Airline bumped us! Need BCV 5/10

[shelly3girls]

The airline just called me and due to a computer mix up we were bumped from our flight. Now they want us to split up our party of 3 adults and 2 children to different flights or change the day. We either have to fly out early morning with 2 flying home late afternoon or get a connecting flight. I don't find these answers acceptable since we booked our flight 1 year in advance. It seems the alternative is flying home together on sunday, May 11th. What do you think the likelyhood of getting a 2-bedroom villa at the BCV for that saturday night? We have the points to use. A cash reservation would cost us $675 even with the discount code.

BTW USAir would not offer any type of compensation for this even after speaking to a manager. I do not usually look for anything, but I firmly believe they have done wrong here and should compensate us some way. Any thoughts?

 

[Melrosgirl]

Last I heard BCV was sold out for May. Of course, with it being a Saturday night that you are in need of, I bet you may have some luck.

That's awful about the airline bumping you, but at least they gave you decent notice.

 

[zurgswife]

I'd go higher than a manager...start with the CEO and talk very firmly...

Corporate Headquarters
Arlington, VA
703-872-7000

 

[shelly3girls]

Thank you most of all for allowing me to rant. I feel much better now! Most of all I am very upset b/c my DDs are 2 and 4 so we booked far in advance to get the most convenient times for us. I will be on the phone first thing Monday morning first with DVC then with USAir corporate headquarters.

Zurgswife - thanks for the number!

 

[benhannah's mom]

If they can't accomodate you on their airline, ask to be accomodated on another airline. That happenec to us in Oct. 2002 (post-9/11) with US air. We looked at other available flights before calling US air so we knew what to ask for. They put us on a AA flight on the way out and we flew our scheduled flight on US air on the way back.Otherwise, we would have gotten into Orlando at 1 am. With young kids, we wanted to avoid this.

 

[MELSMICE]

I would definitely look for some compenstation from USAir. They made the error. Go to the top when you call on Monday.

Let us know what happens.

 

[sgtdisney]

Another suggestion is to check other airlines airfares.. Maybe there are some specials now. If the airline (US Air in this case) changes the flights like they have, you are entitled to a full and complete refund. Maybe another airline is having a fare sale now and you may luck out?

 

[dcfromva]

shelly3girls,
This is really strange--Have they cancelled your flight out entirely? I have never heard if them calling you up in advance due to overbooking. Usually, they wait to see if everyone is going to show up before they do anything. (I didn't think the airline could arbitrarily put you on another flight in advance like this due to overbooking). The airline can change their flight schedules. I'm not sure about the rules involved with schedule changes (I should look that up, because I have a flight scheduled on USAir at the end of May ).
If your flight is operating as scheduled, I would ask about a first class upgrade--so you can still meet your times.


-DC

 

[kfields1]

We had a similar problem with USAir. I have 2 boys - 4 & 6. I had a great flight coming home (short layover). They then changed it to a 3 hour layover and a 2 hour earlier flight! I called and spoke to a supervisor. She was very helpful and help me rearrange the flight so I'm only leaving a little earlier and a much shorter layover. Sometimes it's all in who you get on the phone. I usually am "sacchrin sweet" and find that it helps too!

Good luck!

 

[stonewall]

I had a similar problem with US Air on a Disney trip. We had booked 8 months in advance,through Disney travel, and the night before we were due to leave, they told us that(even though aour seats had been selected and confirmed) the four of us were going to be seated in different parts of the plane(this was the kids first plane trip and the youngest was 7).I still have no idea why this occurred, and why it even became an issue, but they absolutely refused to listen to reason.Disney Travel was no help either,said there was nothing they could do about it. What were they thinking?I posted the problem on another Disney message board where a travel agent saw it and contacted me to she if she could help.She managed to straighten eveything out within 30 minutes and we were all seated together as we should have been.I still don't have any idea how or why this happened, especially at the last minute.

 

[MELSMICE]

Happened to us on USAir on the way home from Disney also. We had a total of 8 in our party. Had our tickets 1 year in advance. Got to the gate & were told the flight was sold out/overbooked & they had no seats!! Told us there was nothing they could do.

We waited & little by little other customes were willing to get off the plane. Just prior to boarding we were all able to get on.

On the way down to WDW last year a frantic man stopped us as we were getting on the plane to Orlando. He offered my family $2000 if we would give him our 5 tickets because he was going on the Disney cruise & USAir had overbooked the flight & they were going to miss the departure of the cruise.

I felt awful but my DH said, "let's go, it's not your fault, there's nothing you can do". Well, USAir offered 2 round trip tickets to any passengers willing to give up a seat. They did not guaranty you would arrive at your destination that day though.

The man & his family finally made it on the plane. I was so glad for him.

It's no wonder USAir is bankrupt!!

 

[JimC]

Tough spot to be in. I fly them a great deal and have not felt that they are any worse than the rest of the domestic airlines.

Your situation sounds like they may have changed equipment and had fewer seats. Ask your travel agent to intervene on your behalf. If you are using free tickets or bought online, then you will need to work the customer service system yourself (do either adult use a corporate travel agent for business -- these are the best agents to work with).

If you have to go it alone, then remain polite but firm at all times. Could they accommodate you if they changed the class of service (coach to first or first to coach)? Could they put you on another airline? They code share with United so you might want to check United's schedules before you call (it helps if you have some potential solutions to offer).

Re: USAirways. David Siegel is the CEO, but you may get to Deborah Thompson faster. She is head of Consumer Affairs. The Consumer Affairs number is (866) 523-5333. Fax is 336-661-8031.

By the way, it is not just USAirways that has these problems. The entire airline industry is in trouble. You have two airlines in reorganization, one other that could go this summer and two others that are only in marginally better shape. About the only major carrier that is profitable is SW and they have changed their operating model (adding long haul flights) with yet to be seen consequences. The industry continues to have labor problems, serious rising fuel prices (even with futures contracts to mitigate the cost), and reduced bookings (from already reduced post 9/11 travel) because of the war. They are trying to pare down their fleets and infrastructure to remain viable. This is a very tough business. Not an excuse for what happened to you, just a little insight into their world.

 

[DavidRoss]

I am not sure how this all works, you might want to check on the Internet for information first. I know there is a a rule called the 'Rule 120-20'. I first heard of it on Opera. I never really thought much of it until last month. My fiancee and I were flying down to Disney from Midway, Chicago. They overbooked our flight by 20 people. We got bumped. Rule 120-20 was invoked and the airline had to put both of us on the next available flight going to our destination no matter what airline it was on. Guess where the next flight was. It was at O'Hare. They had to pay a cab driver $60.00 to take us to O'Hare and then put us on another airline's flight. We got to our destination about 1 and 1/2 hours later than we had thought. It was no big deal because we weren't planning on doing anything but hanging out at the resort that day anyway. And best of all, we now have 2 free round trip tickets we plan to use for our honeymoon.

I don't know if this would apply to you or not. However, I agree with the others that you really need to push this. This is very poor customer service. Unless there was a good reason (i.e. we got bumped to a different flight right after 9/11), a computer glitch is not a good enough excuse. Many of these airlines push for e-tickets to make things quicker so they don't have to have people in line as long and basically don't have to deal with them. Because they choose to change something in the way they do business, you should not have to be the victim of that.

 

[shelly3girls]

Thank you for all of your advice! We were bumped because of a change in aircraft. At this point we have spoken to two different managers, one of which went as far as speaking with inventory control. Being the day before Mother's Day, most flights are overbooked. They told me that they will overbook a flight, but only to a certain extent. All flights are now overbooked to their maximum except for an 8:00pm flight. I think I would rather pay to stay overnight than arrive home close to midnight with two little ones.
I cannot ask for my money back b/c we booked with flight vouchers that we received for being bumped from a flight last year giving us a 6 hour delay. Maybe this had something to do with this situation, would they bump a passenger flying free before a paying customer? I am not having very much luck with USAir!
I am going to call Monday to speak to consumer affairs. Now I have someone to call thanks to JimC! I plan to be very nice, but persistent. Thanks again, I will let you know what happens on Monday.

BTW The second manager I spoke to originally thought I booked using FF miles and offered to return all the miles back to my account, once I said that was not the case she told me there was nothing she could do. Is it reasonable for me to ask for my flight vouchers to be reissued??

 

[dcfromva]

shelly3girls,

Here is a link to the Dept of Transportation's Consumer's Guide to Travel...

I hadn't thought about a substitution for smaller equipment,
but it does say:
" If the airline must substitute a smaller plane for the one it originally planned to use, the carrier isn't required to pay people who are bumped as a result."

That's all it says--What I am wondering about is what rules allow them to select you in advance to be bumped. You have had a confirmed reservation for a year! Are they allowed to do that? Why don't they bump the folks who bought their tickets last?... (very strange)

I hope you can get this sorted out satisfactorily.

-DC

 

[yasuern]

I always fly Delta - Okay we had to cancel our trip to WDW next week - our ticket being a restricted bargain fair I knew I would just wait until March 27th and call and usually they let you rebook up to a year later for the same people less $50.00/pp change fee

Okay back to the subject - yesterday Delta called us and said they needed to change our departure time out of Boston from 10:35am to either 8:20am or 12:45pm I said neither would do my time was unchangable and what were my other options - the representative said "We can refund your full purchase price" - I - trying not to shout with joy said"okay" - and in 5-7 days I will have a refund check>


Whats my point to all this - Delta is refunding our full purchase price because I wouldn't accept a 2 hour time change - and USAIR won't offer you any compensation - time to switch to DELTA!

 

[DebbieB]

Maybe contact a consumer affairs reporter on a local TV station or newspaper. I think this is really unfair, if you had confirmed seats and that flight is still operating, they should have to make some compensation for you. Just the threat of bad publicity may help.

It sounds like the flight you were cut from is on Saturday. I know from Pittsburgh they cut Saturday flights from 5 to 3. We usually go Saturday to Friday (only 1 weekend DVC night) but the flights that were left on Saturday were very expensive. We are going Friday-Friday instead. I figured we may as well stay another night than pay an extra $100+ to fly on Saturday (good excuse to stay an extra night )

When we flew to Orlando on USAir last May, the flight was overbooked and they asked for 2 volunteers. The flight was around 11:30 and you would get bumped to 2:30 first class and get a free ticket! If my mom wasn't in bad health and could wait another 3 hours I would have jumped on it! 2 ladies did.

 

[fkj2]

It strikes me as odd that the airline would sub a smaller plane for the one originally scheduled for the flight. If you were standing at the gate and a smaller plane was all that was available, that would be different. All the airlines are slashing flights and costs due to the economy and decreased tourism but that doesn't keep them from adequate planning. Because flights have been cancelled, you would think that if the problem was solely mechanical, they could have plenty of time to find an adequately sized replacement plane.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) This does happen frequently on airlines.
2) Airtlines have the right to change planes and schedules.
3) It is happening more as airlines reduce their fleets.
4) Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it.
5) Try talking to a manager again.
6) Be as nice and pleasant as possible.
7) What you get depends SOLELY on him/her.

I know this is not what you would likke to hear, but it is the fact of the airline biz. All you can do is roll with the punches and hope you don't get hit too hard.

 

[Doctor P]

While I sympathize and feel bad, it seems like US Air is not being as unreasonable as some might make it. They cut the size of the plane and bumped nonpaying passengers. I'm not sure that is surprising.