Ask Airfarewatchdog.com: When airlines rebook passengers on a different carrier
My wife and two infant girls (along with an entire United 757) were canceled on the tarmac in San Diego due to a maintenance issue. I asked to be rerouted on Virgin America or Southwest, which flew the same route we were scheduled to fly on. The response was always "Sorry, we don"t have an agreement with them," though United did offer to fully refund my money and then use that to buy a "walk-up" last minute fare on Southwest.
So where can I find information about which airlines will work with whom?
Get Orlando Sentinel"s exclusive 2012 shuttle calendar A: First of all, most airlines either never had one or have done away with "Rule 240" in their contracts of carriage. Newer airlines such as Virgin America and JetBlue never had a Rule 240, which was a regulation required by the Civil Aeronautics Board when airlines were regulated by the U.S. government prior to 1978. United and Alaska Airlines are the only airlines I know of that still have the rule printed in their contracts. In general, the so-called "legacy" carriers that flew during the era of airline regulation (American, US Airways, United and Delta) are the only domestic U.S. carriers that regularly "interline" with each other and offer accommodation on each other in the event of a flight irregularity, but that doesn"t mean that they will always rebook passengers on another airline. It doesn"t hurt to ask, no matter what airline you"re flying, however, since exceptions are sometimes made.
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Q: I read that if a consumer buys an airfare and then realizes it was for the wrong date that it would be possible to correct the mistake without paying a penalty. I booked the wrong date and immediately called Spirit Airlines but they still charged me $75 as a change fee. Can I get my money back?
A: New regulations recently proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation will require all airlines to permit consumers to reserve an airline seat without paying for it and lock in a fare for 24 hours, allowing the buyer to shop for a lower fare and correct any mistakes that might have been made. However, some of these regulations have been put on hold at the request of the airlines. Many airlines, including United, Southwest, American and Delta, already allow passengers to correct mistakes without penalty within 24 hours, and it looks like Spirit is not one of these, at least not until the new regulations take effect. You should ask Spirit to reconsider and at the very least offer a flight coupon good for future travel in the amount of the change fee, but to put it mildly, Spirit is not known for being sympathetic in such circumstances.
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George Hobica is founder of the low-airfare listing site Airfarewatchdog.com.
Have a question about air travel? Send it to ask@airfarewatchdog.com. Questions can only be answered in this column and not individually.
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