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Thousands of canceled flights may vex travelers



 
 
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Old July 14th, 2008, 03:49 PM posted to rec.travel.air
Ablang
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Default Thousands of canceled flights may vex travelers

Thousands of canceled flights may vex travelers

By CHRIS KAHN | AP Business Writer
1:02 PM EDT, July 10, 2008

PHOENIX

As Roger and Pat Bate hustled to catch a plane home to Houston, they
got the dreaded call that many will receive from their airline this
year.

There was a problem with the crew, the plane, something -- the
Continental employee was not sure. The Bates needed to find another
way home.

"There were a lot of unhappy faces in line" at the ticket counter, Pat
said. "If they told us to come back the next morning, we were not
going to be easy to get along with."

It is a call that millions of passengers received as airlines canceled
nearly 65,000 flights so far this year. That is almost as many as all
of 2007, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, and
travelers should be ready to be even more flexible as airlines carve
chunks out of their schedules later this year.

UAL Corp.'s United Airlines said it will cut as many as 14 percent of
available seats on domestic flights by the end of the year. American
Airlines will slash as much as 12 percent after the peak summer travel
season, and Continental Airlines Inc. will reduce about 11 percent in
seating capacity starting in September.

Delta Air Lines Inc., Northwest Airlines Corp. and US Airways Group
Inc. said they are planning similar cuts of 13 percent, 9.5 percent
and 8 percent, respectively, by the end of the year.

Airlines hope that by offering fewer travel options they can boost
fares and better deal with soaring fuel costs that have overwhelmed
the industry. But airline observers say many passengers who bought
their tickets months in advance are now going to have to scramble to
fit new flights into their plans.

It is unfair, Minneapolis-based airline expert Terry Trippler said.
Airlines "are the ones who've underpriced their product for the last
two or three years," he said. "You cannot take people's money four and
five and six months out, and then one month out say 'it's changed.'"

The capacity cuts also mean that later this year airlines may have
less wiggle room to reposition passengers if there are unexpected
cancellations.

Kate Hanni, executive director of the Coalition for Airline Passengers
Rights, Health and Safety in Napa, Calif., said she's advertising for
more volunteers to man a hot line this fall for stranded passengers.

"We're getting 400 calls a day already," Hanni said. Her hot line,
1-877-flyers-6, helps stranded travelers deal with the airlines.

United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said her airline has a network of
spare planes that it can mobilize if maintenance or other problems
ground flights. It also staffs a "day of departure" desk that responds
to unexpected changes in the schedule.

"We'll know a few hours, or even a day, if a storm is coming,"
Urbanski said. "They'll stop selling tickets on the flights to keep
some seats open in case they need to reschedule."

In general, airlines try to accommodate bumped passengers with
compatible schedules and will offer refunds if necessary.

"That's what happens in theory," Trippler said. "When something
happens, a computer automatically reroutes the people." The airline
says, "Take it or leave it, and that's it, or we'll give you your
money back," he said.

"That doesn't work very well when you bought a ticket for $298 and now
the reroute doesn't work for you at all, and now it's going to cost
you $598 to buy a ticket through another airline because you're now
that much closer to departure time," he said.

Despite the number of cancellations, consumer advocates say most
travelers still don't realize their flight might not be waiting for
them at the airport. With the summer travel season under way, people
should keep a number of things in mind, they said.

_ Be prepared to get bumped. Come to the airport early, bring your
printed itinerary with you and keep your cell phone charged.

_ Know your rights. Read the airline's "Contract of Carriage" policy.
Copies are usually available online or at the carrier's ticket
counter.

_ Make sure you have an assigned seat. "If you don't have an assigned
seat, you are the most likely candidate for not getting on the
flight," Hanni said.

_ Know alternate routes to your destination. "If your flight's
canceled, it's a lot easier if you can walk up to the agent and say
'What about American through Dallas' or 'How about Continental through
Houston' or whatever," Trippler said.

That's exactly what Roger and Pat Bate did when their flight was
canceled recently.

When she got the cancellation notice, Pat pulled out her cell phone
and started making calls. The two had been at a religious leadership
training seminar in Louisville, Ky., and were aching to get home.

The Continental employee had told them to come back to the airport the
next day, but Pat was having nothing of that. She had checked flight
offerings with several other airlines by the time they got to the
ticket counter.

"We were very much aware of the fact that getting obnoxious and angry
is not going to make it any better," she said. "We said let's give
them the opportunity to serve us."

Together with the ticket agent, they found a flight on Delta to
Cincinnati. Then they took Continental to Houston. The Bates got home
more than six hours later than they had originally planned, and Pat's
bags didn't make it until two days later.

"They mis-tagged my wife's bag, and it went to San Francisco," Roger
said. "It was pretty chaotic."

The two laugh about it now. They will be back at the Houston airport
in September for a trip to Europe, and Pat said she will not be so
surprised this time if she gets bumped.

"I have to admit, in our much younger days, we were very full of
ourselves, and if they didn't jump high enough or move fast enough, we
would have been all over them," she said.

"But looking back, I realize it wouldn't have gotten us out of there
any faster."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...766,full.story
 




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