Flight cancelled, but not by us!

[roamerfromtexas]

Imagine my surprise when I went onto the United website to check on our flight to FLL and found it nonexistent! I immediately called United only to be told that someone had cancelled our flight three days before. Since there are only my husband and I in the house, and he doesn't even know the URL for United, I know that we did not cancel. After assuring the United agent that we did not cancel, she reinstated the flight after consulting with her "support". I shudder to think what I would have felt had I not checked but discovered this when trying to check in! It is worth it to check on flights often.

Edited December 11, 2013 by roamerfromtexas

[seashinesunshine]

Imagine my surprise when I went onto the United website to check on our flight to FLL and found it nonexistent! I immediately called United only to be told that someone had cancelled our flight three days before. Since there are only my husband and I in the house, and he doesn't even know the URL for United, I know that we did not cancel. After assuring the United agent that we did not cancel, she reinstated the flight after consulting with her "support". I shudder to think what I would have felt had I not checked but discovered this when trying to check in! It is worth it to check on flights often.

 

That's crazy. We check our flights often, last time, we booked flights a good 8 months ahead and the airline kept changing flights etc. Trying to fill planes and not have empty flights I guess. One thing I learned, if they change your flight, you have the right to change it again free. But to have it just gone is strange.

[headhunterke]

Did you use a travel agent? Or put your reservation/ticket number where somebody could've seen it by accident?

[Zach1213]

Yeah it sure sounds like a third party may have been involved in these travel plans. Curious if it turns out to be the cruise line acting as TA?

[Arusha]

It could be the UA reservation system, which I swear is possessed...

 

I had a similar thing happen with UA last May (on my way to an Alaska cruise) for flights from MHT > ORD > YVR, and return flights for 2 weeks later (SEA > EWR > MHT).

 

I received a midnite email that my 6:30 AM flight from MHT > ORD was cancelled (thank goodness I checked my email late at night!). OK, so I scramble to book an early morning flight from BOS > ORD on UA; made it in plenty of time to catch the ORD > YVR flight. However, when i went to check-in, the UA reservation system had not only cancelled my booking on the ORD > YVR flight, it had gone ahead and cancelled my bookings for the return flights for 2 weeks later! The poor agent at ORD wrestled with the res system for quite a while, trying to restore the flights that I had not cancelled. I ended up finally getting rebooked on flights from ORD > SFO > YVR, and my return flights were restored.

 

I shoulda stuck with Delta...

[headhunterke]

Somebody must have made a mistake. Computer systems don't cancel things on their own. Although we get quite some weird cases on a day where bookings have magically been adjusted, cancelled etc. But whatever happens, there's somebody that has to press a button on that darn computer.

[Zach1213]

It could be the UA reservation system, which I swear is possessed...

 

I had a similar thing happen with UA last May (on my way to an Alaska cruise) for flights from MHT > ORD > YVR, and return flights for 2 weeks later (SEA > EWR > MHT).

 

I received a midnite email that my 6:30 AM flight from MHT > ORD was cancelled (thank goodness I checked my email late at night!). OK, so I scramble to book an early morning flight from BOS > ORD on UA; made it in plenty of time to catch the ORD > YVR flight. However, when i went to check-in, the UA reservation system had not only cancelled my booking on the ORD > YVR flight, it had gone ahead and cancelled my bookings for the return flights for 2 weeks later! The poor agent at ORD wrestled with the res system for quite a while, trying to restore the flights that I had not cancelled. I ended up finally getting rebooked on flights from ORD > SFO > YVR, and my return flights were restored.

 

I shoulda stuck with Delta...

 

 

Did you go ahead and book BOS-ORD on your own without calling UA and saying "my flight was cancelled, put me on BOS-ORD"? If so, your whole original reservation would have been treated as a no-show and all legs, out and back, cancelled.

[roamerfromtexas]

Thanks for all your replies. After thinking about this, I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that I had previously cancelled a flight and was using the air credit to book this one. I did this on the phone with a United agent so I don't know exactly what buttons she pushed. I agree that computers, at least most of them, perform only as programmed.

[Zach1213]

Thanks for all your replies. After thinking about this, I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that I had previously cancelled a flight and was using the air credit to book this one. I did this on the phone with a United agent so I don't know exactly what buttons she pushed. I agree that computers, at least most of them, perform only as programmed.

 

I can't imagine that using previous funds to book the flight had anything to do with it. We do that quite often at our office (at least a dozen times each year with various airlines - AA, UA, DL) and it has never once caused an issue like you mention.

[kenish]

I'm in the tech biz, and it's possible the cancellation may have been an unintended consequence of a software glitch at UA. For example, a recent programming problem on united.com allowed people to book fares for a few dollars if they had a window open to check Mileage Plus availability and another window to check the purchased fare price. The paid screen showed only the taxes and completed bookings at that price. UA didn't honor the fare and cancelled the Mileage Plus accounts of blatant abusers.

 

(This is quite different than other incidents where UA loaded the wrong fare into their system...UA generally honored the erroneous price).

Edited December 11, 2013 by kenish

[Keith1010]

This is one of these things that you likely will not know.

 

What is important is that it is a good idea to check your flight from time to time for not only unannounced schedule changes but also your reservation being cancelled.

 

Keith

[JustinPlusLauren]

Could it have been that your flight information was emailed to someone else by mistake? I often receive other people's emails by mistake and I've been sent someone else's flight details before, including confirmation numbers, and an option to cancel the flight! Of course I would never interfere with someone's travel plans, but you never know if someone else might.

 

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

[betbo]

Our flight was cancelled by United in November, just found out about it last week. Our TA did some hard work and got us our flights for the T.A. We are not sure if Princess or United did the cancelling. They wanted $1600 for the tickets, but TA got them for the same price . Will be checking on our flights every week.:)