Changing flight plans
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Changing flight plans
So, denied boarding last Monday because the aircraft went to somewhere else. As I only found out when checking in I guess the flight plan originally filed for that aircraft was pulled and resubmitted as something else pretty quickly. How quick is quick as the flight info was fine until check in? Ah, the mysteries of a modern airline business! 
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Nothing new to the "modern" airline world. There can be many valid logistical reasons behind Ops making these (albeit frustrating to the affected pax) decisions and I'm not going to try and attempt listing them all here. Rest assured it's nothing new to the airline business.
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That quick huh. It must cost a bit to I should imagine plus rearranging crew and ground minions plus compensation and a hundred other things that make it somehow worthwhile. Not a light hearted decision from the "what if" calculator. 
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In a scenario where an a/c due to operate A to B goes sick, it can happen that for logistical reasons another from the fleet due to operate A to C (around the same time) is re-scheduled to operate the A to B sector. It does not involve any change of crews. Ground staff may have to transfer bags already loaded from one a/c to the other. Both flight plans would have been filed so it's only a matter of cancelling the one no longer operating and, if applicable, the a/c registration on the other. Pax compensation might be cheaper cancelling A to B than A to C, which may well be part of the decision process.
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While there is certainly some tendency among the travelling public to imagine dark conspiracies, the fact is that these type of situations do raise difficult questions. As has been discussed here before, where exactly does an "unavoidable" delay start and finish? If flight 123 from A to B is cancelled or delayed due to, say, weather at B and then the airline responds by rearranging aircraft and/or crew so that a completely unrelated flight 456 from X to Y is cancelled, is this due to weather? Or is it a commercial/logistical decision at the discretion of the airline?
More generally, where an airline must cancel a certain proportion of flights (say due to fog at LHR), the choice of flights to cancel is made on commercial and logistical grounds. As far as an individual pax is concerned, the airline may be forced to cancel some flights, but is not forced to cancel his/her particular flight. So what does this mean for denied boarding compensation, etc?
More generally, where an airline must cancel a certain proportion of flights (say due to fog at LHR), the choice of flights to cancel is made on commercial and logistical grounds. As far as an individual pax is concerned, the airline may be forced to cancel some flights, but is not forced to cancel his/her particular flight. So what does this mean for denied boarding compensation, etc?
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If I'm said Joe Public then I certainly harbour no conspiratorial thoughts. I'm appreciative of the immense complexity of the business of running a profitable airline, hence my suprise of how quick is quick. It's uniqueness is the mode of transport not the business model itself.
However, Joe Public isn't generally stupid and a lack of transparency may make conspirators of us all, no matter what service we're buying. The dreaded letter from a check in desk 2 hours before a flight departure explains nothing except a care of duty not tenable reasons that foster patience and understanding, and heck, maybe even some empathy.
However, Joe Public isn't generally stupid and a lack of transparency may make conspirators of us all, no matter what service we're buying. The dreaded letter from a check in desk 2 hours before a flight departure explains nothing except a care of duty not tenable reasons that foster patience and understanding, and heck, maybe even some empathy.
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tgon, don't kid yourself. No pax will ever have empathy about THEIR flight being the one that's cancelled, no matter how valid the reason and how "honest" the airline might be about it. They will always find some basic generic reason. I always smile at the well worn, "delay due to the late arrival of the incoming flight". Yes, OK, but WHY is the incoming flight late then?! And so on. Oh, and airlines are not alone in this either.
