Originally Posted by
Snowdevil
For what it's worth, there's no malevolent intent behind schedule change notifications (or the lack thereof). The fact of the matter is that the information sent out is 'scraped' from the e-ticket itself, and while the itinerary may have changed, the e-ticket must be reissued to match it before notification can occur.
Unfortunately this isn't an automated process and requires manual intervention on the part of agents, usually from the call centers, who are also servicing inbound customer calls (which is their number one job). Also, as has been mentioned in the past, some tickets purchased nearly a year out may experience multiple changes (some minor, some not-so-minor) and each one would potentially require the ticket to be reissued behind the scenes before the notification e-mails or phone calls go out.
Generally AS does a pretty good job of advising customers of schedule changes, but at this point immediate notification does not occur. I know it's being worked on so customers will have a greater advance notice window (along with the option to accept the change or find other options on the website) but have no ETA on that.
I am not disputing that this is how the AS system is built, but I do question the reissue necessity before we know anything. I am quite familiar with Apollo schedule change notifications, and I'd imagine that Sabre works similarly. I'm also familiar with how some other airlines (primarily pre-merger UA) displayed a change. The change is viewable pre-reissue.
The segments should show a UN and a WK segment (or similar) and then, if they are to be accepted as already sent, an .IHK, which will then link the new segments to the issued e-ticket, when able (i.e., no routing changes). If not, then a reissue occurs at that point.
I do not understand that the system limitations are of the AS website so that we cannot view this, along with an "English translation" of the status code on the flight segment line. As it is, the U waitlist shows in an online record, so it isn't as if the system only shows HK status online.