The single best way to protect yourself against airline screwups is to make more than one flight booking, on two different airlines. This has been made much easier and less costly by changes to airline policies since the pandemic.
- If you absolutely have to be somewhere, you may want to buy more than one ticket. This is a hedge against bad weather delaying your plane somewhere, or delaying your crew. It’s a hedge against your flight going mechanical.
- You buy one ticket on airline A, and another ticket on airline B leaving a few hours later. If your planned flight goes off without a hitch, you cancel the ticket on airline B. If your original flight significantly delays or cancels, take a refund and use that second ticket on airline B.
Crowds In The Denver Airport
As long as you’re not buying basic economy, your worst case is that you get a travel voucher for the value of the ticket you aren’t going to use. You can use that towards your next trip – or your next backup itinerary. Since the big airlines mostly no longer have change fees in the U.S., this works. Southwest Airlines even doesn’t expire their travel vouchers at all. You can use the funds forever.
Or you can book your backup itinerary with miles. The big airlines have no fee to cancel and redeposit your miles. Book a frequent flyer award as that later itinerary, and it generally speaking costs you nothing to put the miles back in your account as long as you cancel before the flight is scheduled to depart.
For several years I’ve advised booking a backup itinerary.
- One caveat it that you should book your backup travel on a different airline than your planned itinerary. American, for instance, has cancelled out backup reservations when both trips are on its own planes and booked too close together for you to possibly travel on both. Before the pandemic they also instituted a tool to prevent customers from having backup flights in the same itinerary unless they are a Concierge Key or Executive Platinum member.
- Another issue is that this is harder for an infrequent traveler. They won’t want flight credit on an airline they aren’t going to fly again. The credit isn’t as valuable as cash. But as long as your backup is with an airline you’ll fly, within the period of time given to use it, you’re fine.
United Boarding Gate
This gives you two different bites at the apple. This is another reason why it’s better to travel on one way tickets. You don’t want cancelling one ticket to also mean cancelling your return.
But is this ethical?
- In general airlines have rules against making reservations you do not intend to fly. Although you do intend to fly the backup if the airline cancels on you. You’re making a contingent reservation, which is exactly what airlines have encouraged customers to do for decades in selling much more expensive refundable fares.
- If you did this at a big enough scale, at some point in the future, never actually needing those backups could draw extra attention to yourself. And airlines mostly decide what their own rules mean, relying on a compliant DOT and court precedents making it difficult to sue. But as a one-off or occasional tactic you just won’t have a problem.
- But aren’t you hurting other passengers? You’re taking up space you don’t intend to use, that someone else might! Of course if you do not take the backup flight, the seat is still available for someone to travel on. And if you do take the backup, you are freeing up a seat on your original delayed flight, and you are one less person for your original airline to have to re-accommodate meaning there’s one more seat on that airline to help out someone else that was inconvenienced on your flight.
American Airlines In Philadelphia
With a fixed supply of seats, and more passengers trying to get somewhere than an airline’s failing operation supports, one person taking a seat may mean someone else not taking it. There are tradeoffs which are largely the fault of the airline, and you cannot know who benefits or loses most of the time.
You just have to do your best trying to get where you’re going for yourself and your family, and let others do the same, within the confines of a system the airlines have set up.
Meanwhile, be attuned to the needs of passengers around you. Have patience and goodwill. I’ve more than once over the years given up a seat and taken a later flight to help someone out that needed the seat more than I did.
Earlier this month at a US outstation, I was hit by an AA plane going mechanical. AA’s ground handling agents and the AA contact center reps refused to protect me on the next flight even after the flight on which I was booked was put on hold waiting for parts and a mechanic to be brought in from another airport. They told me that if they or I booked myself on the latter flight of the day, that it would mean cancelling the flight for which I had already checked in. That is what they told me even while the flight was already delayed about 3 hours with no mechanic in sight.
The old AA would have protected me onto the next flight no issue, while allowing me to wait to see what would happen to my delayed flight hit by a mechanical.
For years I’ve used Southwest as my back up hedge because of their cancellation policy on award travel. This is especially good for infrequent fliers or those of us with NO status.
If the big bird doesn’t fly then there is usually bus service(SWA) from most US airports
If you can fly basic economy and it is cheap enough, you could abandon the unused ticket and still fly cheaper than some refundable tickets. Also, making contingency plans for luggage not going with you except for cabin luggage.
Southwest doesn’t serve the majority of airports to which I fly in the US. It flies to the big airports but not to most of the small ones with only AA/DL/UA Barbie jet service. Sometimes my back-up plan is to just rent a car and drive to one of the hub airports for the big carriers. For others skipping the smaller airports and driving to bigger airports is the primary plan because backup plans with airlines at most airports is much worse today than it used to be 20 years ago.
@ Gary — One should always use a Delta award for their back up. 🙂
This is why VP Kamala Harris must become President! As Gary said, the infrequent flyer cannot use this hack. It’s mostly the rich that can use this hack.
Harris will punish rich people. She will raise taxes. She may even tax frequent flyer miles directly or raise existing taxes on them. Harrisbis going to pit a stop to this and stop rich people frequent flyer elites. I am no longer elite so I don’t mind this kind of punishment.
Unethical? Not really. But if this practice becomes commonplace, and airlines can no longer predict how many will actually fly, then say goodbye to flexible cancellation policies. So I’d say even the most entitled, self important egomaniac should only do this when it’s actually critical to arrive on time.
Oh, and I can’t tell if Derek is serious or is doing parody. That’s how stupid leftism is I guess.
Corp travel agents have done this for decades for their clients
excellent strategy if you do not have checked luggage.
While it doesn’t make sense to do this for every trip, if the weather look bad or an airline is having ongoing issues, then definitely worth it. I had my back-up award tickets from American on Tuesday when it seemed too iffy if my Delta flights would go off as scheduled.
As long as you comply with the contract(s) of carriage, it’s ethical because both the traveler and the airline(s) agreed in advance about the cancellation terms. Buying fully refundable fares makes it explicitly even more so. Booking one of the flights with miles also works since you can cancel at the last minute (UA) and your miles will be refunded.. I would not do the double booking as a regular practice, but for some special occasion it could make sense. For instance, if you have a short period of time between taking off from work and departing on a cruise, or attending a wedding, then this could make sense.
I don’t understand the concern about imagining the needs of other potential travelers. If that was the case then I would never be able to book a flight at all until I had asked everyone else on the planet if they had a greater need for the seat than me.
Have never done this in 4 decades of flying though on occasion I have asked UA to protect me on another flight (which they used to do gladly for 1Ks).
Maybe a good strategy if there is a potential for labour action or weather but only if you absolutely positively must be somewhere – otherwise just adds to the gardening burden
This method saved my summer 2021 trip to Europe. Airlines were dropping flights from their schedules left and right. I booked award travel using AA and BA miles. One alliance canceled my outbound, and the other canceled my return.
This practice sounds to me exactly as ethical as airlines overbooking flights. And as long as they continue that practice, no one should have the slightest hesitation to book backup flights.
Says a lot for the “service” of air transportation. Imagine buying two cars in hope that one works when you need it. Or name any other product or service for which this is necessary.
Your back-up reservation does possibly block somebody from booking that flight, since you will cancel only nearly in the last minute. It probably also increases others’ fares due to dynamic pricing, and increases airlines’ overbooking and/or unsold seats. Thus, not guilt-free: it is quite selfish.
Unethical? Depends on your definition of ethics. But A**hole, regardless.
Also having a backup almost assures the original flight will not have problems, per Murphy’s law in reverse. I like this feature as well. I wish people knew the best way to get out of the Delta issues last week was to book with another airline and Delta would have paid. If you relied on what the staff will tell you at the airport, you will end up making bad decision because they won’t commit to anything except their airline.
@ Logic Matters — Bingo!
This is reality of commercial flying today and it is how the system is designed to operate. And I like it. Flexibility for both airlines and passengers. No silly “moral” obligations in this equation.
Next article:
Angry that airlines overbook flights – which they have to do, because people cancel tickets at the last minute.
@derek – fear… oooooo…. baseless fear mongering.
Jerk.
This applies to employers and employees too. Employers can hire or fire at will, and employees should do likewise. There’s no personal relationship here. It’s all about flexibility for all involved. Don’t fall into the loyalty or obligation mindset when it comes to dealing with corporations.
Sounds like an idea that might work for some long time travellers
Last summer, I booked travel on Iberia from JFK to TLV for April 2024. After the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, most airlines, including Iberia, stopped flying to TLV. Around December, I realized I had better have a backup plan, so I booked the MAD-TLV leg on El Al. As it turned out, Iberia resumed their MAD-TLV route a day before my scheduled flight, so I cancelled the El Al flight and got a voucher.
But some eg Air Canada avoid refunding even when they cancel.
Oh for those days long past when one could purchase seats on all of the afternoons flights — same airline– back from the client site then cancel as needed once the meeting actually ended.
Really bad advice form a really bad blogger. People may not understand their ticket isn’t fully refundable and end up with lots of credits they don’t need. This will also drive fares up for others … I doubt Gary considers how his actions and words effect other people. Whatever it takes to get the click.
@SMR “people may not understand their ticket isn’t fully refundable and end up with lots of credits they don’t need” uh, they may not realize it if they don’t actually read what I wrote? But then you frequently complain about what I write without reading what I wrote, so I guess you’re thinking about poor souls like yourself.
It used to be that status was sufficient to not get stranded by AA. In older days they would re-book you on other airlines, put you on the oversold flight, etc. Just do nit book yourself on the last flight of the day to get you to the destination 2 hrs before your meeting. .
Does anyone remember way back in the 20th Century when one could make a reservation without paying for a ticket until arriving at the airport? However with the current “pay before you fly” non option, making a backup reservation with points seems the most reasonable.
Of course it’s unethical. Unless you’re flying to your own wedding on a holiday weekend or something similar you should never, ever do this.
I’m pretty unconcerned about the airlines in this but taking award space from other people when you’re very likely not going to use it is reprehensible. That’s just stomping on the poor who can’t afford to do this.
Then there’s the fact that if the airlines see people doing this in any kind of numbers they’ll kill of free cancellation, all because of some self entitled people who feel important enough that they require multiple reservations when they can only use one.
If everyone did this, then free cancellations would go away. That’s the part that makes it unethical.