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Will Air Canada Cancel a Reservation if I Buy Two Flights?

Will Air Canada Cancel a Reservation if I Buy Two Flights?

Old Sep 24, 2022, 2:10 pm
  #151  
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Originally Posted by canadiancow
My experiences have been much faster, but I agree it doesn't always pick it up.
Sometimes (usually?) they're picked up in minutes. I'm just saying that, despite spending considerable time playing around with this when I had the UFP last year, I was not able to find any consistency or predictability. It usually picks them up, but not always. It usually catches them quickly, but not always. It almost always cancels them when it says it will, but once or twice it didn't.

My point is I don't think there's any proven way to consistently game the system.
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Old Oct 25, 2022, 3:15 pm
  #152  
 
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Originally Posted by canadiancow
It gets flagged within a day of it detecting the overlap, and cancelled within a day or two of detection.

Flight date is irrelevant.
How can you see that a booking is flagged?
Is it visible in your PNR tool or do you have to call in and ask?
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Old Oct 25, 2022, 3:20 pm
  #153  
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Originally Posted by shawneve
How can you see that a booking is flagged?
Is it visible in your PNR tool or do you have to call in and ask?
You'd have to call in and ask if there's an SSR.

But I don't really see the point. If it's impossible to take both flights, assume one will be cancelled. If it is possible to take both, but they're close enough together that one might get flagged anyway, I don't even know if there's anything they can do to stop it.
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Old Oct 25, 2022, 3:31 pm
  #154  
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Originally Posted by canadiancow
If it is possible to take both, but they're close enough together that one might get flagged anyway, I don't even know if there's anything they can do to stop it.
I expended a decent amount of Concierge time in trying to find a way, with no success. They tried adding remarks to the file, they called their help desk, all sorts of stuff. No one was aware of any way to prevent the system from cancelling one, even if both were flyable and you intended to fly them.
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Old Oct 25, 2022, 3:35 pm
  #155  
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Originally Posted by Adam Smith
No one was aware of any way to prevent the system from cancelling one, even if both were flyable and you intended to fly them.
In the latter case, surely there is a contractual issue... They should not be able to cancel a contract unilaterally.
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Old Oct 25, 2022, 3:39 pm
  #156  
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Originally Posted by Stranger
In the latter case, surely there is a contractual issue... They should not be able to cancel a contract unilaterally.
The dupe detector is 100% not in compliance with the terms in the tariff, which only bars holding two reservations for the same O-D pairing on the same day.

But by the time you take that up with AC's legal department, it will be months after the flight has left without you. Or you've bought a new ticket at the current price.
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Old Oct 25, 2022, 3:42 pm
  #157  
 
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Originally Posted by Adam Smith
I expended a decent amount of Concierge time in trying to find a way, with no success. They tried adding remarks to the file, they called their help desk, all sorts of stuff. No one was aware of any way to prevent the system from cancelling one, even if both were flyable and you intended to fly them.
In that case, I will call in to make sure neither of my two potentially conflicting bookings are flagged and then cancel the one I prefer less.
I would rather make that choice then let AC's system make it for me.

Thanks for the info.
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Old Nov 23, 2022, 10:20 pm
  #158  
 
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So how safe is it to make 2 bookings from same OD within 12 hours of each other but different calendar days 23 and 24 Dec? Fully upfront the 24th flight would be purchased in flex or better to ensure free cancellations in the case of weather complications.
If I fly a boy up on the 23rd, to drive a vehicle down but then their second flight is cancelled and they miss Christmas, I will not be permitted to enjoy my holiday.

How soon would I see the central control decision?
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Old Nov 23, 2022, 10:45 pm
  #159  
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Originally Posted by FlY2XS
So how safe is it to make 2 bookings from same OD within 12 hours of each other but different calendar days 23 and 24 Dec?
Not safe. Not guaranteed it will be cancelled, but it really could.

Fully upfront the 24th flight would be purchased in flex or better to ensure free cancellations in the case of weather complications.
You mean Comfort or better, right?

How soon would I see the central control decision?
Possibly never. One day, one of the bookings might just disappear.

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Old Nov 24, 2022, 1:50 pm
  #160  
 
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Many thanks, Verbal...I mean Adam!
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Old Nov 25, 2022, 1:23 pm
  #161  
 
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Originally Posted by governorgeneral
Thanks all! Learning something new about how AC works here.
Spoiler
 
Yeah, the agent did specifically say "this happens rarely", which I understood to mean that it is infrequent, but not unexpected. He seemed to sympathise that it's not a reassuring situation, but didn't have any ideas about what to do about my future travels with nested (new term for me, thanks) bookings. He did not say or suggest that it was a fare rule or minimum stay requirement issue; he specifically said it appeared to be a "duplicate booking", even though clearly the dates and to/from are different. Based on the discussion here I'll at least double check that there isn't any minimum stay with the employer flights that my nested flights might appear to be trying to work around.
Just closing my own story here - finally got a full credit for the auto-cancelled flight this week (4 months later), but no further explanation on what happened or advice on how to prevent it in future, or any token points or discount for the trouble.
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Old Dec 18, 2022, 8:05 pm
  #162  
 
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Originally Posted by Adam Smith
The dupe detector is 100% not in compliance with the terms in the tariff, which only bars holding two reservations for the same O-D pairing on the same day.
If you have two reservations for the same O-D on different days, how many days apart must they be? For example, I'm fairly certain if they were 7 days apart, there would be no issue. What about 2 days apart? What about 1 day apart (two successive days)?
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Old Dec 18, 2022, 8:52 pm
  #163  
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Originally Posted by Howard
If you have two reservations for the same O-D on different days, how many days apart must they be? For example, I'm fairly certain if they were 7 days apart, there would be no issue. What about 2 days apart? What about 1 day apart (two successive days)?
I don't know. They've definitely cancelled flights on the same O-D pairing on back-to-back days on me. Even when I had return flights booked, e.g. YYC-YUL-YYC on back-to-back days. And I know that they cancelled IAH-YYC on another FTer when he had it booked two days in a row.

The best way to test this would be for someone with a UFP to try it out and see, but I don't have any of those at the moment. Next-best would be with refundable fares.

It's also possible that the algorithm is so complex that even if we do some testing, we won't uncover exactly how it works. I've never figured out why it didn't flag the three conflicting flights I once had, or why some other things don't get flagged.
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Old Dec 19, 2022, 9:06 am
  #164  
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Originally Posted by Adam Smith
I don't know. They've definitely cancelled flights on the same O-D pairing on back-to-back days on me. Even when I had return flights booked, e.g. YYC-YUL-YYC on back-to-back days. And I know that they cancelled IAH-YYC on another FTer when he had it booked two days in a row.

The best way to test this would be for someone with a UFP to try it out and see, but I don't have any of those at the moment. Next-best would be with refundable fares.

It's also possible that the algorithm is so complex that even if we do some testing, we won't uncover exactly how it works. I've never figured out why it didn't flag the three conflicting flights I once had, or why some other things don't get flagged.
I have booked YYZ-SFO rt for date A and B, then another booking for date A+1 and B+1, they survived quite long until I manually cancelled one, and no duplicated remarks appeared on either booking.

I have only ever being marked duplicated for bookings that involve the same flight. E.g I once booked YYZ-YUL-LHR and then booked a separate ticket for YYZ-YUL. And almost immediately the duplicated booking remarks appeared on both bookings and demanded a resolution by X date.

I also booked same day LHR-YYZ on different flights and appeared to be no issue as both reservations stayed alive for a few days before I cancelled one.
I also booked same day NRT-YVR-YYZ and NRT-YUL-YTZ and both reservations stayed alive for days until I cancelled one. But these are technically not the same OD pair so they might escape the mighty duplicated booking detection.

These are my anecdotes.
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Old Feb 22, 2023, 12:30 pm
  #165  
 
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Just overheard an example of this when I was dealing with an agent. Woman to my right was complaining because 2 bookings she had were "There this morning". AC spontaneously cancelled one booking and then cancelled the remaining flight.
She was quite perturbed b/c this was "precisely why she made 2 bookings" she informed everyone in a 2 gate radius.
Further twist, it sounded like she booked a redundant second leg, given fragments of the conversation.
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