A question about airline communication

[alserire]

Here's a question. The following has happened to me with regard to an upcoming flight.

1. Time changed (leaving 15 minutes earlier.)
2. Flight number changed.
3. Equipment changed (seat purchased).

Now, I found this out by accident when looking to book someone else on the same flight with me. I "logged" into my flight with the booking reference number and it informed me of the changes. But I never got an email from the airline. It was pure luck I saw it.

2 and 3 aren't really an issue but leaving 15 minutes earlier could be. Surely they should have emailed me. Two other airlines have done so in the past when the changes were respectively twenty and just five minutes earlier.

Opinions?

[Hotel Tango]

Difficult to comment with the limited information you have given. For instance, if your booking is still for some time ahead, it may well be that an e-mail is yet to be sent.

[DaveReidUK]

If the flight number has changed, it isn't the same flight.

As for bringing forward the STD by 15 minutes, how long before the previous departure time did the airline originally ask you to be at the gate?

[TLDNMCL]

Without wishing to be rude, if 15 minutes difference in departure time could become an issue, aren't you cutting it a bit fine to begin with? I agree that the fact that they actively failed to openly communicate it could be a problem given different circumstances. T&C could play a part here, depending on the airline; in the past I have made bookings which came with the recommendation to "check your flight details x hours in advance of departure". Typically any bad news would be delays rather than advances though!

[alserire]

Difficult to comment with the limited information you have given. For instance, if your booking is still for some time ahead, it may well be that an e-mail is yet to be sent.

It's still a month away. It really is not something that's bothering me at all bar one thing.

I mostly fly EI and LH and occasionally Swiss and they are, by and large, fantastic, especially when it comes to communication. LH will notify you if there's even a five minute change in timing. Maybe six weeks ago when I was looking to book someone onto the same flight I noticed the flight time change. In the end the person decided not to travel so I left it for a while. Indeed I remember thinking I'd probably get a mail about it. I didn't and last week I decided to see what I could find out. In this case when I logged in the screen informed me of the changes and asked me if I wanted to accept them. Now this was a few weeks after I initially noticed the change in time and flight number. I just thought I would have gotten a mail about it. The aircraft type has changed too. Again no big deal but it could have been if the seat I booked wasn't available or I had been allocated another seat.

I raise it as an issue because the airline is United. And maybe after everything they might have better lines of communication. Now I'm not used to travelling on US airlines. Maybe this is their usual m.o. But it's certainly a first for me. As I said, no big deal at the end of the day. But definitely not up there with the aforementioned airlines in terms of keeping me informed. It's not really going to affect me at all. But it does make you think about who you fly with in terms of their service provision. I would have thought they would be going out of their way at this stage to keep people happy. It's a first class ticket too!

[WHBM]

As for bringing forward the STD by 15 minutes, how long before the previous departure time did the airline originally ask you to be at the gate?
Commonly such a ludicrous time in advance that people have long given up believing such information, and just use their common sense.

One carrier gave me a latest check in time at London City for an early morning departure which was actually before the terminal building is unlocked by security.

Up at Stansted it is normal for the FIDS to show "Boarding" even before the inbound aircraft has come on stand.

US domestic carriers do have a habit of moving times forward and back by various minutes every few months, which I presume comes from optimisation adjustments of gates and slots. Given that the most prominent display on their FIDS is to sort by departure time, it makes checking against tickets more difficult.

[Hotel Tango]

WHBM, It can depend on the airport and the gate. At BHX there are gates where you go through the boarding card inspection process into a designated waiting lounge. Where short turnarounds are planned they will call pax to the gate prior to the aircraft coming on stand. It does expedite the boarding process, if everyone is on time of course!

[Hartington]

Many years ago I had to investigate just such a scenario when an agent complained in almost exactly the same terms as the OP. The airline concerned was a US carrier whose reply was "we don't notify any times changes less than 15 minutes".

[alserire]

It would seem United are that carrier so!

For such a service focused country their airlines do seem to be somewhat untroubled by their customers thoughts and feelings!

[Hotel Tango]

Not just United. I believe that Delta don't notify changes up to 15 minutes. It may well be a policy with all US carriers, I don't know.

[alserire]

Fair enough if that's policy. Won't have any real effect. Just never came across it before.

[WHBM]

WHBM, It can depend on the airport and the gate. At BHX there are gates where you go through the boarding card inspection process into a designated waiting lounge. Where short turnarounds are planned they will call pax to the gate prior to the aircraft coming on stand. It does expedite the boarding process, if everyone is on time of course!
That's fine for "Go to Gate". Provided of course the staff have arrived there before it's put up. Saying "Boarding" when it's not is just an untruth, which leads to pax disregarding it.

Did discover that there are some current automated systems which just do Go To Gate 45 mins before STD, Boarding 30 mins before, and Final Call 20 mins before, regardless of what is actually happening or where the aircraft is. Whoever designed this approach has presumably never seen an airport terminal's operations.

[Alsacienne]

Were you at STN by any chance? ,-)

[ExXB]

Unlike civilised countries that schedule in 5 minute increments. In the US they schedule to the minute and constantly tweak departure and arrival times. They do this for many reasons related to how the flight is displayed on screens, to help build connections, improve on time performance statistics, etc. In six months flight arrival and/or departure times could change a hundred times in small increments, but not change more than 15 minutes.

Which would you prefer? A hundred emails of minutia, or a single message when the change is significant.

The 15 minutes is an arbitrary figure, I'd prefer 10 minutes if the departure is earlier and 20-30 minutes if the departure is later. If it's the flight timing of a connecting flight I'd prefer not to be told provided the arrival is +/-30 minutes.

But that gets complicated particularly with the aging systems being used by network airlines.

[alserire]

Thanks. I didn't know that.

[750XL]

I had Etihad do a schedule change on my flight 1 weeks before departure a while back, they changed it to two days later than planned....

I was offered a refund or a seat on the rescheduled flight two days later...

Left me a few hundred quid out of pocket

[+TSRA]

It's still a month away.

Ordinarly you'll hear of time changes about a week out for most North American airlines. Any earlier than that and people start getting upset that they get too many e-mails and messages from the airline. It's a Catch-22. We're damned if we tell you and damned if we don't. Indeed, I've overheard passengers complaining they were not told about a flight change. When the airline demonstrated both an e-mail and a text were sent, the passenger complained they never check their e-mail and the text was sent to the wrong number. A number the passenger inputted all by themselves. Even doing our best, airlines just can't win.

2. Flight number changed.

This happens from time-to-time. Your ticket is based on your PNR (booking reference number) not the flight number. A PNR is specific to a date and sector, where a flight number is normally specific to the run, irrespective of date. Consider a conversation where an airline employee says "Flight 123" and the response is "when?" The same conversation is held with "PNR ABCDEF" and the response is "what's the problem?" It's just quicker on the airlines end, hence why you were not told...but would be about a week out to allow you to tell family and friends.

3. Equipment changed (seat purchased).

This also happens and if there were any major changes that affect you (for example, you could no longer hold business class or the reduction in size was such you were going to be bumped), you'd be notified, most times by e-mail. A minor change from, say 50A to 30A would be handled at the gate.

The reason for handling seat assignment changes at the gate is that not every passenger selects their seat, so it is far easier for the gate agent to begin moving people around than having the computer system to it weeks in advance.

[alserire]

Ordinarly you'll hear of time changes about a week out for most North American airlines. Any earlier than that and people start getting upset that they get too many e-mails and messages from the airline. It's a Catch-22. We're damned if we tell you and damned if we don't. Indeed, I've overheard passengers complaining they were not told about a flight change. When the airline demonstrated both an e-mail and a text were sent, the passenger complained they never check their e-mail and the text was sent to the wrong number. A number the passenger inputted all by themselves. Even doing our best, airlines just can't win.



This happens from time-to-time. Your ticket is based on your PNR (booking reference number) not the flight number. A PNR is specific to a date and sector, where a flight number is normally specific to the run, irrespective of date. Consider a conversation where an airline employee says "Flight 123" and the response is "when?" The same conversation is held with "PNR ABCDEF" and the response is "what's the problem?" It's just quicker on the airlines end, hence why you were not told...but would be about a week out to allow you to tell family and friends.



This also happens and if there were any major changes that affect you (for example, you could no longer hold business class or the reduction in size was such you were going to be bumped), you'd be notified, most times by e-mail. A minor change from, say 50A to 30A would be handled at the gate.

The reason for handling seat assignment changes at the gate is that not every passenger selects their seat, so it is far easier for the gate agent to begin moving people around than having the computer system to it weeks in advance.

Lots of good info there. Thanks