Missing Flights
 

Hello,

A question to the travelers here from a CSA: When you are flying on a non-refundable ticket and you miss your flight (i.e. to cut it close and got to the airport too late) what do you expect the airline to do for you?

At our airline, if there are more flights available on the same day, you may stand by at no additional charge. If you miss the last flight of the day, your ticket will be exchanged, with a $50 admin fee plus any fare difference, and you'll have a confirmed seat on a flight for the next day. Is this fair? Should we do it differently or do something else all together?

I appreciate and will try to implement your input,

joe

Welcome to Flyertalk joe http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

New faces are always welcome, but you being "in the industry" is a special bonus for Flyertalk. I hope you explore Flyertalk fully and post frequently.

I would hope my airline (I try to remain loyal to one) would try to get me out on the next available flight which they generally do at no cost to me. I will admit that I do not travel near as much as I used to and as a result do not see the possible effects of cost cutting that airlines are doing.

[This message has been edited by Sweet Willie (edited 10-06-2002).]

Welcome to FlyerTalk. I appreciate your question.

I certainly think it's fair to let the passenger stand-by for later flights that day. I have a question though as to the fees involved if the passenger can't get on a flight until the next day. The $50 seems reasonable, but as far as refaring the ticket, would that be refared at the walk-up full-fare price? So in other words, a passenger might go from a $250 advance purchase ticket to a $1200 day-of-flight ticket?

Thank you for the warm welcome.

I should have prefaced my remarks by saying that I work for the commuter arm of a low-fare carrier trying to attract more business customers.

As a result, the difference between an inexpensive advance purchase ticket and the walk-up one-way is usually around $100 and rarely over $200. The new ticket is rarely priced in a fare class higher than a mid-level one-way.

The incident that brought me to ask this question happened tonight. It was the last flight of the day (a 6:30PM departure) and we were booked in the low 30s -- our aircraft seat 34. The number of customers who checked in by 20 minutes prior was approximately 25. We boarded as usual and held the flight open for boarding until 5 mins prior to scheduled departure. At that point, we'd paged the customer we were missing by name to the gate several times and had to close the flight to give the crew enough time to ensure an on-time departure.

Three minutes later, at 6:28, the customer we were missing presented herself at the gate. The Capt. had already started both engines and the a/c door had been closed along with the gate door. She was informed that her flight had departed, and, regrettably, she had missed it. I directed her to the ticket counter for reaccommodation. I finished my post-departure duties, waited for the flight to take off so I could PDC it and then I went back down to the ticket counter.

In addition to the lady who got to the gate -- albeit late -- there were two other customers who missed the flight. Both were already being taken care of, so I started in on the post-flight paperwork. Then another agent came to me stating that a customer who had missed the flight wanted to speak to someone higher in rank than himself. Being the most senior agent on duty, I happily went to the counter to assist the customer. After introducing myself I was greeted by a barrage of reasons why we were (insert expletive here) and how we HAD to accommodate his fiancée on the next flight tomorrow morning. At no charge. I calmly explained our policy and offered to assist by doing a ticket exchange (waiving the admin fee). That was not good enough. We debated minor details for way too long before I stood on my line in the sand and put an end to the trivial debate -- other customers were waiting in line. I offered them their options and they ended up walking away. I fully remarked their PNR and thought that would be the end of it.

Meanwhile, another agent took care of two more customers. She sent a 20-something college girl traveling back to school from visiting her boyfriend to me to have the admin fee waived (she was unwilling to do it, but they heard me offer this option to the first customer). I agreed since she was pleasant about the situation and proceeded to do the exchange. The fare diff was $64.00, they paid it, I gave them a $50.00 travel voucher to reward their pleasant manner, and they were on their way.

While I was doing this, my fellow agent was dealing with an older Asian woman and her companion. I'd been over hearing them for a few minutes -- unfortunately the level of their conversation had reached debating the airline's responsibility for the slowness of the new TSA staff at the checkpoint and the lack of speakers to hear announcements in the area they had been in. I stepped in and quickly informed the customer that we would not further debate the situation, as we would only further infuriate each other and wouldn't get anywhere. This brought about quite a chuckle from the rest of the line -- it was hard to tell whether they were stunned that an agent would dare tell a customer that a debate had reached its conclusion or if they were amazed it had taken so long to put an end to it. I assume it was the former of the two. They begrudgingly paid for their new ticket and left.

I retreated to the break room. A few minutes later, the agent I'd been working with called me back to assist with the woman and her fiancée. I was off the clock, but I went out front to settle this once and for all. He wanted to do the exchange. I walked her through it (she needed the training) and the fare diff was $100. They paid it and were off. I went to remark their PNR and noticed about 10 lines of historical remarks had been added. Interested, I read them. Turns out, the customer had called reservations and raised hell with an operations supervisor. He concluded the call by swearing and calling both the supervisor and myself expletives. I wish I'd read this before doing the ticket exchange. In my mind, treating one of "us" discourteously, and certainly by swearing at us, earned his fiancée a full-blown exchange with the admin fee. Of course, that would have further enraged him, since I'd already offered to waive the fee. So, maybe I'm glad I didn't read the remarks first?

Sorry this has been so long. I hope to learn a lot from those of you on the other side of the counter.

Have a pleasant evening,

joe

I'm not so familiar with US flights, but in Asia and Europe I expect to be able to tell what the flexibility on my ticket is from the endorsements and travel dates.

Refundability is a completely separate issue from flexibility - it is perfectly possible to have flexible, non-refundable tickets, or, for that matter, inflexible but refundable (for a penalty) tickets.

If my ticket does NOT say "valid flt/date shown" and then I expect to be able to use the ticket (subject to availability in that booking class, but in any case on a standby basis) at any time within the boundaries of the "Not valid before" and "Not Valid after" fields on the ticket.

I've had this happen to a friend I was travelling with on an LHR-FRA flight, when she realised at the door of the terminal that she'd forgotten her passport. I sent her home in a taxi to get it and to try to get back to the airport in time for the flight, meanwhile checking myself in and explaining to the check in agents what was happening.

In the end she missed the flight by about 10 minutes, but the airline (LH) simply rebooked her on the first flight out the following morning with no fuss, no hassle and no stress. Obviously they had space, but the ticket conditions were standard European travel-or-bust (no changes for any reasons, no refunds of any amount) which would not normally have permitted this. These conditions were just waived because the airline was obviously satisfied that this was a genuine error.

I wouldn't expect such treatment. But I am always glad if I am able to choose an airline which is prepared to try to distinguish between a person with a real and unforeseen problem who should be helped, and one who is just trying it on.