Hi Eldergias, comment #12,

I am going to do some research on 735d and do a post on it shortly.

I have covered the EU Passenger Rights issue in previous posts and want to make sure I have the details of this IATA resolution and chat with some airlines before I comment on this.

Yes, if you told me you were “invoking Rule 240″ I’d give you a blank stare. Rule 240 isn’t something a passenger “invokes”. The Agent re-routes the passenger as needed. If that involves routing to a different carrier, it’s up to the Agent to decide how to re-ticket the reservation. In most “one-on-one” situations, a FIM (Flight Interruption Manifest) will be written. The ticketing carrier will keep your ticket and give you the
FIM to show the other airline that they are authorized to carry you.

Sometimes, as in the example of when I have dozens of passengers to send over, it’s easier to “Rule 240″ the passengers to the other airline. The ‘new’ airline would know that AA was sending over x passengers, and all I had to do was fill in the endorsement box on the ticket (obviously, I’m talking about the pre-electronic ticket days) with my Agent Sine, signature and “Rule 240″. The other airline can know accept the ticket … even those endorsed as “valid on AA or AA Eagle only”.

On bad weather days at DFW, we’d get notice that AA and DL have a blanket Rule 240 in place for that day. Per local agreement between the 2 airlines, we wouldn’t even need to endorse the tickets over … just send the passengers on their way.

So to me, Rule 240 was never a statement that an airline must reaccomodate passengers on another carrier when needed. It was a method for airlines to bypass normal ticketing policies and accept another carriers ticket “no questions asked”. I don’t know if it is/was an actual rule written anywhere, but it was an industry wide term that seemed to be universal in meaning except for Southwest.

I also find it funny that you’re quoting FAA’s comments on Rule 240. It’s a little out of their jurisdiction. The FAA is charged with overseeing safety in the skies. They have never been interested in the airline’s ticketing or re-accomodating policies. Pre-deregulation, it would’ve been the CAB; today the DOT.

Steve

Hi Dave, Comment #9

The airline you bought your ticket with is the “marketing carrier” and is responsible for all aspects of your flight including the contract of carriage.

The company that flies the plane “operating carrier”, (could be another airline or a contract regional carrier), if different from the “marketing carrier”, is not responsible for your ticket.

Now in your case it was a code share and the status of the flight was different on the 2 systems (possible since they don’t use the same technology), you really don’t have any choice but to deal with NW, even though their system didn’t have the latest information.

A good reservation agent would go ahead and make changes for you (after your explanation), but their internal policy may prevent them from doing so until their system is updated. There doesn’t seem to be a good answer to that particular issue other than getting the NW agent to make the change for you.

I signed up for the flight notification feature on both NW and Delta. Prior to the flight, Delta notified me the flight would be delayed an hour; this meant I’d miss my connection. So I called my corp travel agent and they said NW still showed the flight as being on-time. It created a ton of problems. So in this case, which airline do I deal with?

Hi James,

Unfortunately, without any specifics it is hard for me to answer such a vague question.

I know for many — buying holiday travel — is frustrating, the airlines are not releasing their cheapest 3-5 airfares on certain days between certain cities. We highlight the AIRLINES cheapest prices as a reference, which is vital to making the best buying decision.

100% of all travel consumers want the best price and the airlines are going actually sell about 10-15% of their seats at the lowest price. This means if you don’t know when new low prices come out first you are at even more of a disadvantage.

I receive dozens of success stories each day, so again if you have a specific question, I’ll take a look and see what might be happening.

We will continue to use our technology to build more tools to help travelers get the best price, we are still only just beginning, I hope you will hang in there with us I am positive no other company has more of a passion to help travelers find the best deal when and where they want to travel than FareCompare.com.

Hi Cathy, Comment #4

I have added the link to Hawaiian Airlines in the post (in alphabetic order)