Using another carrier
 

I'm not exactly a frequent flyer but I fly occassionally. I don't really understand the process of how to fly with another carrier when your scheduled flight is delayed or cancelled. Are there "rights" that all airline passengers have or is this a priviledge granted by certain carriers? I have been told that this is why you want a paper ticket for longer, more important flights. Could someone give me information on this or supply some experiences.

RTB,

I DO fly a lot, and it's still one of the great mysteries of life to me! Sometimes they book me on another airline willingly, eagerly even. Other times it's the 'hate it for you' attitude.

On USAIR, I was in a seat in FC at SNA when they announced our flight was being delayed 1 hour due to a ATC hold out of DFW, where I had a tight connection. They voluntarily pulled me off and put me on a nonstop DL flight - also in FC! Another time, also on US, I had a four hour delay out of FLL and they were singularly unimpressed as to my reasons why I need them to book me over to another carrier with a flight in one hour. My final example is AirTran delayed out of DFW such that I missed the last connection of the night to GSO. They offered to put me up in hotel, but not to put me on the DL flight that night. Since I had a "have to be there" meeting the next morning, I paid for the DL flight out of pocket.

So if anyone can offer a rationale, I'd love to learn it with you!

There is mystery and no mystery. If you are booked on a full fare ticket with an IATA carrier [International AIr Transport Association], all other IATA carriers flying that route -- or serving those city points via a connection -- can be used in event of a voluntary or involuntary delay or cancellation. Your ticket is "endorseable" and thus will be honored by these carriers (within limits). If you are on a discounted ticket, and/or flying a non-IATA airline, the airline you are booked and ticketed on is only required to get you to your destination within a reasonable time period on its own services. It is not required to place you on another airline to get you there, unless it knows you cannot be moved within 24-hours or so. But even then, it is at their discretion, since your ticket is "non-endorsible", i.e. technically not good on any other carrier.

If you are travelling on a free FF ticket, the situation is much like a "non-endorsible" ticket.

However, all this said, public relations comes into play and if you have elite status with a carrier, they will generally go out of their way [within reason] to get you to your destination, often waving the "non-endorsible" rule.

Hope this helps considering there are probably several hundred pages of tarrif rules covering this circumstance.

I believe that if you have a paid ticket (even if discounted), the airline can endorse it to another airline. The catch, as pointed out, is that Airline A doesn't have to do it, if the ticket isn't refundable. If your ticket is full-fare and fully refundable, then you could just as well get your $ back from Airline A and use the $ to buy a ticket on Airline B -- Airline A simply cuts out a step by doing it for you when it rebooks you. But if you have a discount ticket, you still have what used to be called a "value coupon" -- the portion that means you paid money for carriage. The question is how much value Airline B has to credit you or Airline A with if it takes the coupon.

If full Y is $500 each way, and you paid $700 for a discounted round trip on Airline A, then Airline B could take the ticket for $700 and charge you another $300 to bring you up to full Y. If you've already used the first coupon and your return flight is cancelled, Airline B could credit you with as little as $200 -- you still pay $300 extra.

It gets really messy if your discounted RT fare was less than full Y one-way, because then Airline B can say that your return coupon has no value left. I'll omit the math.

I think (with no evidence) that the Airlines B of the world accept the tickets and stranded passengers of the Airlines A, because they know that some days they're in the same boat (?), and will need the help of the A's.

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"If you want to win the game, write the rules."

I absolutely LOVE the slogan.. may I use it?

Ther is a good summary of rules at http://www.onetravel.com under 'Rules of the Air' see the category 'Flight Delays - Cancellations - Misconnections'. The rules vary from airline to airline and are based on the "Contract of Carriage" that applies to tickets purchased on that airline.

I have asked at the ticket counter at the airport for a complete set of the rules and have only received a summary (mostly on what is my responsibility). Does anyone know where one can get the complete set for an airline??

skyflyer - Thanks for the link, the info on rules is very useful.

The complete "contract of carriage" (also called "tariff"?) for an airline is huge. I saw it once on TV, they showed one for JAL and it was enough paper to fill a 2-inch binder. I imagine there must be a way to obtain a copy for your airline though. I am considering trying to obtain one too (for Air Canada). My strategy for getting one will be to start at customer service and work my way up, using the services of the ombudsman if needed.

FewMiles..

Here is another very useful site that summarizes the "conditions of carriage" for each airline, including what each agrees to do in case of delays or cancellations -
http://www.mytravelrights.com/travellaw.cfm?ai=3

svpii, if you mean my slogan (signature line), then of course you can use it. The words are mine but the idea goes back for centuries.

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"If you want to win the game, write the rules."

A tip I learnt a long time ago, which has served me very well over the years is to always have you ticket issues by an alternative carrier to the airline you are flying on, ie.

If I am flying BA from Frankfurt to Heathrow, I will ask my agent to have the ticket issued by Lufthansa.

That way if you can fly that route with either BA or LH without having to get the ticket endorsed (full-fare tickets only).

It may not save a lot of time, but if there are 200 passengers off-loaded and trying to get on a flight by the other carrier, the fact that your ticket is valid without endorsement can make a massive difference in terms of getting on the flight and easing the stress.


Nick

So I could have DL issue me a USAIR ticket? Now that sounds like a great trick! So it's already a currency instrument w/ DL even tho it's issued on US?

Two years ago when Northwest was on strike, my wife had a frequent flyer (free) ticket coming up. When we called, we were told that if the strike was still going on, they would book us on another airline. This pleasantly surprised us. I never found out if this policy was due to the contract of carriage, good will on the part of Northwest, or good will on the part of the other carrier. It turned out that her flight was the first day that Northwest resumed service.

It is against airline regulations for a travel agency to issue a ticket wholly booked on one airline using another airline's ticket stock. The only exceptions are when the agency is not authorized to issue tickets for the airline being flown, such as a small airline in a distant country. An agency can do it, and may do it once or twice for a special client, but they risk having their ticketing authorization for that airline being withdrawn.

don't ask me how I know this, but the term is called "plating away" and was occurring a lot in DFW in 1981 when AA was trying to drive (oh, excuse me compete with) Braniff. (I think I read this in Plaskett's book). The agents would sell Braniff tkts on AA, then BN would have to go back to AA for the money, which would be forthcoming (but BN lost on the time value).

It's easy guys, there are several options:

1) You just ask the agent to do it. They either will or won't.

2) You ask for the ticket to be issued at an airport which does not does have ticket-stock for your principal carrier (for example I know that if I ask for my Swissair flight ticket to be issued in Birmingham it will be issued on Manx air paper).

But I can actually collect the ticket anywhere is the world.

3) You tag on a 'dummy' segment and then seek a refund of the unused segment.

Piece of cake. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Nick