We have 5 tickets to go to Buenos Aires (ELP-IAH-EZE / EZE-IAH-ELP)
The outbound leg was originally scheduled for June 30. In addition to the original tickets, we then paid an upgrade to Premium Economy. First time that I do that, since I feel quite bad having to pay more to get the same level of comfort that a not-so-tall person receives paying less, but there was a good promo where if I upgraded for all 5 it was $65 per long flight (so it was 10 upgrades total, which amounted for about 20% of the price of the original tickets). Also, and I know I will regret this, my wife and daughter conspired to take our dog in the cabin, which added for another $250 for the whole itinerary.
Yesterday I received 5 automated emails from united refunding $65 5 times. I went to the itinerary to see what was going on and the outbound flights had disappeared. We called United (which is a pain in itself, but I will not go into that here) and the agent explained that the flight we had was cancelled, that we could opt to fly same day ELP-IAH-PTY-EZE (last leg with Copa) or get a similar flights that we had for June 30 but either June 25 or July 1. All with no change in price. We opted to depart on June 29 in a similar itinerary (ELP-IAH-EZE).
When we got the confirmation by email, we realized that we had about 1 hour of stop over in IAH. That should be normally ok, but normally ok was perhaps not comfortable enough here. The time of arrival to IAH is the time of landing, not the time you are actually off the plane, we will likely need to switch terminals, the international flights in big planes normally start boarding 45 minutes before the departure time, and we will be going with a dog that we wished would have the opportunity to relieve between flights. Plus, there is not much margin for a delay which, if it happens, would mean that we would lose the only flight to Bue that day and that and we would need to fly either the next day via PTY or 2 days later direct to Bue, assuming that there are seats available.
No problem, there are earlier flights from ELP to IAH. We checked on line and effectively, there was one 2 hours earlier in United for $150 or something.
So we called Delta again (actually, we chatted via SMS).
- Hi, We would like to leave earlier from ELP to be not so tight in IAH, is that possible? I saw that flight xxx that leaves earlier has seats available.
- Yes, of course. That would be $1400 more per pax.
- WHAT????? We are just changing the flight from ELP to IAH. If we paid for that flight it would be only $150 per pax, not considering any credit for the flight we are declining.
- No sir, that's not how it works. I need to do the whole itinerary again at the current price. And you are lucky that I can use the current price for the fare category you currently have, because if you were just booking the flight that category is not available now and it would be even more expensive.
- Ok, then don't change the flight. Just remove it form the itinerary and I will book the new flight to IAH separately.
- Sure sir, that would be no problem. it would still cost $1200 per pax though.
- What???? Why? Jut take me out of the first flight, don't give me any money back, sell my seats to someone else and let me take the rest of the trip with the tickets I already have.
- Sorry but, as I explained, I cannot do that. I have to re-issue the whole itinerary at current prices.
- Ok, then leave everything as is, I will miss the first flight and meet you in IAH, I will get there somewhere else.
- Oh, you cannot do that, sir. If you don't show up for the first flight it will be considered a no-show and your whole itinerary will be cancelled.
- So, let's imagine a situation where I have an unexpected issue and I am out of town, so I call you a couple of days before to tell you that I will not be able to make the first flight but I still want the rest of the flights.... Would I still miss the whole ticket for not showing up to the first flight even when I am advising you in advance?
- Well, either yes, or....
- Don't tell me, you would have to re-issue the whole itinerary at current prices.
- Correct, you got it!
How is that NOT ridiculous? I wonder if it is even legal?
Just to begin with, how can the same ticket, on the same flights, same seats, same service, cost $600 one day and $2100 another? That's 250% more expensive!!!!
Second, the whole situation was triggered by their cancelation of the original flight. Yes, they owned that by offering alternative options for the same price. Unfortunately it was hard to follow over the phone call the details of the flights that they were offering and we missed that we had only 1 hour in IAH. If at that point we had requested the earlier flight we would have had it for the same price.
Finally, that thing of having no choice but cancelling the whole flight and having no choice but to make a whole itinerary is a lame excuse. Of course they have choice, as they did when they changed or flights for the same price.
Imagine that you order a meal at Burger King and they charge you $10. Then you say hey I forgot to tell you, please don't put cheese in the burger and they say no problem sir, now it is $40. You see, while not putting the cheese is cheaper for us, I cannot just remove the cheese from your order, I have to redo the whole order again and make it at current prices that just went up 300%. BK would be out of business overnight.
The concentration of the airlines removed the competency to the point of making it an oligopoly, All the mainstream airlines (all 3 of them) have similar prices, similar crappy service, similar lack of legroom, similar policies, tot he point where the freedom of choosing the airline that you want is just an illusion.
I am all for private companies and deregulation, but in a context of competition, reasonability and ethics, nothing of which is present here.
I wish I could say "I will neve fly United again", but I can't. Because I will need to fly to Arg again every year or so and I will need to fly one of the 3 airlines that align align themselves to abuse their customers in the same ways. We are their hostages. We can't choose not to fly. We can't choose to fly with someone that behaves differently.
.
