You fly to your destination. You have a great time. But when you check-in for your return trip, you find your itinerary (not your flight) has been cancelled. You call the airline or ask an agent at the airport and are accused of a “no show” on the outbound. What do you do next?
Airlines Cancel Flights In Error All The Time
The subject of consumer advocate Christopher Elliott’s column this week is about an incident of this nature that occurred to a lady named Catherine O’Connor. She was traveling on United Airlines for Thanksgiving, with a return a week later. Her outbound to Chicago was delayed. She was placed on standby on another flight, but was not accommodated, as the flight went out full. Eventually, she flew on her delayed original flight.
But a week later when it was time to come home, she attempted to check-in for her flight and found that her reservation had been cancelled even though the flight was still operating. United told her she had missed her outbound flight.
For legacy carriers, if you miss a flight on your itinerary, all remaining flights are cancelled. This is primarily intended to discourage so-called “hidden city” ticketing, a trick where it is often cheaper to book A to C via B then simply book A to B. For example, it might be $300 to fly from Los Angeles to New York but $179 to fly to from Los Angeles to Florida via New York on the very same flight.
But that wasn’t the case here. Here, a glitch in United’s system indicated she was a no-show on a flight she actually took.
It was then O’Connor made a critical error:
I had to pay $386 for a one-way ticket from Chicago to Washington.
No! No! No!
It isn’t clear if she even tried to get United to re-instate her ticket. Her original ticket was $317. Her new one-way ticket was $386. After the fact, she asked United for a refund of the $386. In another clerical error, United refunded her the $317. They also provided her $150 in travel credit.
She reached out to Elliott, who successfully got United to refund the $69 difference between the original ticket and new ticket.
But that was all so unnecessary.
What To Do If An Airline Cancels Your Flight In Error
The same thing has happened to me at least twice in the past on United. Both times I actually had taken the outbound segments. It has happened to Award Expert clients as well. It simply takes a phone call to fix.
Instead of buying a ticket, you call United and simply explain that you were not a no-show. I’ve never been asked for a boarding pass or other proof. Still, it is a good idea to save your outbound boarding pass just in case. Almost all airlines now use mobile boarding passes, which you can store (indefinitely) in your Apple Wallet app if you have an iPhone. I have hundreds of boarding passes going back many years…it sure beats a stack of paper that is easily lost or damaged.
Should that not work, head to the airport. If you’re flying from New York to Chicago and your return is cancelled, showing up at the counter in Chicago is a pretty good indicator you took your outbound flight. Even if you didn’t, no airline agent is likely to be able to argue otherwise.
CONCLUSION
Sometimes, technical glitches well beyond our control impact our travel plans. If you ever find your return itinerary cancelled and you have flown the outbound, don’t panic. Call the airline, explain the situation, and insist that you are rebooked on your original flight.
Have you ever had your return trip cancelled in error? How did you resolve it?
How does a boarding pass prove you were not a no-show?
It doesn’t. But it does provide circumstantial evidence.
The airline should have to pay a fine to the customer for having to reinstate the ticket. If i have to pay a fee to change my name they should have do the same.
We the american people demand equality and fairness.
Come on, Debit. You can do better than that. Let me give it a try…
Airlines are like elected politicians. Rules and regulations that apply to the masses don’t apply to them. Fixing a broken itinerary is is like going to dinner at the French Laundry. Not permissible for the masses, but perfectly fine for the government elites.
The exact same thing happened to me 4 years ago on United. My inbound flight took off but was forced to return back to Houston due to bad weather. I was put on an alternate flight later that evening. I called United when I was unable to online check-in for the return and was asked why I didn’t take my flight. I explained the situation and the phone representative took care of it on the spot.
It’s crazy that 4 years later United is still doing this to consumers.
The same thing happened to me on United, but with a twist. They cancelled my outbound flight because of an accident at the arrival airport, Aspen, Colorado, and United put all of us on a bus instead. A week later when I was scheduled to fly home, I found that they had cancelled my flight because I didn’t use the original ticket. I told them I did use the original ticket, but they had put me on a bus, and they thought that somehow confused the computer into cancelling my return trip. They were easy to work with, though, and fortunately they got me a seat. I have a long-established norm of being paranoid when anything unusual happens at United (but it’s probably the same issue with all airlines). When something unusual happens, you simply must keep your head up and constantly ask and pursue.
A bus to Aspen?!? What if someone had seen you arriving by bus??
“showing up at the counter in Chicago is a pretty good indicator you took your outbound flight. Even if you didn’t, no airline agent is likely to be able to argue otherwise.”
HA! Surely you’ve dealt with Lufthansa agents! I was flying PRG FRA ORD some years ago in paid J, PRG FRA original flight was cancelled, rebooked on OK, on same ticket. I know enough to check things throughout the journey, it was a 016 ticket originally (was return of US origin), and LH reissued it. Flew to FRA (with plenty of time), and upon heading to Senator lounge, was told my ticket wasn’t valid and the trip was cancelled. It took about 35 min of arguing (convincing a LH agent they’re wrong isn’t an easy task), but I eventually was sorted out. They claimed it was OK’s fault, but clearly I had checked in for all segments (even validated after rebooking, had boarding pass for second flight on OK boarding stock).
I do agree however that going to the airport will generally be the best way to resolve things, ahead of time if possible.
Would love to see a screenshot of your apple wallet with 100+ boarding passes.
I have sentimental value for paper boarding passes. Even if I print one at home, I want an “official” boarding pass from the kiosk. Sad to say, I fear they will be faded in years to come because they are on thermal paper. I have a sentimental thermal paper receipt from 2005 that is so faded, it can be read only because I know what it said.
I miss the days of boarding passes on cardboard stock. Ticket jackets are a thing of the past. Now I have to make my own, which is just a cardboard brochure from the airport rack (hotels, tourist attractions, etc.) I slip receipts in them even though they are not envelopes, more like folders.
Am I the only person paranoid enough to watch my reservation on the app like a hawk? Can’t say how many times I have caught changes of itinerary or seat without being notified.
Bookings and Check-in work in different parts of the booking system. Check in agents are often 3rd party staff and don’t have access to the booking system. If you are switched to another flight, they might not update the original booking, hence it appears as a noshow. So if you change flight at the airport, and have time, best to see an actual staff member such as the duty manager to ensure it is updated; if you don’t have time on departure, stop on arrival to see someone and be sure the booking has been updated.
Good advice to do all possible to sort it out at the airport. It’s much easier to get a change or a waiver than a refund later. Hanging onto boarding cards helps, and in parts of Asia it is virtually proof as boarding cards often get stamped by Immigration and/or Security, so a boarding card with these stamps pretty much proves that you did fly!
I am supposed to fly back to the US in 2 weeks and
tonight I got an email telling me that my flight got
cancelled. I called AA and they told me that somebody
with my booking number and my last name logged in to
aa.com as guest and cancelled my flight. That was a
shock. The representative told me that anybody who
knows the booking number and the last name of the
passenger can do it, and if it happens, AA cannot do
nothing. I had to pay a fee to reinstate my booking. Then
asked to put a limitation on my booking and only after a
brief hold the representative was able to create a security
by letting me chose a password for any future changes !
Why the rep didn’t offer to me this option right away.
Seems like AA has a big problem with keeping their
customers booking secure ! I cannot believe that a
Fortune 500 company doesn’t have a 2Factor
authentication ! I think AA might do it on purpose to milk
their passengers ! My flight has been cancelled on
purpose so that they make more $ by charging
reinstatement fees! Charging more money with inflation
is not enough, now they litteraly scamming their own
clients!