Originally Posted by
matt21
Thanks for the replies.
For those who contributed info, I think what clearly triggered it was that I had 2 flights at approximately the same time, which is not the case when I've done this in the past. If that's the only thing that gets flagged, I understand the logic. What I don't understand is why cancel it 16 days out as opposed to shortly after I booked it (30 days out) or perhaps closer to the actual flight? 16 days seems like a random guess. I've done this on more expensive flights which I'd assume are more full and have never had a problem, even 24 hours out but clearly they weren't at the same times so that was the key variable.
Probably, it has a software service that checks for reservations for flights (let's say 20 days out), of tickets with same passenger but booked on multiple conflicting reservations, and flags these reservations. Then it either auto deletes all but one, or this data is reviewed in a queue by someone who goes through these flagged reservations who then cancels.
What it should probably implement is validation within 24 hours (of time of purchase) to verify if ticket conflicts with another ticket held by the same passenger, then cancel the new ticket, or even better would be validation at time of purchase requiring the customer to cancel/re-schedule the existing conflicting reservation first.