“I’m sorry, your flight no longer exists”

Airline schedules change from time to time, which is why it’s always a good idea to confirm your flight before leaving for the airport. But what happens when an air carrier confirms a flight that it knows has been canceled, leaving you grounded?

That was the problem facing readers Janet and Larry Glenn, who were scheduled to fly on United Airlines Flight 19 from New York to San Francisco on a recent Saturday. “We did everything correctly, confirming and reconfirming all of our flights both going and returning,” wrote Janet Glenn.

But it wasn’t enough. When the couple arrived at the terminal in New York, “the agents looked uncomfortable.”

She continues …

They asked if we were booked on Flight 19 to SFO. We were taken aback, but said yes, how did they know? They told us that flight had been discontinued on Saturdays by United two years ago but that United was still ticketing passengers for the Saturday flight and that they had to inform passengers every Saturday evening of this! We were amazed that, in two years, no one within at United had thought to take it to a higher level and take this flight out of their computer system.

Although United offered the Glenns hotel accommodations and put them on the next flight to San Francisco the following day, they remain baffled by the airline’s scheduling snafu. As am I.

So I asked United about it. The airline dropped Flight 19 on Saturday about a month before the Glenns’ trip, according to airline spokeswoman Robin Urbanski. “She should have been contacted about the change and rebooked, and we are looking into why that did not happen,” she added.

But the couple and their travel agent could have also prevented this by confirming the flight 24 hours before their departure. That should have set off some alarm bells and allowed them to rebook their flights instead of having to overnight in New York. Remember, it’s not enough to check on the flights before you leave; call the airline prior to your return, too.

In a follow-up e-mail, Urbanski also offered the following advice:

When making a reservation with a travel agent, ask them to provide us with your phone number in addition to the travel agent’s. This is usually the primary root cause as to why someone is not notified of a schedule change, and is something that can be easily done to help. The Glenn’s reservation was made by a travel agent.

Bottom line: you can’t count on anyone to proactively notify you if your flight has been rescheduled. The only way you’ll know if if you call to confirm.

Update: Apparently, United had other reasons for the miscommunication that it didn’t communicate with yours truly. I just received the following note from Janet Glenn:

Someone from United Customer Relations contacted us to say they had no idea why we were ticketed on a discontinued flight. They were very pleasant, but had no real explanation, other than their computer didn’t communicate well with the Lufthansa computer.

Sigh. Could someone please pick an answer and stick to it?

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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