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Is the answer still no for conventional airlines? Because if have guessed the distinguishing factor isn't the amount of traveling, but the mode (budget airlines

Is the answer still no for conventional airlines? Because if have guessed the distinguishing factor isn't the amount of traveling, but the mode (budget airlines).

filmgirlcw 6y ago
I would say it is largely still no, but it almost entirely depends on the route, time of flight, and time of year. On a traditional airline in this situation, you would absolutely have some passengers who were autobooked to an alternate airport/route, even on a different airline, and taken care of, but you’d have many more who would be stuck with the changed flight time/fourteen-hour flight delay. If the airport is a hub for an airline, you might be able to get someone to make a change, but that late at night, even that is going to be difficult, unless it is a major hub for the airline. Like, if you get stranded in Atlanta on Delta, chances are someone is around who can help you, even late at night. Same for American in Dallas, KLM in Amsterdam, Air France at CDG, Quantas in Sydney, etc. Delta has a concept known as Red Coats, which are employees empowered to make more decisions regarding booking, but most of the gate agents are beholden to whatever the system is telling them. I’m sure other airlines have similar representatives but Delta's program is fairly unique amongst American carriers, in terms of its visibility (a tip for anyone flying Delta who has a tricky situation, especially around rebookings, is to ask for a Red Coat. You won’t always get it, but those are the people most empowered to help). Sometimes a non-status customer can get lucky by getting on the phone while in the airport — in my pre elite status life, I’ve successfully had gate agents speak directly to someone on my phone to resolve a situation — but if it’s right before Christmas and you’re at risk for not getting home and your alternate flight is leaving soonish, you’re almost always going to be better off just booking the alternate flight and then dealing with customer service later. But as I said in another comment, outside of LCCs, there are two distinct classes of customers for airlines. And it isn’t just enough to have spent a lot on a specific ticket (unless you’re flying international first class on Singapore or Ethiad or something — but Asian and ME airlines are a whole different world), the airlines don’t care that you paid to upgrade yourself to domestic first class or even that you’re flying international business. The people they bend over backwards for either fly enough domestic miles that they spend as much time on a plane as the crew or are people who spend at least $30k with a specific airline. I spent over $50k with Delta in 2019 (and $20k before I was grounded in March) and I still didn’t qualify for Delta 360, their invite-only loyalty tier. Don’t get me wrong, Delta has treated me incredibly well — but I’m still just one of many thousands of Diamond Medallions to them. They won’t send me someone to escort me through security when I’m in danger of missing my domestic flight (something American did for a friend who has their Concierge Key status and pre-COVID averaged $50k a year with them for about a decade), but depending on the flight makeup (depends on how many other high status people are on a flight), I’m usually going to be in the group of people auto-rebooked to a good time or booked on a different airline without having to make a fuss, in order to maintain my itinerary.
techsupporter 6y ago
filmgirlcw's experience matches mine; the answer is still "no, unless you mean something to the airline." The only difference between regular carriers and LCCs is that nobody means anything to the LCC, where at least with a regular carrier you stand a chance, just a very small one. Twice in the past few years I have flown, on my own nickle, what's called "Y class." This is full-fare, unrestricted, usually-last-minute coach/economy class. It gets you the exact same seat as someone who booked on Expedia six months prior but costs an eyewatering amount of money because you usually bought it at the last minute and are just grateful to be on the plane. Both times, something went wrong, once with an airplane having a minor equipment failure midflight and another where the required airplane never showed up. (It hadn't taken off from its origin and we were due to fly back from an airport that only got two flights per day via this airline.) Both times the amount of money I spent mattered little. I was an economy-class passenger with no status on that airline. I wound up having to deal with getting myself where I needed to go via another airline and clawing back the money for both unused tickets. Unless you have status, airlines are privatized versions of public transport, just with wings. In point of fact, I've been treated better by King County Metro in Seattle[0] than I have by virtually every airline I've flown when an issue has happened. 0 - I used to work the late evening shift at my job and would take the last Seattle-bound bus of the night to get home. Once, because a driver forgot that the route served a slightly different set of stops during that part of the day versus the rest of the day, the stop I was waiting at got skipped. After 30 minutes of waiting for a bus that OneBusAway claimed had long-since departed, I called Metro's customer service line to see if it really was coming. Someone answered, reached out to the driver, and figured out what happened. They sent a supervisor in a van to pick up me and the two other passengers who were waiting and took us all directly home.

Is the answer still no for conventional airlines? Because if have guessed the distinguishing factor isn't the amount of traveling, but the mode (budget airlines).

filmgirlcw 6y ago

I would say it is largely still no, but it almost entirely depends on the route, time of flight, and time of year. On a traditional airline in this situation, you would absolutely have some passengers who were autobooked to an alternate airport/route, even on a different airline, and taken care of, but you’d have many more who would be stuck with the changed flight time/fourteen-hour flight delay. If the airport is a hub for an airline, you might be able to get someone to make a change, but that late at night, even that is going to be difficult, unless it is a major hub for the airline. Like, if you get stranded in Atlanta on Delta, chances are someone is around who can help you, even late at night. Same for American in Dallas, KLM in Amsterdam, Air France at CDG, Quantas in Sydney, etc. Delta has a concept known as Red Coats, which are employees empowered to make more decisions regarding booking, but most of the gate agents are beholden to whatever the system is telling them. I’m sure other airlines have similar representatives but Delta's program is fairly unique amongst American carriers, in terms of its visibility (a tip for anyone flying Delta who has a tricky situation, especially around rebookings, is to ask for a Red Coat. You won’t always get it, but those are the people most empowered to help). Sometimes a non-status customer can get lucky by getting on the phone while in the airport — in my pre elite status life, I’ve successfully had gate agents speak directly to someone on my phone to resolve a situation — but if it’s right before Christmas and you’re at risk for not getting home and your alternate flight is leaving soonish, you’re almost always going to be better off just booking the alternate flight and then dealing with customer service later. But as I said in another comment, outside of LCCs, there are two distinct classes of customers for airlines. And it isn’t just enough to have spent a lot on a specific ticket (unless you’re flying international first class on Singapore or Ethiad or something — but Asian and ME airlines are a whole different world), the airlines don’t care that you paid to upgrade yourself to domestic first class or even that you’re flying international business. The people they bend over backwards for either fly enough domestic miles that they spend as much time on a plane as the crew or are people who spend at least $30k with a specific airline. I spent over $50k with Delta in 2019 (and $20k before I was grounded in March) and I still didn’t qualify for Delta 360, their invite-only loyalty tier. Don’t get me wrong, Delta has treated me incredibly well — but I’m still just one of many thousands of Diamond Medallions to them. They won’t send me someone to escort me through security when I’m in danger of missing my domestic flight (something American did for a friend who has their Concierge Key status and pre-COVID averaged $50k a year with them for about a decade), but depending on the flight makeup (depends on how many other high status people are on a flight), I’m usually going to be in the group of people auto-rebooked to a good time or booked on a different airline without having to make a fuss, in order to maintain my itinerary.

techsupporter 6y ago

filmgirlcw's experience matches mine; the answer is still "no, unless you mean something to the airline." The only difference between regular carriers and LCCs is that nobody means anything to the LCC, where at least with a regular carrier you stand a chance, just a very small one. Twice in the past few years I have flown, on my own nickle, what's called "Y class." This is full-fare, unrestricted, usually-last-minute coach/economy class. It gets you the exact same seat as someone who booked on Expedia six months prior but costs an eyewatering amount of money because you usually bought it at the last minute and are just grateful to be on the plane. Both times, something went wrong, once with an airplane having a minor equipment failure midflight and another where the required airplane never showed up. (It hadn't taken off from its origin and we were due to fly back from an airport that only got two flights per day via this airline.) Both times the amount of money I spent mattered little. I was an economy-class passenger with no status on that airline. I wound up having to deal with getting myself where I needed to go via another airline and clawing back the money for both unused tickets. Unless you have status, airlines are privatized versions of public transport, just with wings. In point of fact, I've been treated better by King County Metro in Seattle[0] than I have by virtually every airline I've flown when an issue has happened. 0 - I used to work the late evening shift at my job and would take the last Seattle-bound bus of the night to get home. Once, because a driver forgot that the route served a slightly different set of stops during that part of the day versus the rest of the day, the stop I was waiting at got skipped. After 30 minutes of waiting for a bus that OneBusAway claimed had long-since departed, I called Metro's customer service line to see if it really was coming. Someone answered, reached out to the driver, and figured out what happened. They sent a supervisor in a van to pick up me and the two other passengers who were waiting and took us all directly home.