Unwritten rules of Rule 240
 

I had a curious experience yesterday as a result of the Chicago blizzard and was wondering if someone could comment on whether what happened to me is the norm or whether it's because I encountered a particularly helpful CSR.

I found out my original flight (on Virgin America) from SFO to ORD was cancelled. I didn't have time to deal with their customer service, so I just booked a one-way on the next non-cancelled flight out that I could find. This happened to be a United flight. I bought a one-way fare 3 hours before departure (A class -- it cost a fortune). I have no status whatsoever on United -- just a generic member with a seldom used ff number.

This flight took off on time but got diverted to MSP. At MSP, the flight was cancelled. There were a couple of 1K's I sat next to on my flight who said they were rebooked on a delta flight to Chicago leaving in an hour. I raced to a nearby gate that hadn't yet been crowded with people trying to rebook and was able to get on that same delta flight.

Now here's the weird part. When picking up my ticket, the delta agent told me that there were 50 open seats on that flight. By the time we boarded (after another half hour delay), there were still 40 open seats!

There must have been at least 200 people trying to get to Chicago from the various diverted United flights that ended up in MSP. Why weren't more of them on my flight? Did they not think to ask to get put on the Delta flight? Does United have a policy of only rebooking certain fare classes? Was the gate agent I talked to just plain awesome?

I ask because if there is some unwritten rule that full fare first class gets rebooked for weather-related cancellations whereas economy doesn't, it will strongly incentivize me to book first class tickets if I suspect weather might be an issue.

It had little to do with it being a first class ticket; FWIW, in irrops, first-class ticket holders can end up having to fly in Y, and get a fare refund difference (which can be a lot less than you're expecting given they often base it on full Y).

Sounds like a good agent who did what was necessary more than anything else IMHO.

DoT Rule 240 -- disappeared with the ADA in 1978.

In UA's contact of carriage, RULE 24 FLIGHT DELAYS/CANCELLATIONS/AIRCRAFT CHANGES and really has nothing to do with diversions.

However when legacy airlines stuffs an inability to provide transportatiom they will will book on OAL and UA will do that as you learned (but typically you need to ask - as you did, the first preference to to find an UA provide resolution). Normally SOP UA will handle high status passengers first and full fare will likely get the same treatment. My guess given it takes some time and effort to push passengers to OAL, UA was not able to make use of all the spaces available in the short timeframe. No mysterious, hidden rules -- just standard processing of passengers in irrops in a limited time.

No mention of fare class in UA's CoC but common practice is to address your "better" cusomers first

Rule 240 is no more....it disappeared with deregulation.

IME, if you have to ask for routing on another airline, UA usually won't offer it. It likely has less to do with fare/cabin/status and more to do with if a traveler is savvy enough to know what to ask for.

BTW, as the UA staff may have pointed out, you weren't on a first class fare you were on an instant upgrade coach fare (which are not unique to UA). I doubt the UA staff even knew you were flying in first (unless they dug a bit).

Nothing sinister. Just takes time to rebook people and push the ticket to the other carrier. This is where having information available and being firm but polite can get you to the head of the queue.

I hear people like to quote rule 240. IIRC, 240 was a rule that existed pre-deregulation, replaced with whatever conditions are in the airline COC that you are flying. It doesn't technically exist.

Semantics aside, UAs only true obligation under the COC is to rebook a passenger to their destination on the next available flight on UA. It's been a while since I've actually read it, but says that they may rebook an another carrier - i.e. they can, but aren't required to. Not sure if there is a *A rule that indicates something more stringent. At least in North America, most COCs are going to be similar on this.

That said, I've never - either pre- or post-merger - been refused rebooking on another carrier - either * or non-partner, when there has been a major delay, cancellation or even when a delay would lead me to miss the last connection of the night, even when it was ATC/weather. I've often had to suggest it and specific flights, but I've never been refused - either MX or WX. UA has to pay for those seats on other carriers, so probably doesn't like to do it if they can get away with not, but they do do it.

A couple of guesses: One is that you got an agent that is more willing to book on another carrier than others. Another is that most are going to line up in the same place - at the gate they came from or a CS counter, if there is one. They can only rebook so many people, and it takes longer now than pre-merger. So its possible that people weren't able to get to the agent and have the rebooking done in time to get on the flight. Many non-FFs probably don't even realize another carrier is an option, or wouldn't even think of asking for it, so combine it with an agent who defaults to rebooking on next available UA flight, and it probably isn't that surprising.

+1. SHARES does not make it easy for agents to look for availability on OAL flights - they have to hunt and check each flight individually, as opposed to having a global view of all flights available.