Hidden dangers in "free" air tickets

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Paul Levy <plevy () citizen org>
Date: January 5, 2006 7:41:42 PM EST
To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: Re: [IP] Hidden dangers in "free" air tickets

We recently had a possibly related experience when we flew to  
Santiago Chile on Air Canada, using frequent flyer miles accumulated  
on US Airways over many years gong back to the days of Piedmont (I  
travel only from time to time on my job).

First of all, it took hours of calling, waiting on call queues,  
getting disconnected, and trying again, just to get through to order  
tickets.   After complaining about the fact that they don't mann  
their advertised lines for International frequent flyer trips, enough  
to let customers get through, I was given an unadvertised number to  
call, and last February I was finally able to make arrangements for  
this December.

Of course, the airlines only make a very few tickets available per  
flight, so we could not really get the dates we wanted, having to  
come home much earlier than we would have wanted given how far we  
were traveling.  So, in the hope that more seats might be released, I  
started calling from time to time to see if any later return had  
opened up.

About a month ago, on one such call, I learned really by happenstance  
that the evening flight DOWN to Santiago was no leaving an hour  
earlier, so that the connecting flight we were taking to Toronto  
would not get us there in time so make the connection.  But nobody  
had bothered to let us know of this change.  There was a flight to  
Toronto a couple of hours earlier, but by the time I found out we  
needed to leave DC earlier, cattle class tickets were sold out and  
they were not willing to move us into first class.  They offered to  
fly us to Toronto in the morning, giving us the benefit of hanging  
around in the Toronto aurport for ten hours.  (Ultimately, after I  
did my own investigation, I found a US Airways flight to Toronto in  
mid-afternoon and they were willing to put us on that).  But, we had  
to go to the airport to get the tickets reissued, because they had  
issued us PAPER tickets, apparently international FF tickets are not  
electronic.

So, I go to the airport, and Air Canada tells me that they only  
assign so many seats in advance, and since the flight has a new time  
I will have to get my seats on the day of departure.  Day of  
departure arrives, we duly arrive at DCA, and are told that yes, they  
are assigned day of arrival, but only when we get to Toronto.  So, we  
get to Toronto and learn the truth -- it is not that seats are to be  
assigned day of travel, but they have oversold the flight and even  
though WE made our reservations in February, oddly enough WE are the  
ones who have no seats and we have to hope that enough people don't  
show up so that we can take our vacation.

In the end, we did get on the plane, and we had a wonderful vacation;  
but the experience left a bitter tatse in our mouths about US Airways  
and Air Canada.



Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation

> > > David Farber <dave () farber net> 1/5/2006 3:04 PM >>>


Begin forwarded message:

From: "Kobrin, Steve" <kobrins () wharton upenn edu>
Date: January 5, 2006 9:01:05 AM EST
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Hidden dangers in "free" airtickets

The development of interlinked airline groups such as Star Alliance
provides an opportunity to use "free" miles-based tickets to get to
places that your primary carrier does not serve, which is a real
benefit.  However, using these networks also entails none too obvious
risks.  We went to Prague from Philly over the winter break using
business class tickets obtained for miles from USAIR.  The flight
return flight from Prague to Frankfort and then Frankfort to Philly
was on Lufthansa.  When we called Lufthansa to reconfirm our return
trip, we were told that the flight had been "cancelled" and that we
were rebooked for the next day.  (Lufthansa had never tried to get in
touch with us even though USAIR has my cell phone number.)  I told
the agent that we needed to get back as scheduled and would be happy
to fly to Frankfurt the night before, or if necessary, go via train.
She replied that going the night before was not an option as they
"could not" reissue a USAIR ticket and, in any event, the Frankfurt *
Philly flight was now fully booked.  (USAIR does not operate out of
Prague.)  I called USAIR in Germany and while they could not do
anything about the Prague * Frankfurt leg without local operations,
they saved the day booking us on their flight from Frankfurt on the
31st .    We both love European trains so the ride from Prague
through Dresden to Frankfurt was not a hardship * although it took
the better part of a day.



Now for the kicker.  When I checked the Lufthansa Prague- Frankfurt
flight (on the 31st) on their website it turns out that it was not
cancelled -- just an hour late.  The fact the intercontinental flight
was suddenly full in business class makes me wonder if Lufthansa
simply bumped us (we were on USAIR miles after all) for two paying
customers.



They might argue that we had free business class tickets and the risk
of a delay is the price you pay.  However, the moral of the story is
that there is a real risk in using mileage-based tickets in an
alliance network.  The risk is getting stuck someplace where you
primary carrier does not operate and you are left dependent on an
alliance partner * to whom you are not a frequent flyer * for
resolution of a problem.  We were lucky that we had some flexibility
and could get to Frankfurt ourselves.



To be clear, I think that Lufthansa's behavior was outrageous.  That,
however, is another matter.



Steve



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