How does the duplicate booking killer work?
 

I've not had a lot of experience with Alaska's duplicate booking detection / killer; can anyone share some anecdata on how it works?

By "duplicate booking" I mean booking the same or impossible routes, eg, two one-way transcons with same routing & different departure times on the same day. "Impossible" in the sense that no pax could make both flights.

I feel like I've unintentionally done this a few times. Only once did Alaska step in and call me; I got a kind voicemail asking me to cancel one, a few days after booking. Based on that, I gather (a) it doesn't happen automatically, and (b) it's pretty lenient when they do detect it.

Context: I'm in a situation where I want to book a backup transcon for the same day, and (within a day or so of departure) as a 75k cancel the one I can't make. Not sure how fast and loose others have played it here. Thanks!

Why not just book one and SDC change to the other if needed? No fees for 75K or fare difference.

James

I booked a mileage run for a Saturday a few years ago, which was SEA-LAX / LAX-SEA and SEA-SFO / SFO-SEA. After booking, I got an email that one of the reservations was invalid and would be canceled. When I called, they explained that the system doesn't allow two reservations on the same day, departing from the same airport, without some manual intervention. They worked their magic, and I was able to keep both bookings.

I was actually planning to fly both reservations, though. Not sure how they'd feel about keeping two reservations where you're going to cancel one. Seems to me that may be why the system flags multiple reservations leaving from the same city on the same day -- to keep people from doing what you're trying to do.

SDCing definitely fits their policy better, but can understand wanting to go the other route and having a better shot at a decent seat/upgrade priority than just SDCing when you know your plans for sure. I've so far been okay with having multiple flights on subsequent days when I'm not sure my exact travel plans, but for all AS knows, I could have a flight back on a different carrier between them, even if unlikely.

You could have put it on one reservation with the multi-city tool.

My first fly everywhere, go nowhere run for MVPG was YLW-SEA-LAX-PDX-SFO-SEA-YLW booked on one itinerary for $369. Of the 4 mainline flights, I was upgraded to F on 3 as an MVP.

James

:rolleyes: as usual, a lovely story, but TOTALLY irrelevant to OP's question

Fairly simple anti-fraud software. All it has to do is look at various attributes and then weed out those who have booked in violation of the COC.

It all depends on where you sit. Not only does allowing people to hold impossible bookings affect availability, but it also affects pricing. If I book a cheap seat and it's the last one and I don't intend to fly it, that's good for me. But, when you come along, the cheap seats are gone and you are stuck paying more. That's bad for you.

there's also the case of booking 2 seats on the same flight, then cancelling/redepositing the 2nd last minute for whatever reason (hold for some procrastinating friend etc). Tough to do these days with many overbooked flights, but otherwise same effect for the airline, lost revenue and risk of getting your account zeroed out. I did this one time to hold a seat for a friend who was booking later and wanted to sit together. completely forgot about it until boarding, the software had not canceled either ticket, but I was able to cancel from the app. This was maybe 8 years ago, before the days of every flight being oversold, so things might work differently now.

They also assume some percentage of cancellations or no shows, so to some extent it could already be baked in there. They are fully aware of their Elite cancellation policy. And even for non-Elite members, they can cancel too (if they pay the change fee, which is nearly always worthwhile on a transcon). They're also aware that Saver customers will simply no show. And in low fare markets, there can be a high no show factor.