Bartolo

No overlapping segments. One was US domestic only and the other was transborder. I had my AE # on the UA booking.

canadiancow

Not necessarily "overlapping", but anything they think is impossible.

Regardless, for UA segments, you're better off discussing it in [Consolidated] - Duplicated / double / impossible reservations -- What will UA do?

Operating airlines perform these cancellations, not ticketing airlines.

Bohemian1

I find myself in the same situation.

In these troubled COVID times, I have two overlapping vacation trips booked with AC. One is a Plan A revenue trip YVR-FCO return, the other is a Plan B mixed AE/rev trip YVR-YUL-YHZ-YYT return. One trip is to backstop the other should Europe go off the rails with admitting Canadians.

I find it interesting that AC let me book the latter trip recently, with no warning that there was an disallowed overlap. Yet, I have a very strong suspicion that the Dupe has been detected and flagged for auto cancellation. Maybe even as soon as 23:59 last night. ;-)

I get why AC has this rule, but it sure makes it hard to plan alternative vacations, especially when one of us has to book time off so far in the future. I'd call in but expect that I'd just get the company line.

At this point I'm not sure if I'd rather gamble on Europe's thirst for traveler $$$ or AC's desire to enforce the rules. Decisions, decisions.

UPDATE: In the case of multiple conflicting PNRs, it seems that AC's logic only flags the first (earliest departure) PNR as a conflict for eventual auto-cancellation. I doubt this opens up any real options for us, but thought I'd share that DP.

sydneyracquelle

I book conflicting reservations all the time but I always leave out/remove my Aeroplan number then when I figure out which flight I’m actually taking I put it back in.

pilot007

I just had a brand new booking I made cancel immediately when I hit the cancel button. So not a legacy one.

Adam Smith

No there's no rule against it. The tariff only prohibits booking the same O/D city pair on the same date. So booking a 7AM YYZ-YUL and a 3PM one on the same day, not allowed, even though you could fly both of them. But booking YYZ-KEF, YYZ-FCO, and YYZ-LHR, all departing within a few minutes of each other, is technically not prohibited.

But AC may cancel them anyway.

canadiancow

I think that's just their tariff not catching up with their technology. There's no good business reason for them to let you hold space that is impossible to actually fly.

Adam Smith

Sure there is. If I'm not certain where I want to travel and AC won't let me hold space on more than one flight, I might book a flight with another carrier. Or I may make up my mind earlier and buy one cheaper non-refundable fare rather than flying one of the more expensive refundable fares.

There's a cost to them allowing someone to hold space on more than one flight, but that can be managed. It's very similar to how AC oversells flights partly because it also sells refundable fares. Except instead of overselling one particular flight, they're overselling one particular passenger.

But there's absolutely a business case that can be made.

canadiancow

That's fair.

But it seems to be fairly common among airlines to technically prohibit exactly this.

Given how all airlines have implemented it, I suspect there are a lot more people who book 10 different flights across several days when only 1 can actually be flown (or where only 1 is eventually flown), than there are people who aren't sure if they want to go to YVR or LHR.

COVID certainly has a different justification ("I want to go to HKG, but if it's still not open, I'll go to YYZ"), but COVID also has insane load factors on a lot of flights these days, so there's a huge downside to letting you do this.

Also, while you might book another airline, I suspect a lot of people just wait until they know for sure, and end up with a more expensive ticket.

Bohemian1

As Adam says we have options. From my example upthread, I could just as easily keep the Plan A AC flights and book the Plan B conflicting ones with WS. Or something similar.

I chose to book the flights with AC coz I'm SE and that tips the scales in this case. But if I really, really want to make sure I have a viable Plan B and book with another carrier, then there's a 50% chance that AC would get zero money from me, as opposed to a 100% chance that they will get some money from me.

mike88m

So I'm curious if booking one flight with a partner (LH) and another with AC will have any impact on auto-cancellation.

I have JTR-FRA-ORD-YUL-YOW with the long-haul in LH-F (but not yet sure if I can fly this due to ban on arrival to US from EU)

The second booking is JTR-FRA-YUL-YOW with long haul on AC-J.

The first segment JTR-FRA is the same aircraft in both cases, but one is in J and the other in Y.

Anyone have any DP on this kind of double booking? I'll let you know if one get cancelled. Just hoping I don't lose the LH-F space due to a bot!

canadiancow

If something is cancelled, it will be a specific segment, not the entire PNR.

I'd be a lot more concerned about JTR-FRA or YUL-YOW.

Bartolo

I pointed out earlier my second booking was cancelled automatically.

Original booking on AC using points. Second booking on United revenue and fully refundable. No segments in common. Different destinations. Only things in common were departure airport and my AE #. When I talked to UA their notes showed they knew about my AE flight.

Someone up thread suggested the link was the AE #. I’m guessing that’s correct because how else would UA have known about my existing res? FYI — cancellation by UA was within 24 hrs of me booking a tx wth them.

I’d be very careful.

Adam Smith

AC's auto-cancel system is definitely still running, and it will (or at least can) cancel your booking stealthily with zero notification.

I booked myself a trip to YUL this coming week. Wanted to fly home in the evening on the 18th, but flight was R0. I booked it and waitlisted the eUp, but also booked the first flight the next morning. The latter booking has simply disappeared and doesn't exist if I try to look it up using the PNR.

I will note that as with the flights I had cancelled last fall, it did not actually conflict with the previous evening's booking - I could have flown a redeye and made a perfectly legal connection.

Very annoying.

Bohemian1

Adam Smith That leads one to wonder exactly what the cancellation criteria actually are. Based on some legs I booked that were flagged for cancellation, I've been assuming it's just origin/destination date matches.

But it's super annoying if the booking simply disappears without warning.