"The Next Available Flight" ...... What Does It Actually Mean?

Tojo_Ralph

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With all the flight chaos in recent times, I am interested in what insight MSE'rs can give (perhaps airline staff) to the meaning of the phrase, "the next available flight" in the context of passengers having flights cancelled and an airline advising the passenger of the next available flight that the airline can/will rebook them onto.

For now let's concentrate on economy tickets and accept that airlines are not going to fill Business class seats with economy passengers.

Does "the next available flight" mean........

a) Including rerouting, the next available seat in economy regardless of the ticket booking class and restrictions.

b) The next available seat in economy based on current routing and regardless of the ticket booking class and restrictions.

c) The next available seat in economy taking into account the ticket booking class and restrictions.

d) Something else?

I fully appreciate that all airlines will favour their First, Business and high end FF's when considering seat allocation and getting passengers home, however what I am really interested in is how airlines treat/treated the bulk of their passengers.

socks_uk

Well, we are stranded in California, due to have been travelling with Air Canada from LA to Heathrow via Toronto on Friday 16th April. We are (hopefully) now travelling today but via Edmonton instead. So I guess the re-routed flight was the 'next available' flight rather than Toronto. I'd like to think it would be an upgraded flight too but I'm not holding my breath!

Please don't erupt again volcano!

Tojo_Ralph

socks_uk wrote: »

Well, we are stranded in California, due to have been travelling with Air Canada from LA to Heathrow via Toronto on Friday 16th April. We are (hopefully) now travelling today but via Edmonton instead. So I guess the re-routed flight was the 'next available' flight rather than Toronto.

Out of interest, what sort of tckets do you have? Non changeable/refundable? Flexible?

If non changeable/refundable, how do you know that there are not folk with fully flexible tickets who were on the cancelled flights on the 17th April or the 18th that were not rebooked onto flights on the 21st or 22nd? The "next available flight in your case was in seven days, but would it have been four days if your ticket differed?

Am I making sense? ..... I guess what we really need is comparisons between passengers with the same airlines and on the same routing.

socks_uk wrote: »

I'd like to think it would be an upgraded flight too but I'm not holding my breath!

This is another subject that I wanted to investigate but saw lttle mileage in it, so feel free to do some research.

I flew back to the UK this week on a flight which based on a complete sweep of the plane had to be 100% economy occupancy. Business Class occupancy on the flight was exactly 72.5% (11 empty seats out of 40).

socks_uk

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

Out of interest, what sort of tckets do you have? Non changeable/refundable? Flexible?

I'd have a look but the tickets are in the bedroom and my husband is asleep... it's only 5am here! We are due to set off to LA Airport later today.

taliesin

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

.....
With all the flight chaos in recent times, I am interested in what insight MSE'rs can give (perhaps airline staff) to the meaning of the phrase, "the next available flight" in the context of passengers having flights cancelled and an airline advising the passenger of the next available flight that the airline can/will rebook them onto.

For now let's concentrate on economy tickets and accept that airlines are not going to fill Business class seats with economy passengers.

Does "the next available flight" mean........

a) Including rerouting, the next available seat in economy regardless of the ticket booking class and restrictions.

b) The next available seat in economy based on current routing and regardless of the ticket booking class and restrictions.

c) The next available seat in economy taking into account the ticket booking class and restrictions.

d) Something else?

I fully appreciate that all airlines will favour their First, Business and high end FF's when considering seat allocation and getting passengers home, however what I am really interested in is how airlines treat/treated the bulk of their passengers.

I take it this is in the context of EC Regulation No 261/2004 which is the basis of most of the discussion and applies to EU airlines flying into EU airports, as well as to all flights leaving EU airports.

The regulation says that one of the options to be offered is "re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity" (not exactly "the next available flight").

Everyone involved seems to be interpreting "under comparable transport conditions" as same cabin (no up- or down-grades). If the airline does change cabin, Article 10 applies and says they can't charge for an upgrade, and must refund part of the fare in the event of a downgrade. A couple of airlines initially tried to interpret this phrase as meaning that they can restrict re-routing to seats available within the original fare bucket (your (c)), but the various authorities have made it clear that this interpretation is not acceptable. Paragraph 8.3 of the regulations and EC supporting documents discuss what should happen when a re-routing involves travel to a different airport from the original starting point or destination, so it is quite clear that re-routing cannot be restricted to the original routing (your (b)).

So for all practical purposes the answer is (a).

Note that in addition to the option of a refund, passengers should also be offered the third option of "re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date at the passenger's convenience, subject to availability of seats".

See http://ec.europa.eu/transport/air_portal/passenger_rights/doc/2008/q_and_a_en.pdf for the official EC line on interpretation.

Tojo_Ralph

taliesin wrote: »

The regulation says that one of the options to be offered is "re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity" (not exactly "the next available flight").

I assume there is no obligation to offer flights with alternate carriers?

One thing that is confusing me about this whole malarky is that there appear to be passengers overseas not due to fly home for days, when there is availability with alternate carriers, which would be the cost effective option.... ie cost of accomodation + meals + flight > cost of earlier flight with alternate carrier.

taliesin

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

I assume there is no obligation to offer flights with alternate carriers?

The regulation is not clear about quite a lot of detail with regard to the consequences and the supporting material doesn't really clarify what "at the earliest opportunity" means. The document quoted above says:

Question 21: Does the flight, in cases of re-routing, have to be performed by the original operating carrier?

No. This flight does not necessarily need to be operated by the airline the passenger booked with.

which seems to imply that whilst your original airline may transfer you to another operator, it is under no obligation to do so.

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

One thing that is confusing me about this whole malarky is that there appear to be passengers overseas not due to fly home for days, when there is availability with alternate carriers, which would be the cost effective option.... ie cost of accomodation + meals + flight > cost of earlier flight with alternate carrier.

I suspect most of those caught up in this mess are thinking similarly.