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American Airlines asks employees to think twice before changing the reservation of customers stuck on rival airlines. It is the economy class passengers who are most likely to suffer significant delays or canceled flights.
A new US policy requires airport officials not to book new class of passengers on competing airlines, with no indefinite time limit on waiting for a seat on another US flight. A manager can make exceptions in a few cases, such as people going to a wedding or funeral and those who would be stuck at night without a hotel room.
Agents can still assign budget passengers to American partner international airlines, but that will not help customers traveling to the United States.
By contrast, American asked his agents in late September to help the company's best customers get to their destination quickly, even if it meant sending them to Delta or United.
The elite level members of the American frequent flyer program and those who have purchased a business class or business class ticket can be booked through another airline if they are facing a delay at least five hours – and even earlier for the highest level of elite clientele.
The policy highlights the growing gap between the best customers of airlines and all the others. This also shows that, for many travelers, opting for larger airlines seems more and more to take a cheaper airline, with planes at a cruder, less expensive. benefits and more extra costs.
Most of the largest and oldest airlines have agreements to board passengers on mutual flights in the event of a significant delay or cancellation. American, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines all have alliances with other global carriers and so-called interline agreements. Airlines pay for such transfers, but at reduced rates.
However, often low-cost competitors such as Southwest, JetBlue, Spirit and Frontier do not have these offers. Their passengers are more likely to get stuck for a long time in case of a mechanical failure, computer failure or bad weather.
Even though few travelers know about alliances between airlines and even fewer people who have heard of intercompany agreements, these booking modification options can make the big airlines far better than their little brothers when things go wrong. wrong.
Airlines have been putting displaced customers on other carriers for decades, but American, the world 's largest airline, has never adopted written policies.
Some of the major US airports, including Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O Hare, experience frequent delays and cancellations due to storms. In July, the US and regional American Eagle subsidiary canceled 5,422 flights, according to the government's latest figures. This was the second highest rate in the industry behind Frontier Airlines, compared to 2,394 cancellations at United and United Express and 1,154 at Delta and Delta Connection. The unbalanced numbers suggest that Americans could spend more than Delta and United to accommodate stranded passengers.
American Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein said officials will have the power to make exceptions on a case-by-case basis. He said Delta and United have similar rules.
American put his instructions at the disposal of Associated Press agents. Delta has made some of its guidelines available and they do not seem to have the opportunity to transfer passengers in economy class to another carrier. Delta spokesman, Morgan Durrant, told agents trying to change the reservation of airline partner customers, but that they can send anyone, including passengers in economy class, in America or United.
United Airlines has refused to provide its guidance to the PA, but spokeswoman, Maddie King, described restrictions that were updated last year and appear similar to those of Americans. She added that customers in the economy could appeal to a non-partner airline like American or Delta if they were otherwise stranded overnight and the delay was due to United. She added that if the passenger goes to a big event like a wedding, "our employees always have the power to make the right decision for our customers".
The new American policy was reported for the first time by Gary Leff on his blog, View from the Wing. In an interview, he said that the possibility of being transferred to another airline has always been one of the great advantages of traveling with these major carriers rather than in a cheap airline. This will reduce this gap, he said.
"We will have to wait to see what this looks like in practice – it depends on how employees adopt this new policy," said Leff. When it comes to customers who need help getting to their destination on time, "You have to convince someone to do it for you," he said.
None of the big three US airlines would say how many times they pay to board a passenger on another carrier's flight, so it's hard to know how many people will be affected.
"It's maybe the sort of thing that customers do not notice before they need it," Leff said.
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