Originally Posted by
ExSp33db1rd
but .... they then have a better opportunity to sell my later seat to someone else, which would be a financial adv. maybe, nothing lost in getting rid of me earlier.
The excuse given was the "manpower" involved in changing the ticket. Bollocks, if I had requested an earlier flight before departing from my original destination than I would agree, but if my previous flight arrives early, and I have the chance to make an earlier connection, why not, I had no baggage, held a boarding card issued by the previous station - yes, the "wrong" flight number might have had to be re-issued - and was at the communal departure/arrival hall, just enter by one door and depart from the adjacent one. Easy ? No !
OK, well, in terms of the actual entry in the system, it's about 10 characters and enter or a few clicks and your flight is changed... and the airlines often do this anyway for free (it's called 'Flow Forward' at QF and happens when the later flights are oversold, they move people forward to flights as they check in... financial advantage for the airline as no potential denied boarding and theoretically all the flights even out load wise over the day.
In terms of the actual entry to issue a new BP, granted, bollocks, but if you had baggage, while the system knows where your bag is and it will not allow release of the flight you were on until your bag is removed, if you are, from the flight, someone still has to stop what they are doing and go to that flight which is departing later, go through the container - perhaps unload the whole thing, scan your tags to registered them as having been offloaded the take them to the lateral for the 'to' flight and scan it and load it.
That is likely what they are referring to with the manpower aspect... it's not totally known how long that will take so there is an element of truth in the manpower argument. When it's done though flow-forward (Ansett used to call them 'jumpers') it is done before bags are accepted, etc. so the check in transaction is still happening as it would but for a different flight.
There is more to it than just waving a wand and it all happens... as automation increases perhaps that will be the case but not at the moment.