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What to Do When Bumped From a Flight

The New York Times, Michelle Higgins, 10 September 2006

Sharp elbows and the ability to claw your way to a ticket counter through a mob of infuriated travelers who have just learned their flight has been canceled are no longer enough to guarantee you a seat on the next flight out.

The days of gate agents scrambling to manually rebook stranded passengers, first come first served, by looking up alternative itineraries for each one are largely over. Most airlines have started to use computer programs to rebook passengers automatically. This type of software, put to use in the last two years by American (which calls it ReAAccom) and US Airways, and also used by Delta, United and Northwest, looks at the entire flight schedule to uncover all the possible rebooking options for passengers from a canceled flight. Then it uses special algorithms to dole out seats, doing in a matter of minutes what it used to take airline agents an hour or more to accomplish.

Airline officials say the computers are more efficient — not to mention more civilized — than the days of the mad scrum. In those survival-of-the-fittest scenarios, it often didn’t matter if you had a discount ticket or if you were a frequent flier. And persistent passengers, whatever their status, could often jockey their way to the front of the line and onto the next flight out.

Now the computer is supposed to guarantee priority to the airlines’ most important customers.

That’s good for elite fliers and passengers paying full fare, since they get pushed to the top of the list when a flight is canceled. But passengers who bought a cheap ticket or booked their seat with frequent flier miles generally have less standing.

Take American Airlines Flight 337 from La Guardia Airport destined for O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Aug. 24, which was canceled that day. The airline said that of the 78 passengers with a final destination of Chicago, 61 were automatically rebooked on a nonstop flight later that day. Seven were put on connecting flights through Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington or Raleigh-Durham International Airport. And 10 passengers were rebooked on flights the following morning. “Although ReAAccom considers multiple factors when looking at rebooking options,” said Jim Diamond, managing director of operations research for American, in an e-mail message, “it primarily considers a passenger’s entire itinerary and the best way to get them to their final destination in the shortest amount of time.”

American and other airlines that use similar technology to rebook passengers say that customers who don’t like their new itinerary can talk to an agent to see if there are any other options. But which flights travelers get rebooked on are ultimately up to the airline’s discretion — and open seats on planes are becoming increasingly scarce.

“There are less options because there are less flights,” said Walter W. Stumpf Jr., an agent at Xanadu Group, a Linden Travel Bureau affiliate in Lafayette, N.J. “And if there is a flight it may be filled already.”

So is there anything a passenger can do to beat the system? It’s possible if you know what to ask for and how far each airline is willing to bend. Of course, if weather or air traffic problems are to blame for a cancellation, everybody’s in the same fix. Here are some guidelines on what to do if your airline cancels your flight.

Chose the right airline Fly on one that still rewards those with sharp elbows. Some airlines, including Continental, JetBlue and Southwest, still rebook passengers manually for most, if not all, canceled flights. In such cases, a passenger typically has to wait in line to speak to a gate agent or customer service desk agent at the airport or call a reservation line to be rebooked. But either way, who gets on the next flight out “basically ends up being whoever gets to the desk,” said Sarah Anthony, a Continental spokeswoman. “It’s as simple as that.”

Start dialing Call your airline or travel agent as soon as you learn your flight is canceled. This can help you jump ahead of passengers waiting in line to be rebooked on airlines that still reaccommodate passengers manually. It can also put you ahead of passengers looking for alternatives when an airline automatically rebooks you on a flight you’re not crazy about.

In certain flight cancellations, American and US Airways will provide passengers with a hot line to reach ticket agents with special training in handling canceled flights.

Invoke “Rule 240” This will either get an airline agent to act or to look at you as if you’re out of your mind. The term, a remnant from the years before 1978, when airlines were regulated and required to submit fares, routes, schedules and rebooking policies to the government for approval, was never a true rule. Rather, Rule 240 referred to the section of the airline tariff that explained the airlines’ individual policies on what they would do for passengers during a delay or cancellation. In the regulated era, most airlines agreed to transfer a traveler of a canceled flight to another airline provided it could get the traveler to his or her destination sooner. This became known as the Rule 240 transfer.

Today, each airline spells out its customer service commitments, including how it handles canceled flights, in a “contract of carriage,” which can typically be found on the airline’s Web site. A few say they will transfer a passenger of a canceled flight to another line if they don’t offer an alternative of their own within a specific amount of time. Others are less explicit.

Continental’s contract of carriage states that as long as the customer requests it and the ticket has no restrictions against it, the airline will “reaccomodate the passenger in the same class of service on the next available flight on another carrier, or combination of carriers” if the customer’s delay “exceeds two hours.” United says it will arrange for transportation on another carrier if “unable to provide onward transportation acceptable to the passenger” within 90 minutes of the original scheduled departure.

Delta, which still labels its paragraph about flight delays and cancellations as “Rule 240,” states it will transfer a passenger to another airline “at our sole discretion.” American and US Airways say they will consider doing so only if they cannot provide a seat on one of their own flights, and they don’t specify a time limit for finding passengers a seat. Northwest bases its decision to rebook passengers on other carriers on “market, availability and type of customer,” said a spokesman, Roman Blahoski.

Airlines will typically offer to transfer customers only to carriers they have interline agreements with, which allow airline partners to accept one another’s tickets. Southwest, for one, doesn’t have any formal interline agreements but still will try to accommodate a passenger on another airline in “extenuating circumstances,” according to Ed Stewart, a spokesman.

5 Dirty Secrets of Airfares

Donna Rosato, Money Magazine staff writer, 30 August 2006

Buying an airline ticket has never been a simple task - the rules of the game are always changing. But if you know how the game is played, you'll have a better chance of saving money.

There's more at stake for your travel budget these days: So far in 2006, airfares are up more than 10 percent over last year, the biggest jump since 1995 and a return to pre-9/11 fare levels, according to data from the Department of Transportation.

Here are five "secrets" that will clue you in on how to find the best fares.

1. Low cost carriers don't always have the lowest fares.

Low cost carriers JetBlue, Southwest and AirTran have rapidly expanded the past few years, bringing lower fares to many markets and burnishing their reputations as discount airlines. But low cost airlines don't always offer the lowest fares. That's because traditional airlines, which have spent the past few years in bankruptcy court slashing their own expenses, are aggressively matching or undercutting their low-cost rivals.

And though airlines like JetBlue, Southwest and AirTran generally have lower operating costs than traditional airlines, they're feeling the squeeze of rising fuel prices too. That means you shouldn't count out traditional airlines when looking for the best deals.

For example, a late August, roundtrip non-stop flight from New York to Orlando was $547 on JetBlue but just $504 on Delta Air Lines. Keep in mind that low-cost carriers have more consistent pricing, cap their highest fares, don't have as many restrictions and typically offer a larger number of seats available at lower prices than traditional airlines.

So, it may be worth paying a bit more to fly them, especially if you're flying somewhere at the last minute or may have to change your itinerary.

2. You may pay more in taxes and fees than you do for your airfare.

Fees and taxes have always been part of the equation for air travel. But in the last few years, airline and government-imposed charges have escalated, especially on overseas trips.

Fuel surcharges and government-imposed security fees in particular have made airline travel more costly and sometimes add up to more than the cost of your base ticket price.

For example, this summer, Virgin Atlantic Airways was offering $198 roundtrip flights from the U.S. to London but that didn't include $210 in additional taxes and fees.

Make sure you're comparing apples and oranges when you're buying an airline ticket by factoring in all charges, not just the base ticket price.

Many airlines don't show the extra fees until you're ready to book, though third-party ticketing sites like Orbitz and Sidestep do.

3. You can mix and match fares to get better deals.

Many airlines offer last minute weekend specials that are super cheap but may not go exactly where you want. You can combine two separate deals and still save, says George Hobica, founder and publisher of Airfarewatchdog.com, which scours the airline world for hidden fare deals.

For example, say you want to go from Boston to San Antonio but don't see any deal on that route. If there's a Boston to Atlanta flight for $128 roundtrip and an Atlanta to San Antonio trip for $108, you can buy both.

Hobica says it's fine to fly two different airlines -- most airlines, except Southwest and some smaller carriers, will transfer your bags to another airline but be sure to leave yourself enough time between connections on different airlines because they might be flying out of different terminals.

4. Your computer may be preventing you from getting the best deals.

Most Web sites use cookies, which are text files placed on your hard drive by a Web page server and are used to tell the Web server that you have returned to a specific page and retrieve information about you. This simplifies the process of recording your personal information, such as billing addresses, but also tracks the results you were viewing.

So, if you're checking fares for a vacation to Baja and return to the same Web site, the fare search engine may return the same results you viewed earlier rather than the new results, thanks to the cookies.

Luckily, it's easy to get around this by clearing the cookies on your Internet browser each time you do a search.

5. The most popular travel Web sites don't have the same information -- or the best deals.

It's a mistake to assume that you'll find the exact same fares on Travelocity, Orbitz and Expedia, the biggest online travel agent sites, says Hobica. The sites negotiate deals with specific carriers and often have exclusive deals. So it pays to check all three and then check out individual carrier sites -- and not just to avoid the $5 to $10 booking fees that third-party sites charge.

Hobica says airlines increasingly are selling their best fares on their own Web sites, so sites like Travelocity and Orbitz (which don't have JetBlue and Southwest fares anyway) shouldn't be the only place you look.

The bottom line for fliers: Airfares are a constantly moving target, changing as much as three times a day. Sales come and go quickly. So, if you want to find the best deals, you'll have to shop around. But knowing how the rules work will make you a savvier shopper.

New Features on Travel Web Sites

The New York Times, Michelle Higgins, 23 July 2006

Online travel Web sites are adding planning tools for Web-savvy travelers.

Quikbook.com, a discount hotel site, introduced a search function to its shortcuts menu last month that lets users search for smoke-free lodging. Priceline.com now lets users searching its listed airline prices view and book their seats. Expedia.com recently introduced a gas station locator to help travelers find cheap gas rates near their rental car drop-offs, and the site has released a new feature: the virtual guidebook.

The new trip-planning tool, at www.expedia.com/activities, creates a personalized itinerary based on information you provide about your vacation preferences. Travelers choose from a list of 50 popular destinations, type in the number of people traveling with them and rank their goals and interests from golf to going off the beaten path. Then site provides an itinerary with things to do or see. Among “off the beaten path” sites in New York, it recommended St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Harlem, both hardly undiscovered.

Yahoo introduced its own Trip Planner feature earlier this month at www.travel.yahoo.com/trip. It lets travelers create their own itineraries and share them with other Yahoo users.

Paying for Coverage You May Not Need

The New York Times, Matt Villano, 23 July 2006

Coverage or no coverage? Rent a car and that’s one of the first questions you’ll be asked at the counter.

The inquiry is about supplemental rental car insurance, an extra $20 to $40 a day for protection from damage, liability and theft. Many customers agree to buy the coverage out of fear of what will happen if they decline. What many people don’t know, however, is that this coverage is usually redundant — as long as you have adequate primary car insurance or you pay with a major credit card. Over the years, rental car companies have capitalized on this misconception. Neil Abrams, president of Abrams Consulting Group, a rental car research firm in Purchase, N.Y., estimates that customers will spend roughly $1 billion in incremental protection this year.

Mr. Abrams said a lack of knowledge was to blame for increasing costs across the board. “People don’t know the facts, so they panic and assume they need the coverage to be safe,” Mr. Abrams said. Today, most rental car companies offer four basic forms of supplemental coverage: the collision damage waiver (C.D.W.), liability insurance, personal accident insurance and personal effects coverage. The C.D.W., also called the Loss Damage Waiver and Physical Damage Waiver, is the most standard option, and is not insurance at all. Instead, the option relieves customers of financial responsibility if a rental car is damaged or stolen. It also covers “loss of use,” the fee that companies charge customers for every day a damaged rental is out of service.

This protection generally costs $9 to $19 a day. Paula Rivera, a spokeswoman for Hertz, noted that the coverage might become void if the renter caused an accident by speeding, driving on unpaved roads or driving while intoxicated. Still, if you have comprehensive and collision coverage through a primary insurance provider, all you would have to pay in the event of an accident is your deductible. Steve Woodard, forms manager at State Farm Insurance, said that most primary insurance companies extended comprehensive and collision coverage to policyholders in a rented or borrowed car for up to 30 consecutive days.

Even some credit card companies will cover comprehensive damages to most vehicles. MasterCard, for instance, offers secondary coverage to its gold and platinum card customers. Visa, American Express, Discover and other card companies offer customers similar protections.

Seth Prentiss, a software engineer in West Somerville, Mass., learned this lesson first-hand. Last year, while driving a rental car from San Mateo, Calif., to San Diego, Mr. Prentiss was sandwiched in a five-car pile-up near Los Angeles. The crash caused $7,000 in damage to the rental car, and though Mr. Prentiss lacked sufficient collision coverage on his primary insurance policy, the Visa Signature card he used to pay for the rental offered secondary coverage for all but his $500 deductible.

“My credit card company ended up being the savior,” Mr. Prentiss said.

Other types of coverage provide insurance to people and items inside the car. Since rental car companies are not licensed insurers, they cannot offer these policies themselves; instead the policies are underwritten by insurance firms.

Supplemental liability insurance is designed to cover exposure to claims associated with an accident in a rented car. Rental car companies are required to provide the minimum level of liability insurance required by states. Generally, however, this does not offer enough protection in a serious accident, and customers can buy additional coverage of up to $1 million for an additional $10 to $20 a day.

But again, if you have your own car insurance, you probably already have liability coverage that extends to rental cars. An umbrella policy on your home or life insurance also may protect you.

Car insurance companies like Geico, State Farm and Allstate offer liability coverage packages for those who live in certain states and don’t own a car. Jeanne Salvatore, spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute in New York, said these “nonowner” policies, which usually cost $200 to $300 a year, are ideal for travelers who rent frequently.

Many car rental companies also offer personal accident insurance, which pays medical and ambulance bills for you and any passengers for an additional $1 to $5 a day. Many of these benefits duplicate coverage you already may have under your health, life or car insurance policies.

Finally, renters also may purchase personal effects coverage, which provides compensation for the theft of personal items from your rental car. This sells for $1 to $5 a day, but also may mirror coverage you already have through a homeowner’s or renter’s insurance policy. What’s more, for such coverage to kick in, you must have proof of ownership for the missing goods.

Insurance regulations for rental cars differ overseas. Some countries — Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, for instance — require all foreign travelers to buy supplemental car rental insurance. In other countries, like Italy and Slovakia, battling an epidemic of stolen cars, theft insurance is mandatory at the rental counter, as well. The cost: $10 to $20 a day.

A handful of primary insurance policies cover car rentals overseas; others like Geico and Progressive offer riders that cover American drivers in more than 200 countries abroad. Ms. Salvatore said that most insurers extended basic insurance coverage to rentals in Canada but offered only limited coverage on rentals in Mexico, since the country does not require liability insurance and many drivers there are uninsured.

Credit card companies have deemed other countries as problem areas. American Express does not offer collision coverage in Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Ireland, Israel or Italy. Alice Droogan, global solutions leader at MasterCard, said her company recently stopped offering coverage in Israel, Ireland and Jamaica, as well.

“In Ireland, people drive on the left side of the road, and they say those stone walls keep moving around,” Ms. Droogan said. “We find that assessment of damage in some countries is just a lot higher and not worth insuring at all.”

The main lesson is that it pays to look into what kind of coverage you have before the ambush at the counter. Ask your car insurance company. Call your credit card companies. To complete the crash course, reread the fine print on your homeowner’s, life and health insurance policies. As Mr. Abrams notes, no matter how much insurance you think you have, it never hurts to investigate.

Web Sites that Compare Airfare

The Wall Street Journal, Scott McCartney, 11 July 2006

When the price of an airline ticket can change several times a day, it's hard to feel secure about locking in the lowest fare. But several Web sites are adding features intended to help you feel confident about the price you're paying.

FareCompare.com offers historical prices for trips in 77,000 markets in the U.S. and Canada -- data that haven't been available before to consumers. Farecast.com goes a step further, using sophisticated data-mining techniques to predict whether prices for a particular trip are likely to go up or down over the next week. Kayak.com now has a feature called Buzz that shows the best prices found by other Kayak users on the most searched destinations over the past 48 hours.

Airlines monkey around with ticket prices as much as three times a day for domestic itineraries and prices can change on international trips as often as five times a day. What's more, fares on a particular flight can change quickly -- up or down -- as seats sell or remain empty. A lack of sales can prompt airline computers to offer more seats at a lower price.

"You need to know what a decent price is," says Rick Seaney, chief executive and president of FareCompare. "Consumers should be more educated about purchases."

Booking air travel is increasingly a self-service business, with airline Web sites taking a bigger share of bookings and growing even faster than online agencies such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. They all provide lots of prices, but little historical context. In a way, sites like FareCompare, Farecast and Kayak perform the functions of a good travel agent, who would often track pricing changes and know how to spot deals. Since the Internet has turned many consumers into their own travel agents, the new online tools can help them make better buying decisions.

FareCompare shows the lowest prices offered by month for the next 11 months in any U.S. market, and offers a "Fare Trend" graph showing whether the lowest prices have been increasing, decreasing or holding steady. You can quickly see whether prices in that market bounce around or stay consistent. And with the current prices, FareCompare offers a one-star to four-star rating of how good the offering is compared with past prices.

The lowest price available for a round-trip ticket in September between Boston and Miami, for example, was priced yesterday by FareCompare at $198 (not including taxes). That's expensive compared with last year, when the lowest price available for September 2005 was $158. But prices were higher in April, May and June, according to FareCompare. The Web site showed American dropped its lowest price on that route by $80 two weeks ago.

Scouting for Travel Deals

• Air fares shift with the seasons. But just how do the airlines play that game and what's the best way to get deals? Read a Q&A with the CEO of FareCompare.com.

• See tips on finding end-of-summer Europe travel deals in Go Figure.

With FareCompare, it takes a few clicks to get available prices on specific dates since the site first offers lowest price in a month, then prices broken down by week. Drill a bit deeper, and you can break down prices by airline on the same route. While Delta Air Lines has consistently charged about $400 for its lowest advance-purchase round trip between Atlanta and Cincinnati over the past three months, prices at Continental Airlines yo-yoed in that market between $100 and $400 in the same period, according to FareCompare. Delta offers nonstop service between its two biggest hubs; Continental offers only connecting flights.

FareCompare, a Dallas company that started doing sophisticated travel data-crunching for businesses then decided to add a consumer site, has accumulated 22 months of prices. The site also tracks first-class and business-class fares, and is a quick way to find "Y-Up" fares -- coach tickets that get you automatic first-class upgrades.

You can't book tickets at FareCompare, Farecast, Kayak and other such referral sites such as SideStep. One click will send you to an airline Web site or other vendor for booking.

Farecast.com grew out of a University of Washington professor's research into whether air fares were rational, meaning could they be predicted with data-mining computing that looks at historical patterns and recent changes. It's like forecasting the weather. While far from perfect, Farecast believes it can make accurate forecasts.

Farecast spent three years developing its system, which crunches huge amounts of data including indicators of airline inventory, pricing history and consumer demand. Farecast doesn't replicate the "yield management" systems that airplanes run, which try to maximize revenue generated by each airline seat. Instead, Farecast evaluates price movements over time -- what happened to the actual prices airlines posted.

"We've identified over 100 indicators of what air fares will do, some intuitive and some not so obvious," says Chief Executive Hugh Crean.

So far, Farecast is running only in a public "beta" test mode, with about 120 markets into or out of either Seattle or Boston. By year end, the Seattle-based company says it will be running with all domestic markets available. Farecast breaks fares down by airlines, as well as by time of day.

Farecast takes into account special events like a convention or graduation, seasonal travel patterns, and both pricing and inventory trends. It doesn't factor in external pressures like the price of fuel, which has forced airlines to trim flight schedules and raise ticket prices. But it does pick up those trends from the price and inventory changes.

Farecast won't be able to forecast events like the entry of a low-cost carrier into markets, or retaliatory pricing wars between airlines when one carrier dumps cheap prices into a market trying to punish a competitor, or at least voice displeasure with a sale somewhere else. Mr. Crean notes those are the exceptions and that most pricing is surprisingly rational.

Still, Mr. Seaney of FareCompare says his company has tried data-mining and predictive techniques, and found airfares were difficult to predict. "A lot of times it is just random. Someone does a sale, and that triggers a whole series of events," he said.

Bob Harrell, president of consulting firm Harrell Associates in New York, says air fares follow the laws of supply and demand, and that consumers can rarely know what demand will be. The sites "address an issue that is quite vexing to travelers: Book now or book later?" he said.