this happen last sat?

Yes (6/18)...how did you guess? Do you know "the real story"?

Yes (6/18)...how did you guess? Do you know "the real story"?

You can blame the pilots for that one. I heard that enough called out "sick" to cause the cancellation of over 30 flights. The problem...most were actually going to a job fair. From what I hear, it was not an organized sick out, just a bunch of people calling in "sick" at the same time and taking a personal day instead.

I don't know if Independence can do anything about it with all the union red tape, but I personally think they should call them out for fraud!

That is probably why you did not get a call. With that many flights being cancelled on such short notice, i'm sure the call center was blindsided due to the lack of consideration from the pilots, and were not staffed to make all the calls. I feel the worst for the gate agents who I can imagine were forced to take the brunt of the upset passengers.

Thanks for sharing this story...

I wonder if the pilots realized the impact this had on passengers. Yes, Mr. Flygirl555 and I probably should have flown in the night before...

I thought the party was a dinner party and figured if our flight arrived at noon, it would leave plenty of time if we were inconvenienced by a delay. If I had not found another flight, we would have missed this once-in-a-lifetime event. I bet there were other people who missed graduations. How sad...

Thanks for sharing this story...

I wonder if the pilots realized the impact this had on passengers. Yes, Mr. Flygirl555 and I probably should have flown in the night before...

I thought the party was a dinner party and figured if our flight arrived at noon, it would leave plenty of time if we were inconvenienced by a delay. If I had not found another flight, we would have missed this once-in-a-lifetime event. I bet there were other people who missed graduations. How sad...

I'm not sure the pilots cared, especially if they were going to a job fair. Indy is having atrocious turnover, I heard pilots are leaving at the rate of about 30 per month.

They Cant Pay The Pilots, And That Is Because Of Low Fares And High Oil Prices. I Used To Work For Flyi And Can Say They Do Their Best. If They Raise Prices, You Guys Leave. So All They Can Do Is Lay People Off. Because Of This, Pilots Use Their Sick Time Before They Get Laid Off, And You Really Cant Blame Them. It Does Hurt The Passengers Of Course, But What Would You Do, Honestly. I Am Not Saying It Is Right And I Would Never Do It, But Thats The Reason. If Flyi Goes, Then You Guys Can Pay Higher Fares On United, Which Only Has Low Fares Now Because Of Flyi. Whether You Spen 80 Dollars Or 1.5 Million For A Private Jet, Planes Break, Weather Goes Bad, And Airports Close. Your Case With The Mis-information Seems To Happen A Lot. But With So Much Confusion, Things Like That Can Happen. As For Airline Agreements, If Flyi Had Them, Youe Ticket Would Cost A Lot More.