Jean Twenge was traveling with her daughter from San Diego to Vancouver on Friday to see Taylor Swift. She booked a United Airlines codeshare on Air Canada, but they were denied boarding.
- They purchased the tickets 9 months earlier
- But they were told they were on standby. They probably never got seat assignments.
- They ended up not getting on the flight, and Twenge complains she never heard a gate agent ask for volunteers.
Air Canada didn’t offer them any rebooking options. They were on their own, and their Eras Tour tickets were for the next night. They couldn’t get any flights into Vancouver, but they managed an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle. They’d drive – but there were no rental cars. They wound up driving a U-Haul.
Got a crazy travel story for you. Buckle up. On Dec. 6, my daughter and I were involuntarily placed on standby and then denied boarding on a codeshare @united and @aircanada flight to Vancouver on which we had a confirmed reservation purchased 9 months ago.
No announcements were… pic.twitter.com/oPqrRALjJY
— Jean Twenge (author of GENERATIONS, iGEN) (@jean_twenge) December 9, 2024
The pair then found themselves without tickets home. They were treated as no shows for their outbound flight, so their return trip was cancelled. They bought Alaska Airlines flights again, Seattle to San Diego.
This is a mess all the way around, but there are lessons.
- Avoid codeshare flights whenever possible. In this case, the customers were flying a United Airlines ‘flight’ that didn’t exist, it was really an Air Canada flight, and even in joint ventures the systems don’t always talk well with each other.
- Always make sure you have seat assignments. If you don’t have seat assignments and a flight is oversold you’ll be the first ones involuntarily denied boarding.
- Be resourceful! These ladies weren’t going to miss Taylor – they booked new tickets, and rented a U-Haul. They didn’t rely on the airline to solve their problem.
- Now it’s time to seek redress. Assuming they don’t get anywhere with the airlines (or they point fingers at each other), file a DOT Consumer Complaint. Assuming they did have tickets and a confirmed reservation, they’re entitled to involuntary denied boarding compensation. In this case that’s 400% of one-way fare up to $1,550 per person, and I’d argue they were involuntarily denied boarding each way.
Always remember to garden your reservations after you book them. This is especially true for something booked nine months in advance! Schedules change, tickets sometimes don’t get reissued when necessary, and checking to make sure you’re ‘travel ready’ is important to avoid situations like this one.
Something doesn’t add up. Gate agents will always ask for volunteers (and bumps have become rarer and rarer) mainly because they don’t want to deal with the drama of an involuntary denied boarding. Maybe these two arrived at the gate at boarding time and the gate agent had already made an announcement but got no takers. And if they didn’t have a seat assignment then they would be the ones to get bumped. All airlines do it. They should have secured seat assignments ahead time. Not to mention if you have something very important/time sensitive never, ever, ever, never, never, ever assume, believe, theorize, anticipate, believe that the airline (any airline) will get you there on time. Plan accordingly.
Agree with George. Something doesn’t add up. It is true that if one doesn’t show up for the outbound flight, the airline can cancel the return flight. That’s why it is a great idea to contact the airline if ANY anomaly might cause you to miss your flight. I hate to say it but travel agents can cause more problems than one might think. I also agree that booking a flight nine months out is great BUT, you’d better not forget to check on its status multiple times before showing up at the airport only to find that the “flight left without you” or something like that! If a customer books travel through an agent, the airline can “see” the reservation but they can’t do anything about it because the airline is “locked out” from seat assignments, etc. How do I know, I worked in RES before moving on to something a lot more fun!
Unlike the US, Canada has passenger protections under the APPR, so they should look into compensation in addition to refunds and reimbursements through that scheme as well. Man, I wish USA cared about its people. Instead, the airline lobby, as with all corporate interests, won. And no, rules like these do not cause tickets to cost more, they simply protect you, the flying public, when things go wrong.
@John
Hmm, building-up instead of punching-down, how progressive of you. Obviously, according to some, you and others like you are considered to be filthy commie cockroaches. I wait for the usual commenters here to bootlick for the oligarchs. I don’t kink-shame, but watch as they inevitably attempt to turn what was always a class war into a meaningless culture war. Something-something ‘woke’ something. I suspect they will hate-on these stranded Swifties because misogyny is fun to them and that She endorsed Her not Him in the recent who-ha. What is their ultimate aim? Tax cuts for billionaires, while the 99.99% get screwed. Meanwhile, these greedy companies can oversell flights, breach their contracts, do more stock buybacks, and get away with all of it, unless we fight them with lawsuits, public pressure, and get our lawmakers actually do something to help us for once. Basic rights and fair rules are not handouts, folks.
I bet if Tay Tay sees this she’ll step up with some kind of monetary compensation for fans that went to this extreme to see her. She’s known for having a very generous heart
@John T Burkholder
I cannot tell if you are being sarcastic or not, but she did just give bonuses of $197 million to the Eras Tour performers, crew in addition to their salaries. Sadly, there are those who vilify her, still.
They are probably not seasoned travelers. When I have United Code Share flights, I always go to that airline and verify my reservation and seat assignment. Glad they were able to attend the concert.
On code-share bookings, you may have to wait until check-in to pick a seat. If you are unable to choose a seat, you may get bumped.
This summer, I purchased a business class seat on a UAL flight to LIS and chose my seat at the time of purchase. Amex had a deal, so my GF booked her business class seat on the Amex site with Lufthansa. This was the same flight as my UAL, but she was not able to choose her seat until check-in and we worried that she might get bumped.
Thx for the good advice and reminders.
Another case of someone wanting to be compensated for their ignorance. Read your contract of carriage. Millions of people travel every day and seem to get where they are going.
“bUT tHe eCOnoMy sUcKS!!!”
@Tom
You are a tool. No one reads that contract of adhesion. We have no meaningful way to negotiate that either. It’s take-it-or-leave-it, regardless if it is or is not lawful or reasonable, under any circumstances. Keep licking those tasty boots, you scab.
As a user of CLEAR and a person who travels for work often, the mother would be familiar with flying. If there was a change of equipment or several, seat reservations may have been canceled. Checking the reservations several months out, a month out, several weeks out and a week out are pretty much necessary these days on all airlines. I had this happen on a reservation lately and re-reserved with a seat two seats back. Another procedure that can help is to check in at the check in counter in the airport even if you have a home printed boarding pass. This will confirm your seat reservations or give you seat assignments if you don’t have them with the exception of if you are on standby. Too bad the mother, Dr. Jean Twenge, a SDSU Psychology Professor and author per the X account, didn’t include a photo of the boarding pass with sensitive data covered.
They are taylor swift fans, not the smartest of the bunch, to say the least
This is a BS story from someone who never leaves their trailer park
If they booked 9 months ahead, there was probably many seats to choose from at the time of booking. Why didn’t they pick seats then? My guess is also that a high percent of the plane was going to the same event so noone was going to volunteer for à bump.
@Doug
Are you calling Gary, or the Swifties, trailer trash, or both? I’d argue… you are trash, Doug. Don’t worry, though, I get called names all the time. It’s an honor. I think it means people care.
Remember that as part of the $197 million in bonuses paid out, truck drivers got minimum 4-digit bonuses less than halfway through the US component of her Eras tour…
@WD “On code-share bookings, you may have to wait until check-in to pick a seat.” I’ve had cases where I couldn’t get seat assignments from the airline from which I purchased the code share, but they gave me the PNR for the operating airline, which permitted me to get seat assignments at their website. Also, on a future flight booked on DL that is DL-DL-AF with a AF-AF-DL return, I could get seats assignments for all legs through DL except the first of the return. But, I could use the PNR (only had one) to book the seat on that leg. I suspect it was because two were DL numbers flown by AF and the odd one was a DL codeshare operated by HOP! (An AF subsidiary).
I’m aware there are those who don’t reserve a seat in hopes that gets them upgraded. I would never take that chance, as you are more likely for an involuntary bump.
The seat assignment thing is not always true. Depends on the airline’s approved method of determining involuntary denied boardings which will be in the contract of carriage or customer service plan.
Some airlines go by reverse order of check-in. You could have a seat assignment paid in advance but if you are the last one to check in, even if it’s ahead of the cut-off time, and they have to invol someone, it’s you, and that person without a seat assignment will be taking your seat.
@ 1990. Never mind. You wouldn’t understand.
Would someone translate what 1990 said?
Sorry Win Whitmire.
I would try but I don’t speak trailer trash
We’ve seen arbitrary bumps before when the agents are concerned with being on schedule. And this makes complete sense if it’s an equipment swap.
Not having a seat yet having a ticket does happen. It happened to me on American back in the day, and I barely got on the plane with a confirmed reservation. It also happened flying internationally to me, once. My ticket had no actual seat number and I didn’t officially get a seat until checking in at Heathrow. I was flying basic economy so perhaps that had something to do with it. I could see this happening, especially with a code share. The originating airline’s website may or may not allow you to choose a seat on the code shared airplane; perhaps they don’t have the seat map or some such. I have gone through the ticketing process for a flight to Europe on the United website that would codeshare on a Lufthansa 748 and I haven’t always gotten the, “choose your seat,” screen. Its rare, but I can certainly see it happening.
No seat assignment can happen with code share flights, but as soon as I get a boarding pass without a seat assignment, I go straight to code red.
I get to the airport early, and go by the ticket counter and the gate counter repeatedly to say “I am here, I need to get onto this flight, and I need my seat assignment”.
Certainly if they aren’t confidently telling me that I am getting on the flight, I start telling them they need to call for volunteers, because I am getting on the flight.
I’m also not leaving the gate until someone confirms that I was denied boarding on this flight, that they are working to get me there through alternate means- it’s San Diego to Vancouver! Also would confirm that my return flight was not being cancelled because I was denied boarding to my outbound flight.
This woman seems way too passive for someone who is saying she’s a frequent flyer. I think there’s more to the story than she’s saying.