'Duplicate' Reservations -1984
 

Just phoned AA EXP to make a reservation and was asked if I wanted my KLM reservation for the following day cancelled? I found it odd they should know of this reservation as there was no connection between the two. She said she found quite a few 'duplicate' reservations and proceeded to quote various flights on other airlines for the next 45 days. Mind you none of them are duplicates or even conflict. Short turn arounds yes, and I will likely change one or two, but all are ticketed and all are feasible. She then strongly encouraged me to make some changes as "the airlines do not like this situation".

I'm rather surprised that the airlines have access to all my travel arrangements.

I am also a bit dismayed that the EXP desk took it upon themselves to strong arm me into modifying my travel plans based upon some sort of flagging system they have instituted.

Are airlines allowed to disclose the personal contract information they have with me to other companies?

How many others have had similar experiences?


[This message has been edited by fuzzywzzy (edited 09-16-2002).]

Did you buy the KLM ticket through American?

No. Totally separate bookings purchased directly through each of the respective airlines.

Whoa.. that's a little freaky.

Bizarre. Do they have the authority to change your KLM reservations? Did you do the KLM through SABRE?

My agency booked them. Not sure what they used. Actually, the KLM was booked through NW and is an 012 ticket.

American used to own the "Sabre" reservation system and it appears they still have full access. This system is extensively used by other airlines and travel agents. Also, with Orbitz.com now in business, I suspect there is even more information sharing going on than ever before.

what does this mean for back to back ticketing using two different airlines??

and how did they know the KLM reservation was you, since your AA FF# wouldn't have been in it?

weird!

[This message has been edited by gleff (edited 09-16-2002).]

oh sir...i see from your travel record that you went to dentist last week...you purchased groceries last night, and you graduated from college...isn't our new system wonderful...we have all your data right here at our fingertips...lets just check your credit history......

Could it be that your agent entered you AA# for the KLM ticket. Still does not explain how AA got hold of your KLM ticket unless both tickets used SABRE, and SABRE flagged it for AA. You should ask your travel agent and see if he/she can find an explanation.

That's pretty impressive. Not necessarily in a good way.

d

You got it. Scary. A supermarket tried to use evidence of someone's alcohol purchases made using the frequent shopper card when he/she slipped and fell in the store and sued.

Back to the travel issue, its possible that your travel agent has a profile for you that has all of your FF#s in it, and every PNR created will have this info. Also every reservation made by the same CRS (such as Sabre or Apollo) will be very easily cross-referenced.

Hard to believe. Sabre/AA/Travelocity travel records share the same central GDS processors, but I assumed that they kept data segregated. In the old days, an airline was only notified of passenger records in which they had an interest, that being, at least one segment was booked on that airline. So, in theory, if a Sabre travel agent booked NW space, a passenger record existed in the Sabre system and the NW res system. I always assumed that AA airline staff could not look at traveler records booked by Sabre that might only have space on their competitors. I do have some familiarity with the Worldspan GDS(NW, Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, and some small carriers) and I know that there is no sharing of Worldspan agency passenger records with NW unless there is NW or (sometimes) KL space. Things get curiouser and curiouser...

There MAY be a feasible explanation of this. If you did the tix through an agency, the agency MAY have played around with your destination city in order to get a cheaper fare (assuming that you are not on cheapie).

Here is a hypothetical situation:

You are flying from ORD to LHR and then to Amsterdam, perhaps on short notice. Let's say the cheapest available fare on AA was $1400 RT ORD-LHR-AMS, and the RT LHR-AMS-LHR is another $300. Your agent may have played around with the MPM and gotten you a fare of lets say $1200 to combine both and do the LHR-AMS-LHR on KLM as part of your fare (within the MPM) on AA (making AMS the destination and hence getting you a cheaper all together fare, even with the stopover, and perhaps even avoiding some 7 day restrictions, etc).

While the ticket in your hand or agency confirmations may not necessarily seem to link the two tickets easily, they very well could be linked between the two airlines. I would tend to think this as to my knowledge KLM uses Worldspan which isn't on the Sabre "platform".

Not freaky, but frightening !

Why are you shocked that airline share your travel information with each other?

Your credit report is an example of many disparate financial institutions sharing information. Practically anyone can request your credit report, if provided with some basic information like your SSN.

The airlines benefit from sharing a database, and your privacy concerns aren't nearly as important to them as profitability from data mining.

I would have thought that the airlines would *not* be keen on sharing data on customers.

e.g. Does UA really want AA to know how often I fly SFO-BOS (and the fare basis for those trips)? AA could then decide to do a targeted mailing to me touting their flights on that route including MRTC and powerports in coach.
That's just one example...I can think of many more nefarious...

Really now - the airline industry for the most part is the most thinly veiled version of antitrust that you can imagine. How many other businesses respond to competition so immediately when customers are affected adversely "in order to remain competitive". What a heap of hooey.

hfly: KLM has their own reservations system. As a codeshare with NW, there are many instances where they may share passenger data with NW, which is in the Worldspan system.

Maybee it's just because you have such a unique name. After all how many fuzzywzzys can there be out there. I only know one other one.

Seriously thought, I was in the library last week listning to a librarian in dismay over her inability to legally discuss a 6 year old childs library card with his parent. The librarian asked for the childs permission and the child repeatedly said no. Seems there is a recent law giving kids privacy incase they are reading books they don't want their parents to know about.

Surely we have some kind of simular protections.

most likely your FF # was entered and when EXP pulled up your record because you called
in and said your advantage number.
that is where they can see everything you are doing.
next time, say AGENT and deal with one res at a time, hang up and call back.
Back in the day, AA couldnt see your res unless a AA segment was booked.
NOW with Etkt interlining the link is built.
All the airlines are trying to get 100 percent Etkt interlining and then information will be avail on all levels.

This makes sense to me, that since airlines are now accepting each others' e-tickets in the event of flight irregularities that they now have the abilitity to look at each other's passenger records in order to confirm that e-tickets are valid.

This could have dire consequences for booking back-to-back tickets. In the past, you only got caught if you were using the same airline. Then, when alliances and code-sharing came along, you had to make sure that the two bookings were with airlines that had no overlap. Now, it make no longer be possible to do risk free back-to-back bookings.

Exactly right Blatherin'. In fact if I recall correctly, that is exactly what Virgin (successfully) sued BA over in Britain about 8-10 years ago. Maybe someone else recalls more of the details.

Lurker http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Um,.. no not really, the fare rules prohibit the back-to-back i.e. the taking of another flight on the airline that issued the ticket in question to evade some portion of the fare rule of said ticket. They can't tell you that if you contract to fly on a second airline that you will have to pay them more as a result.

jcrb, what you are saying may be true, but there is also no obligation for an airline to let you participate in their FFP. I've never wanted to push the envelope because I have been afraid that if I get an airline annoyed with me it will do BAD THINGS to my mileage balance.

Would make for an interesting lawsuit if the airlines tried to pull off anything based upon services acquired by a 'competitor'.

Can you imagine the lawyer presenting the rational for the back-to-back or Saturday night stay restrictions? Add in the '1984-ish' admonishment for securing flight services on a competing airline. I would love to see the jury of my peers blast them.

(taking a little pleasure out of this unacceptable airline behavior)