Booking on one ticket is not too easy with some low-cost carriers. Also, if one is to gain 100% EQM on CO (paying other than extortion fees) next year it is impossible.

As far as the change is concerned, I agree that according to the ticket CO should charge $200 -- but any decent human being would waive the fee. Making pax wait for the next "T" availability instead of letting them fly standby on the next empty seat is unconscionable.

In reality, based on actual experience, I can tell you that it would have worked a bit differently on UA or AA. He would have at least made the flight at the earliest with possibly a change fee.

The reason is that most tickets on AA/UA including the riff-raff fares allow one to change the return segments for a change fee. When in such a position (for whatever reason), I would have called AA/UA rather than be a no-show as soon as my flights from IST were canceled and changed the ticket with a change fee to a future enough date (even if I was not sure which date that would be). When I knew for sure which date I would be able to leave, I would have called again and changed to the most convenient date available. The change fee is not applied again in most cases.

The second thing that would have worked in my favor is that both UA and AA don't zero out all low-fare buckets even if the advance purchase requirements cannot be met for a new ticket. As long as there are a reasonable number of empty seats, they would keep those fare buckets non-zero which would have allowed me to change my ticket to a much earlier flight than what this poster has been able to do.

This has nothing to do with moral/ethical obligations. It simply has to do with providing a service that works for people. There is a reason why so many people who actually travel a lot prefer to fly UA/AA over CO.

This is another example of CO's BUSINESS philosophy intended to inconvenience the low fare customer to such an extent that CO hopes they would never fly low fares again. What do you expect on a riff-raff T fare on CO?

I sorry, but I just don't see it. Some other airline can't get you to your CO flight and CO needs to waive advance purchase fare rules?

Doesn't make any sense to me...

That's exactly the sentiment I believe would have been avoided with a more customer-oriented airline such BA. CO clearly doesn't understand that people interline and the potential delays associated with it. If it weren't for the interline, the original poster would not have made this trip on CO. In fact, one could argue that CO should be more lenient than most in this regard because its European network is much weaker than others, creating a greater need to interline to another carrier.

If CO is going to so strictly adhere to their rules and policies in this type of circumstance, the buyer should beware of buying interline tickets involving CO. After this thread, I would never again consider flying CO to Hawaii and AQ interisland as I've done in the past. Last thing I want is for CO to throw the book at me if AQ is delayed.

I see this situation similar to a banking error. Say your utility charges $40 for a bad check, and your bank screws up a transaction, resulting in your check not clearing. While the utility would be perfectly within its rights to assess the fee, and the bank would be within its rights to say it's not responsible for the $40, as a courtesy to the customer and the bank, I couldn't imagine the utility not waiving the fee in this type of circumstance if it's a bona fide bank error.

Very well put.

To not let him on the next flight is just bad customer relations �plane� and simple.

The problem is that this was not an interline ticket. The poster would have avoided his problems had it been an interline ticket. Instead, the poster bought two separate tickets. In such a case, neither airline has any responsibility for you making the flight of another airline.

Here's an example. Last year, I bought an interline ticket (ie all one ticket) that was EWR-BRU (on CO) then BRU-MUC (on LH). The flight leaving EWR was delayed due to a snow storm and we arrived in BRU just in time to see the LH flight pulling back from the gate. As we disembarked, a CO concierge had already rebooked us on the next departing LH flight to MUC. Now, assume instead that I had bought two tickets--one ticket for EWR-BRU on CO and another for BRU-MUC on LH. In that case, when I arrived in BRU, I would have been out of luck. CO would not have "owed" me anything and LH would have been free to charge me a change fee since I missed my flight. I realize that the distinction is quite technical but it sounds like CO was correct in assessing you the change fee. As a matter of human sympathy, though, it would be nice for them to put you on the next available flight that has open coach seats rather than making you wait for a flight that has open seats in the same class that you are ticketed on.

I understand the difference, and I agree that in this hypothetical circumstance that LH could have charged you. I don't believe they would have charged you.

I can't think of even ONE major global airline that wouldn't charge in a situation like this, especially since the passenger could have avoided this problem altogether through the simple and easy step of booking the entire trip on ONE ticket.

If you think AA, UA, or anyone else would circumvent their firm and long-established rules and procedures on intl. no-shows given these particular circumstances, then I am afraid that you are mistaken. If the flights were on a single ticket, then the treatment received would be inexcusable. But since the passenger opted for two tickets instead, the price to be paid for that action is personally assuming the liability of missing the flights on the second ticket.


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Has YOUR airline won an award lately?

Perhaps this is a stupid question -- what happens under these circumstances if I buy two nested but separate ticket like this:

A->B->A and B->C->B

on the same carrier? Assume that no ticketing rules are being violated. What happens to a person at C who is stuck there trying to connect back to A?

Why couldn't you travel until today?

p.s. I was there too and flew home that Sunday morning on Turkish Airlines via Frankfurt connecting to AA to Dallas.

It seems to be the general consensus that he should pay the $200.00, but what is this cr@p about having to wait until T seats are available? I thought any revenue ticket could fly revenue standby on any flight - he would have to go to the airport and wait, and maybe have to come back the following day if the flight went out full, but to have to wait for four days?????

I would be screaming!


K

Perhaps it was 4 days before a confirmed seat was available and the person did not wish to (or was not offered the opportunity to) standby at the airport?

Again, unless you have some data points about how another airline would handle such a situation, this is nothing but speculation.

My comments come from an exepectation of reasonableness in an extraordinary situation, not a rigid adherence to the law. This scenario has shown that CO does not excel in this regard.

But his comment is factual. He can't think of another airline that would do that.

Anyway, I think it's worth noting that we would not have been having this discussion in 1997. Back then, as noted in an oft-referenced book around here, customer agents were empowered to act according to the circumstances at hand, rather than being forced into a one-rule-fits-all mentality. Clearly, in those days, the agent would have had the power to recognize that this situation was different from "I overslept," or "I couldn't buy the T fare for the Thursday flight, so I bought a ticket for Monday and decided to show up on Thursday to take the flight I wanted." The customer made a good-faith effort to uphold the spirit of the contract.

Today, of course, agents aren't permitted to let the facts get in the way of the rules. I'm sure someone, somewhere (perhaps even in this forum) believes that this "new" way is in the airline's best interest. I don't.

Then again, CO has already told me in several ways that they no longer wish to have me as a customer...

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Has YOUR airline screwed you over lately?