I was sitting quite happily at the United Club in Chicago recently when I received a message from United that my flight for the following day had been cancelled. This was serious as it was part of a San Francisco to LA, LA to Newark and finally Newark to San Juan combo.
Taking advantage of a moment without a queue at the desk I approached the agent and explained. I knew there was a flight 90 minutes before and so asked about that. Scratching her head she came back and explained that they have cancelled my original flight, but added a new one a minute later.
And oddly, all of the passengers with upgrades on the first flight had suddenly gone back on the waitlist, despite being confirmed on the previous flight in First.
How odd.
And, they haven’t rebooked you either….
Weird.
Anyway, good news – she rebooks me on the new flight UA2076, snags a First Class seat and books it.
Job done.
But very odd none the less.
US Air has done this in the past so they can move passengers from an oversold flight to one that is open and then re-sell the seats at a higher price. All they have to do is change the flight number and over the time by one minute. I booked a series of flights months in advance at a prime time and found they pulled this one me three times in one summer. The kept putting me on the available flight at a horrible time, not the new one, one minute later. This sort of trick is completely unethical, even if it is within the rules.