Originally Posted by
Happy
Can't they send out emails to the customers who have ticketed? After all, they all have email addresses on file.
A formal letter with essential the same information of what UA Insider posted here, with some embellishment of words, should serve a formal notification of the situation and the stance of the airline.
May be UA has already been in talk with DoT on what would be acceptable. Other than that, there is no reason to take this long, even with its IT issue today that brought the website down for 90 minutes.
Originally Posted by
davidbridgman
The problem with that is unilateral cancellation with no notice is almost certainly a DOT violation in and of itself. It's the equivalent of telling the consumer they can't fly at the ticketed price and must pay more for the same exact ticket. This is expressly prohibited.
Understanding that people have their own interpretations of these regulations, they are clearly slanted toward the consumer and there is substantial risk that if UA unilaterally cancels they have committed three separate DOT violations PER TICKET. I am guessing they perceive the risk of leaving the tickets in limbo to be less than the risk of getting hammered with DOT violations and civil claims.
UA doesn't necessarily have to cancel the tickets immediately (I guess they might want to discuss the matter further with the DOT regulators) but they certainly have to provide timely notification that there MIGHT be a problem ("we don't plan to honor these tickets, but we'll get back to you as soon as we can with further details -- don't make any plans in the meantime"). Obviously, they have everyone's email who bought a ticket (I'm assuming nobody did this with a rez agent
). And if that list is too hard to pull up, they could blast mail it like they did with the mistake on that summer bonus mile promo. Heck, I'd put it on the website, too. Saying nothing is, legally, the stupidest thing they could do now. Prompt notification is really essential -- especially since, to my knowledge, CO/UA has never previously cancelled ticketed reservations because of a "mistake."