Award travel bumps common?
 

In January I booked 4 roundtrip flights from EWR to SLC for the family. We just received notice that outbound we have been bumped from an 8 am flight to a 7 pm flight, and for the return from a noon'ish flight to a midnight flight. Is this kind of manhandling of OnePass members common? Is there any recourse (silly question)? I've written to Continental but have had no response.

Very similar thing happened to my mother on AA. I would just call and not hang up until I was put back on my original flight.

I got AA to listen when I started subtly inserting IDB into every sentence. ;)

These don't sound like bumps (need to know more), but rather like schedule changes that resulted in changes to your itinerary. Since you are reporting rather extreme changes, you should be able to call CO to get them to find better alternatives. Before you call, take a look at flight schedules to have suggestions ready for the agent.

I would get on the phone with someone and tell them (don't ask) in a nice way that you need flights closer to the time you booked because you have engagements that need to meet (ex. a wedding the night of arrival and go back to work at 8 pm the night of return home). so unless they want to pay for your rented wedding attire and the limo you paid for, and wages for missing time off work, those flights need to be closer to the times you originally booked.

I'm sure someone else will come up with better ideas, but that's where I'd start.

Do these threats usually work for people? Or do they just seem them as that, a threat? Do we really think they'll pay for all that if we don't get there on time?

IF the original flights still operate
AND
IF the connections still work

I would accept nothing less than traveling on the original flights booked.

Airlines don't just offloads mileage redeemers from flights for any reason. It usually happens when flight schedules change and the rebooking is done for all passengers, not just those on mileage tickets.

Airlines sometimes try to save money by only rebooking the passengers on flights that still have the original booking classes (mileage or paid) available. However, in my experience, if the passenger insists, they always will override this and rebook the passenger(s) on flights as similar to the original ones as possible.

IF there has not been any schedule change and passengers are simply being changed to other flights at the airlines whim, I would complain to the DOT.

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FYI - Bumps usually refer to day of flight. Around 50% of flights are overbooked; only a small fraction of these bump people because usually 5%-20% of the passengers don't show up. In those rarer cases that too many people show up, the airline will ask for bump volunteers. These people receive compensation to take later flights.

Occasionally not enough people will volunteer for the bump in exchange for compensation. So the airline will have to involuntarily bump someone - IDB (Involuntary Denied Boarding). The DOT requires airlines to provide specified minimum levels of compensation in these circumstances.

I am not positive if IDB rules would apply here, but if they do AA owes you cash if you insist. The problem might be that the DOT rules a % of fare paid, and you paid with miles, not $....

[QUOTE=wanaflyforless;9544259...I am not positive if IDB rules would apply here, but if they do AA owes you cash if you insist. The problem might be that the DOT rules a % of fare paid, and you paid with miles, not $....[/QUOTE]

An award ticket is valued by the airlines as a full-fare ticket. That way they can write off the maximum amount from revenue for taxes. So, you are not on a free ticket. It is a ticket that has the highest cost value.

I agree with the above comments that you should call CO and ask to be reaccomdated. My experience is that they'll work with you to find suitable flights. Since your itinerary involves travel from EWR to SLC (a Delta hub), I'd not only check on CO's flight schedule but also Delta's. If Delta has award seats available for your dates of travel, CO will have the option of reaccomodating you on a Delta flight instead.

I recently called CO to be reaccomodated after a schedule change on an award itinerary and found them to be very helpful. They were able to put me on the specific flights that I requested.

Thank you.

Can you give any more backup to this? I really want it to be true. I've been involved in a debate over on the Southwest board in which Southwest's people argue that a RR ticket is worth zero, so if you take a bump while on a freebie (RR) you're owed nothing but the sweetener that's given to revenue passengers, and the next flight out.

(As DBC, Southwest offers to refund the *value of revenue tickets*, plus a sweetener - $100, $200 - plus to get you out on the next available flight for free. While revenue passengers get their fare back, the freebie flyer's Rapid Reward disappears. Sometimes, the freebie flyer gets $50 for the value of the freebie, regardless of the highest fare paid for that flight. I argue that the latter should get the RR re-credited for later use. The Southwest people vigorously dispute this, and say the $50, when given, is overly generous of the GA. I digress.)

BUT if the airline is valuing that freebie on the books at the highest value.....

Thank you again.

My wife and I were in business class NRT-SFO on JAL booked with AA miles last year and on the day of departure got "switched" over to an AA flight leaving around the same time of day. The JAL flight was still going out, no changes at all. We didn't even know until checking in.
AA in Narita got us back onto the JAL flight but it took 4 HOURS to sort it at the airport and we were never told why AA pulled us off the JAL flight and stuck us on theirs.
There was no way we were going to fly in those lousy AA business class seats when JAL has the slanted beds, great service and much better food!
It worked out but was a major headache.
Interestingly, when we boarded the business class upstairs was about 2/3 full, so this was not a case of the flight being oversold.

If airlines wrote redeemed awards off as full fare tickets, they would have to put the miles liability on the balance sheets in a similar way.

Airlines do not account for miles redemptions as high value tickets. Rather they argue they only need to count the incremental cost of carrying a passenger as the value of that ticket, so minimizing their miles liability.

Miles are valued on airlines sheets at roughly .4 cents each. +/- a little depending on the airline.

That makes a 25K award ticket worth $100. Less than most deep discount tickets but not free either.

Most airilnes probably count the 25K domestic redemption as costing them significanlty less than $100 because the about .4 cents/mile valuation is assuming a percentage of awards will be redeemed on partners for premium tickets, where the airline probably has to pay the partner a little more than .4 cents per mile.

Take a look at the airlines reported year end balance sheets to see how they value a mile.
Sure, I would love for this to be true.
But, Source???

Perhaps one of those commonly mentioned, but anatomically improbable yoga positions ??

/just sayin'
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Happended to a UA reward RT ticket I got for my son a couple of years ago. The flights were not cancelled. UA just wanted to move reward px to less desirable time. If I have been reading the posted, I would insist the original itin. Read and learn.

Op, please tell us the result.

This recently happened to me when an award flight I booked had a schedule change. I called and the OnePass rep was very friendly and had no problem accommodating me on a flight of my choosing. Since I was using OnePass miles for a Delta flight, they did have to get a Delta supervisor to approve the change, but it all worked out.

Give them a call and see what they can do for you. Good luck!

I love it whe they make any kind of change. when they do that I look o the schedle for the higest probability bumps with multiple connections and ask to be accomodated on tose flights. It is the best way to get a planned bump.