"Proactive" rebooking?
 

Looks like the direct MCO-DEN flight on 6/11 got downgraded in equipment size... so a very nice gal at United (inventory management?) called and offered to move me and my family off the now oversold flight onto a connecting flight through ORD with an upgrade.

I'm a lowly 1P - is this just someone with time on her hands or is this something that happens regularly?

For all other gauge changes on this flight that have happened in the last 14 weeks since I booked the ticket (yes 4 complete changes of equipment, and/or departure time) I've merely had a nice little red note in the Itineraries page, and all the seat assignments wiped out, forcing me to call ICC to get the note cleared and seats re-assigned for my 2yr old daughter and 5yr old son (NO I will not accept having them in E- middle separated from us....)

If the old flight was full and they know they'll need to rebook, it's in their best interest to proactively rebook people. They probably go in status order to give higher status people first choice. Your other gauge changes probably didn't result in a major oversell situation.

In the other changes, they probably just moved your seats or the time of the plane. In this case they needed your seats (or somebody's seats on the flight) and rebooking you before hand was not only good Customer Service, it saves them from having to bump somebody and pay for that.

They may have picked you because you were four seats, get a yes from you and it's three less calls you have to make to get four empty seats. Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter.

Enjoy the upgrade.

But yes, when it's to avoid having to bump people, they will make calls. Otherwise, you may or may not be notified in advance.

We are a gaggle of five, so even better - however I was quite worried watching her figure out how to wrangle NC/NF inventory for us on the replacement flights because the first thing she did was put my 2yr old daughter on a separate flight, then loooonnnggg pause... and I'm thinking - "Oh my g*d - there is no-one I can call if this doesnt work out". :eek:

It took her almost 2 hours to make all the changes and confirm all the NC/NF inventory, with me logging in and out of .bomb worried that I would have to explain to my wife why we took an offer for downgraded E- seats with a connection... I bet the IM gal had to very carefully open these NC/NF seats up and immediately assign them to us so that non of you other FT bastiges could sneak them... :)

Usually, the proactive calls are done by India - not IM directly - even for 1Ks.

Anyway, proactive rebooking happens frequently on routes they are rather sure they will have problems on - especially when it involves an early morning departure.

Interestingly, my GM parents got proactive rebooking calls on a flight where I, as a 1K, didn't. We were on separate PNRs, so I don't know if it goes by status.

Ive never been pro-actively called in these situations, its always been a shock at the gate when I try to board.

On this very route in fact, MCO-DEN, I was in Row 3, and due to a A320 to A319 swap got my F boarding pass taken away, and was handed an E- Middle. I was :mad:

Had this happen once on AA, never on UA. It was when I was a GM. My first time ever in FC. Thought it was awesome. They also offered a choice of a $250 voucher which I wish I would have taken, but I'd never been in FC before. I think I started/eneded the same time. just move my connection to LAX instead of DFW. I assume they start with GM's as they don't want to bother 1k's.

I wish they would start with 1k's, or give 1k's an option to check a box to request to be called. "Sure, I'd be happy to route with a free upgrade on my SFO to LAX flight to no go via SYD in NC"

Actually, AA rebooked me into F, not NF (or whatever their equivalent is) which gave me bonus RDM's (didn't know what EQP was at the time), and got AAccess to the AAdmirals Club.

I've never received a call before-hand, but I have found that once a delay or cancellation is announced, I have an easy update text message show up on my phone with the rebooked flights. I had this happen on MCI-DEN-SFO, when MCI-DEN was canceled due to mechanical. GAs were amazed that I was already rebooked and ready to print new BPs, only two minutes after they sent all of the pax out to the check-in desks to be rebooked.

That would be the difference between a planned schedule change in advance and an operational plane change on a one off basis once the airtcraft has been routed (usually a few days out, up until dptr.)

It has happened to me before. Enjoy it while it lasts.

And to add, that's why I find row 6 > row 3 on a 320 unless you're feeling lucky.

Dont trust 'em
 

ARGH!!!! So the "proactive" part was really not very proactive, the IM person who changed my flight only got the booking right, all of the "free upgrades" used to convince to take the 'offer' were invalid, so the system is demanding support for the upgrades!!! Called 1P desk, unable to do anything through the system because they didn't enter the upgrades, and there is no "reason" attached to the reservations, but 1P desk cannot add them.

Really? 30 seconds more to enter a "reason" code? Really? All that time to move my 5 seats to two flights from the single direct flight, change XF and XC inventory and push those openings to my reservations and you couldn't enter the reason code which is apparently required for EVERY such change made by IM?

After chatting a bit with the nice gal at the 1P desk, who seemed genuinely puzzled that IM tried to use XF/XC for this purpose instead of just rebooking us in F/A/Z/J/C, she called a station manager at MCO to manually bypass the instrument and check my GM family members in and override the invalid XF upgrade on my ticket to use a valid UDU. So about an hour of my life down the drain calling to correct a bush league error by United (seems to be story of my life with this particular trip - see my thread about the impact of separate PNRs) and hopefully nothing new comes up before we board the connecting flight from ORD to get home...

I flew LAX-LHR-LAX in paid Economy as a PremEx about 6 years ago.

I week out, I got a call saying that the return LHR-LAX flight I was on was oversold and asked whether I would switch to the early morning flight. At first, zero compensation was offered.

I ended up getting an upgrade to Business *both ways* for the switch to the morning departure. Well worth it...

randomman

On a recent short hop LAX/SFO, I logged in to check on my return, and saw oddities in my booking.

First, my reservation had an added outbound leg for the same flight on the day AFTER I actually flew out. Odd, but no harm done.

But also there was a second reservation for a different (earlier scheduled) return flight. I was only able to check in for one of the two returns.

When I got to the airport, they saw that extra booking, and said my original flight was 'on decision' and at least 2 hours delayed, so apparently someone added the safety reservation to the PNR but never called or anything.

The whole night (June 9) was a bit of an irrops circus at LAX, so I'm glad some mystery angel was looking after my PNR. I got home roughly on my original time, whereas my original booking didn't arrive until past 1am.

I suspect they were extra helpful because I did the buy-up at booking so it showed up as an A fare. My wait list priority (5 out of 42) seemed clearly based on the A and not my 1P status, so that was the best $75 spent in a while!

I the future, if I even suspect I'm flying into dicey weather, I'm all over the paid UG.

I got a call from India a day before departure when a 3-class 777 WW was swapped for a 2-class 777 on my 1st leg of a long trip. I had already been upgraded with an SWU and was initially pretty mad that I was being sent back to E+, even though they said they would refund the SWU and offered a $100 e-cert. They did get me a bulkhead in E+ but this was to be a very long trip so not a good way to start. Also, it took about 40 min on the phone to get it done. Could have been worse, I suppose but it really interrupted my day.

Later that day, I logged into .bomb and found that the E+ seat was gone, and I could not access the seat map. I thought I was screwed. Called the 1K desk, found out that I was re-booked in F. Nice surprise, but .bomb still did not show it. Another 20 min on the phone, in the end I just had to trust it was all correct.

At the airport, I was tentative because I was expecting the worst, but sure enough, I was in F, and although it took an hour of phone mess and a day of frustration and anxiety, I ended up with the e-cert, plus I am still supposed to have the SWU re-deposited. That last part may not happen because of the re-booking in F, but if it does not, I will be calling MP, because it still messed me up and I deserve the SWU, don't I :D?