I was booked on UA 4677 from SDF-CLE last night, connecting to UA4755 to DCA. The first flight was delayed from 5:17 p.m. to 5:55, so I was concerned about the connecting time and went to ask the agent my options.

I specifically asked when the flight was expected to arrive at CLE and she said 7:42. It didn't make sense to me that a 40 minute departure delay would lead to an hour + arrival delay, but I assumed they were just lying about how long the delay would be. At any rate, that would definitely mean my missing the connection.

I asked about rebooking on the nonstop on US. The agent said "we'd have to call them for that" and then insisted it was full without calling them.

She suggested rebooking from CLE-ORD-DCA, which would get into DCA at about 3 hours late. When I balked at that, she suggested CLE-PHL-DCA, which was just as bad.

I asked about anything from CLE-IAD. She said there was an 8:50 flight on that route. I asked to be protected on that. (Well, after I got her to understand that Washington Dulles is NOT the same as Dallas.) I figured that I could try to make my original connection and have a good fallback option.

And then she rebooked me on Delta via DTW. I'm not complaining in that I only got home a half hour late. But I am puzzled about a few things:

1) It turns out (via flightaware) that the flight actually departed at 5:48 arrived at CLE at 6:51, so I could easily have made the original connection. And, even if I hadn't, it looks like the CLE-IAD flight was pretty empty. So why wouldn't she just do what I'd asked and protect me on that flight?

2) Did she really see some inventory (or lack thereof) on the US flight or was she just not trying?

It was fairly clear that there was some SHARES incompetency going on, seeing as how the two gate agents kept going back and forth to one another on various rebookings, making suggestions on what to type (and calling someone else over at some point). But that doesn't seem an adequate answer.

And, yes, I plan to request ORC. (I also plan to not leave my cell phone on my desk at home next time, but that's another matter.)

The GA could see the US availability because it's likely bookable as a codeshare. It would likely have been the go to rebook because of that had it been available.

The DL rebook with ORC is as good as it gets. Only a 30-minute delay. As to sticking to your original routing, that's always a question. Delays disappear and reappear all the time.

Do codeshares have the same availability as booking directly from the operating carrier? I was under the impression that they do not.

Depends - usually codeshare partners are offered a subset of inventory, but not always.

Codeshares also avoid the hassle of the GA having to call the other airline to confirm availability.

I'd have assumed it was because of the ability to see code share inventory, but she had said first that she would have to call and then basically refused to call.
Though she did call Delta.

I would have thought that protecting me on the flight to IAD (which is a co-terminal with DCA) would have been the easiest thing to do, which is why the whole thing struck me as weird.

I should note this is the first time in months that a delay was announced with time to do something about it. My more typical experience is what happened Friday night when I got the United call / email at 9:15 p.m. telling me that my 8:59 flight was delayed until 9:20. (It really left at about 9:40, by the way.)

The GA could see codeshare availability, which more than likely was lower than US' actual availability--which would have taken a call to get.


Yep; I've been stung by and saved by sticking with original routing many times. When you fly a lot, it averages out.

Codeshare availability is phantom availability at day of departure. We often see availability for the codeshare flight number but zero availability on the true flight number. Also the reason agents need to call the OA is the OA flight can be oversold (i.e. no inventory) and still show availability in SHARES/Apollo. We can even book it and and get a holding confirm (HK) in our system but the booking never appears in the OA system.