mikereno1

I received one email from Orbitz between when it was booked and when we flew advising of a flight time change, 5 minutes later, but nothing else. It was a round trip reservation so if something was wrong I would hope AS would tell us when they opened the reservation to check us in at Reno on our way to Hawaii.

Everything went smoothly until checking in at Honolulu to get back to the mainland.

beckoa

Understand the thought process, and it could be. I'd like more details to be furnished.

Link:

3Cforme

One might hope for that, but no, you shouldn't expect it. Airlines just fly segments sequentially as listed in the record. One can get a misconnect on the same carrier without the computer or an agent flagging it.

You bought a ticket through orbitz. Orbitz is responsible for communication (as with that five minute schedule change) and rebooking for any/all advance schedule changes.

Often1

The likelihood that an AS agent went into a third-party booked record and cancelled three pax (two of whom the agent would have known were children) in order to avoid at least soliciting VDB's is between slim and nil. This is especially true because the agent would have known that the three pax would still need to be rerouted and that the reroute OA winds up costing AS money. This simply suggests a level of conspiracy which I doubt and of which there is no evidence.

In the end, the PNR coding will show the agent (Orbitz / Go / AS) who touched and changed the record and exactly what they did. The agents all know that.

On the other hand, Orbitz had control of the ticket and, without AS or some other carrier taking control of it, would have had to make any changes.

UAPremierExec

Mesa didnt go through and cancel ANY reservations during their wind-down. All reservations and etickets were kept intact thru June. Only bookings made in June and on were canceled or flagged. All other flights were simply zero'd out. Mesa didnt even execute a system cancel of the flights in April until late last week, and with both Alaska and Mesa using Sabresonic it sounds like there may have been a glitch in the ticketing.

Gate agents work oversells in anyway possible. If there are passengers with glitchy PNRs and etickets, you bet your ... they will bump you if thats all they can find.

I even know of instances where Lufthansa told 2 people I know tbey were on standby despite the GDS, etkt, and even Lufthansa's own website clearly stating status OK and confirmed!

formeraa

As a former airline employee, I would say that this is a likely explanation. The other possibility is that Orbitz proactively rescheduled your flight (thinking it would not operate since YV was discontinuing service).

The question is WHEN did this happen? AS should be able to give you the info on what time the reservation was canceled. If the reservation was canceled on the day of departure, then it is likely that YV mistakenly sent a "no-show" message to AS. If it was canceled prior to the day of departure, then it was likely Orbitz trying to re-book your reservation.

In any case, if the reservation showed canceled in AS's computer, then there is no IDB on AS's part in this case. However, AS did assume responsibiliy and found an alternative flight for the OP. Unfortunately, we all have travel nightmares now and then.

UAPremierExec

Mesa's Sabresonic system isn't set up with EDIFACT so it wouldn't transmit a no-show to Alaska. Only other YV or Mokulele flights.

One of the "benefits" to an interline / non-partner booking

channa

Then why didn't the AS agents put the pax back on (as oversells) and start soliciting for the needed VDBs? That would have been the proper protocol, and what I've seen at other carriers. UA (now using CO's flaky systems), for example, is notorious for dropping customers because of a technical glitch here or there. They put them back on and solicit, very simple.


This is completely incorrect. The law doesn't care whether the airline shows the reservation or not in their system, so long as the customer did not do the cancelling.

This circumstance is specifically called out by the DOT so that airlines cannot point the finger at the computer and disclaim responsibility. It's the airline's problem, regardless.

ANC

hmmmm unless DL was still running the gates that day at HNL

I doubt even then that hanky panky was going on but it doesnt hurt to add to this discussion that ground agents in HNL arent AS employees. Im not sure how much access they have to dig into the system at the airport

mikereno1

Orbitz customer care is checking into things, still havent heard back. I want to wait and see what they say before contacting Alaska.

I just can't imagine that Orbitz would leave the initial flight from Kona intact and cancel the Alaska portion, which is why I think it had to be Alaska somehow, just waiting to get more details.

beckoa

Thanks for the update ^

mikereno1

Quick update. I got some information from an Alaskan Air customer service rep through email who was able to look into the computer for more details. Looks like there was schedule changes on Dec 15 and Jan 5 which somehow had us scheduled on a 8am flight from Honolulu to Seattle and then a flight from Seattle to Reno later that night.

Here is part of the email:

The data shows that they No-Showed on 860 on 30MAR HNL/SEA which xld 2255
SEA/RNO.

They were scheduled to departure on flight 860 which was an 08:00 departure out
of HNL to SEA.

Looks like there was a schedule change, and they were scheduled out of KOA on
YV (Go!) to HNL with an arrival at 11:10. However they were still scheduled to
departure out of HNL at 08:00 on flight 860. The reservation was not fixed and
the VCR still showed them traveling out of HNL to SJC.

It appears that Orbitz processed the schedule change, but didn't fix the ticket
or the routing.

Schedule change was processed on 15DEC and then another on 05JAN



So....now I get to see what Orbitz has to say about all this.

Am I totally screwed or will we be able to get something besides a sorry from this?

apodo77

Did AS say why the flight was changed?

Seems Orbitz should have processed the change regardless and is at fault.

What exactly are you looking for in terms of compensation?

eponymous_coward

What is the compensation you are looking for?

beckoa

Wow that looks like quite the fail by Orbitz.

Thanks for following up on FT about this.