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.

 

[Buzzard]

On a Monday, arriving late into SYD from BNE, the connection to MIM was missed.
The next flight to MIM wasn't until Wednesday. QF wouldn't pay the $400 for an available Rex flight.

 

[Saab34]

On a Monday, arriving late into SYD from BNE, the connection to MIM was missed.
The next flight to MIM wasn't until Wednesday. QF wouldn't pay the $400 for an available Rex flight.

Out of interest did they pay for accommodation and other costs?

 

[Buzzard]

Out of interest did they pay for accommodation and other costs?

Ended up being put on a flight to CBR (by requesting it) and was picked up there and driven to MIM.

 

[wenglock.mok]

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.

It's an interesting question that I've often wondered myself.

I once missed a connection in MEL on a QF ticket SYD-MEL-HKG-TPE (yes, asking for trouble I know...) with CX operating the HKG-TPE leg. Unfortunately, the 7am A332 SYD-MEL flight ran late as mechanics were onboard to look at some seats after we had already boarded and we needed an air start cart to come by to help start the engines, which could only happen after we had been pushed back from the bay.

Credit where credit is due - the staff at the service desk at MEL T1 were awesome. The options available on the day were very limited and so after consulting EF on my phone at the counter, I ended up asking them if they would put me on BR instead from BNE-TPE and without flinching, they rebooked me into full-fare C, including on the QF MEL-BNE leg.

It was a very interesting experience and I've since read that they pay either a nominal fare or nothing, but have some sort of arrangement where they accrue credits on each other (i.e. QF would then owe BR one FIM carriage some time in the future).

 

[Melburnian1]

A quid pro quo arrangement makes sense. wenglock.mok, can you quote a source or was it just an anonymous posting on another transport blog?

 

[justinbrett]

On a macro level I'd be gobsmacked if all the major airlines didn't have a mechanism for rebooking on each other - ie a standing bilateral agreement (% discount of revenue fare), like when QF suspended HNL services and everyone got rebooked on HA. Or if UA cancels a flight from SYD-LAX they rebook bulk pax on DL, AA or QF (less common now as the US airlines serve multiple routes, but back in the day I believe this happened a lot). "Full fare Y" doesn't mean the airline paid the full fare, as above it would be an agreed discount - similar to WoAG is (was?) 30% discounted from the public fare. The tallies probably go into a system (like lounge access) and airlines pay the balance owing. (note, I'm not saying this is how it works, just my reasonably informed assumption on how it would work).

It's the individual pax level I have my doubts, where it's just the result of a missed connection etc. They could probably utilise the same mechanisms but I imagine authority to use this is restricted, which is why it's much less common.

 

[Bjet]

I wasn’t late to check-in at the airport. There were still some people lining up there. Actually I was the last one to check-in before it closed. I was surprised that Etihad A320 was full. A RJ ground staff was so kind to me and tried to persuade her workmates to let me to board on the plane. But the pax heard that and weren’t happy with the situation. Then her Etihad manager decided that I would be transferred to Emirates back to Australia.

What? How come that Etihad and Emirates are both competitors but still working together.

I was not 100% sure. I was allowed to have another boarding pass to board on Emirates without a ticket. I didn’t see and hear that Etihad would pay for the airfare. I don’t know what’s their behind the scene lol.

So happy that I flew with EK’s big plane - 777-300 back to Dubai. EK crew were more friendly than EY.

 

[Rangalad]

On a macro level I'd be gobsmacked if all the major airlines didn't have a mechanism for rebooking on each other - ie a standing bilateral agreement (% discount of revenue fare), like when QF suspended HNL services and everyone got rebooked on HA. Or if UA cancels a flight from SYD-LAX they rebook bulk pax on DL, AA or QF (less common now as the US airlines serve multiple routes, but back in the day I believe this happened a lot). "Full fare Y" doesn't mean the airline paid the full fare, as above it would be an agreed discount - similar to WoAG is (was?) 30% discounted from the public fare. The tallies probably go into a system (like lounge access) and airlines pay the balance owing. (note, I'm not saying this is how it works, just my reasonably informed assumption on how it would work).

It's the individual pax level I have my doubts, where it's just the result of a missed connection etc. They could probably utilise the same mechanisms but I imagine authority to use this is restricted, which is why it's much less common.

Correct.
The disrupt rate is agreed to and is contained in the BITA (Bilateral Interline Traffic Agreement).
There is also a One World disrupt rate used between OW carriers.