985X

Next time something like this happens, my suggestion would be rebook to OAK/SFO/SJC, then either rent a car or take a train back to SMF. At least that way you can reach SMF by Sunday night.

If they have no direct flights, fly to the closest airport with decent rental car inventory and ground transportation, that way you can still reach your destination that day.

Eastbay1K

They'll need to do something before a hostile activist shareholder group takes shape.

edgewood49

Could not have said it better !

GumboCook

Good idea. I was so focused on flight to SMF I didn't think about that. I was already thinking about booking hotel and extending my Hertz rental (which I really did not want to do given their issues with reporting cars stolen when customers extend rentals). Thanks.

david22

Yikes. Given there's only one flight a day on the route and I'm flying business, I proactively bought a fully refundable ticket home on a different carrier the next day just in case this affects our flight...

Eastbay1K

I call BS - not on you, but at somewhere along the information line between what the AS agent told you (probably upon management instruction) and reality. This has nothing to do with interline. It has to do with ticket endorsement and acceptance, and/or issuing another airline's ticket on 027 ticket stock.

With respect to WN, it just doesn't accept endorsed tickets from other airlines. With its recent participation in the major GDS providers, it is geared up to do so should it choose to at some point. Other airlines are probably inhibited from issuing a WN ticket on their own ticket stock.

With respect to DL, that one is a head scratcher. If AS has any ability to book on DL (i.e., not a complete inhibition) it should have the ability to book anything on DL. Whether AS puts an internal inhibition, that's another story. It sounds like "access to the Sun DL flight" was an issue because DL is only accepting an endorsed ticket into certain seat buckets from certain AS seat buckets, and AS doesn't want to come more $ out of pocket to do more. Endorsed ticket means that DL is accepting your AS ticket for your DL flight. A newly issued ticket means AS has essentially bought you a ticket on DL, issued on AS ticket stock.

But then, I probably know nothing ... yet somehow more than agents that don't know what is going on behind the friendly user interface that agents use these days. An agent trained on and with access to the native SABRE or APOLLO systems are worth more than their weight in precious metals.

VegasGambler

Up until at least 2019 you could still book DL flights on the AS website if you jumped through enough hoops (it was a lot of hoops and definitely not immediately obvious -- IIRC you had to already have a ticket, go to make a change, list the possibilities in one of the ways that they offer (I think it was list by departure time?) and then DL options would magically appear). I'm not sure if it's still possible, and I don't currently have any AS tickets so I can't check.

Flying for Fun

DL options will still pop up if you throw something weird enough to confuse AS with multi-city bookings. Prices usually aren't favourable though. On a ticket change, I have been offered HA as an option. On partner awards I have seen a couple of itineraries with two partners & offered a partner codeshare flight operated by another oneworld carrier as part of a partner booking. Perhaps in the works for multi-partner awards.

James

GumboCook

I didn't push any further as I was getting agitated and didn't want to do something I would regret later. Don't know how truthful the AS supervisor was but bottom line, I didn't feel like AS cared about us. I found out about the flight cancellation via text. What if the text had been delayed for some reason ?

In Aug 2021, AS called me as I was on my way to SJC and told me I had a potential misconnect @ PDX and wanted to switch my outbound to SFO. I agreed but had to tell agent to rebook my return to SFO as well. He hadn't thought of that and said, ok head to SFO and I will call you back. I guess that level of caring is not to be expected at the current moment.

selkirks

Important to remember that in situations like this where the airline is short-staffed across flight crews, ground crews, and operations, some of the typical "Customer Care" conventions are going to go by the wayside simply because they need to triage. Lots of cancellations...lots of Customer Care issues to sort out and not enough staff to do it. It's a situation where it's probably going to get worse before it gets better as they rectify some of their staffing issues, unfortunately.

That doesn't excuse poor customer service or the broader situation, but unless you're a VIP it's unlikely you're going to be getting proactive calls back to resolve Customer Care issues anytime soon.

QT31415

That line was quoted verbatim to my daughter and granddaughter on one of their recent cancellations with delays and rerouting of over 2 days which resulted in a missed IVF appointment and more tears and money than you can imagine. After their second connection was also screwed up (they were refused boarding because there was a ticketing error on the new connection), a kind agent "found" the very delta flight that was not available earlier. There is no rhyme nor reason behind AS's shenanigans.

edgewood49

First signs of a dysfunctional management team.

Eastbay1K

While there's no "I" in "team," there's an "I" in "dysfunctional."

nomad420

Been there.... I didn't have that many changes but enough to really be a hassle to rebook and shift stuff around. As I posted before I don't have a "travel office" to rebook and handle this stuff. I end up pounding out all the changes my self online, on the phone, and even at the ticket counter/airport. Total pain and waste of time.

sltlyamusd

The reality is that almost every airline has struggled with running a reliable operation at some point in the past year. AS has generally run a reliable operation over the years (and in fact still ranked at or near the top of the industry during February and March of this year). Based on FlightAware, it looks like operations have stabilized for the time being, but since Ben's message said to expect "choppiness" the rest of the month, I'm still hesitant to book them on my usual route, which only has one flight/day. Fingers crossed they get things sorted out with the pilots and avert any major disruptions to summer travel.