dlflyer2

Did United cancel and reinstate their Monday, January 26 Jfk-Sfo/Lax flights, then accommodate their hvc over passengers originally holding reservations on those flights to get them out before the approaching (mega) storm?

In the United Club at Jfk on Monday afternoon, numerous passengers holding reservations on flights were advised by email or text that their flights were cancelled. Those cancelled flights were later reinstated, but then they were full and unable to accommodate passengers’ original reservations. Another interesting fact is that the aircraft to operate those flights were either at Jfk or enroute when the outbound Jfk cancellations were announced.

The reinstated flights operated with the same flight numbers, same aircraft and same schedule without some of the passengers who had previously held reservations.

Did United pull a fast one?

Or is it just the usual incompetence?

Are the original passengers entitled to Involuntary Denied Boarding compensation?

spin88

If this happened to me, I would immediately file a ACPB DOT complaint. I don't think DOT would look kindly on this...

aCavalierInCoach

I'd just guess incompetence -- they were conservative with cancellations due to the weather, and decided to reinstate the flights to get passengers moving since they thought they could. Existing reservations have long since been modified to accommodate the cancellation, and they can't easily revert.

dlflyer2

In my case, there was no modification in place and I was able to verify seats and send boarding passes to my phone on the reinstated flight.

It was only the next morning that I saw flight changes to different flights.

cfischer

same flight #. Pax w/ confirmed reservation and BP were not accommodated? Sounds like this needs to be reported to the DOT as IDB

mduell

Can you be IDB if you don't present yourself for boarding?

I sincerely doubt UA was so coordinated as to offload the kettles and get their HVC on the flights... much more likely incompetence/disorganization.

master029

This exact scenario happened to my wife coming from FL on Jetblue last summer during a storm. Flight was cancelled 24 hours ahead of time and then reinstated just 2 hours later. When it was reinstated, I called to get her put back on. Same flight times, same flight number and they said it was full. I filed a report with the DOT and after back and forth, Jetblue offered a courtesy credit and the DOT agreed with them that was sufficient- it was NOT considered IDB.

Still to this day, I don't understand how the DOT considers this to be OK.

Reply from Jetblue: When a flight is cancelled, we will move the customer to the first available flight we can get them on and as previously mentioned, we could not get all customers on the new section. This does not qualify for denied boarding as you were never booked and confirmed on this new section.

Reply from DOT: DOT is in agreement with JetBlue Airways regarding their investigation into your complaint, and their response to you. If you remain unhappy with your airline contract, and the response of JetBlue Airways, you have the right to file private legal action in your local small claims court. This office cannot offer legal advice. I'm sorry that I cannot be more helpful.

Darlox

As completely and utterly smarmy as this is, I can completely see how it would happen, and why it might be unreasonable to accommodate the original pax on the flight, during IRROPS.

Tons of flights are cancelled during major WX. Flight is cancelled and half the plane is re-routed, rebooked, or even accommodated on OALs depending on where they're headed.

Weather status changes, airline still has the slot and flight number available. They schedule a _new_ flight using the slot information of the original. Displaced pax are shuffled into new flight. Priority pax would have first crack as happens with any IRROPs situation.

I think that if you're stuck beyond your original departure, as you WEREN'T accommodated on some other acceptable flight, that you'd have an argument for some kind of goodwill compensation. Filing a DOT complaint wouldn't be unreasonable either.

But from a strictly-operations perspective, this makes a certain amount of sense to me. I think the airline is in a damed-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation either way. Leaving the flight completely cancelled doesn't help the displaced pax to any greater degree!

exerda

I'd chalk it up largely to incompetence, with a dash of bad luck and poor timing.

mduell

Should be a new flight number. If the carrier still had the slot they're free to swap into it; if they didn't still have the slot they couldn't put the original flight number in it.