Cost for airlines transferring you to a rival

[Melburnian1]

Airlines don't like having to transfer you to an 'unrelated' rival, as it costs.

In such circumstances, do airlines rely on presigned or agreed contractual arrangements? What fare would they typically be charged for each passenger: for instance, for someone travelling in Y, full tote odds, best fare of the day or an agreed amount?

As examples, say it was the start of Christmas holidays and a QF flight SYD to LAX was cancelled. QF was booked solid for the next three days, and so, oddly, was AA. But DL and UA have spare seats available on the day, and there's "just" enough time to place QFi passengers on the latter two, so QFi decides to.

These problems can cut both ways, so the next time it occurs, it may be UA cancelling a flight in similar circumstances.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Good question!

The reluctance to transfer on day of travel is something not seen in the USA. You are routinely offered connections on other airlines… anything to get you moving and to your destination. I once had an award on United TATL and they offered me AA and BA as alternatives!

I know airlines have agreement pds in place to accept each others tickets, but don’t know how it’s reconciled.