Okay, I was under the impression that most regular airline tickets are still mostly refundable and / or easily canceled. I also didn't know that the money they offer is a voucher; European airlines hand out actual money, usually the same day. What I was mostly defending was the strategy of airlines responding to regular no-shows and how I think it's not surprising to expect a large, profit-hungry airline to overbook just to make sure planes are full. It's the 'ZOMG overbooking is evil' responses that I thought were unfounded and not the issue here. They should've just offered more or rerouted the United crew.
There are no regular no-shows any longer. And watch this space: Most airline employees fly standby. They don't pay full-fare and, if they're crew, they don't pay at all. This is a perq of being an airline employee and most of the crew and stewards I know use it a lot. So when American says it needed to get crew to Louisville... ...I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they weren't even essential personnel. Because really? if United really needed to drag a doctor off the plane to make room for crew, that's United saying "we aren't just overbooking, we're cutting into our overbook margin to cover our staffing shortfalls." And if they were doing that regularly they'd have procedures. They'd have policies. And most importantly? They have reciprocity with just about every other carrier. There's an American that takes off an hour later. Shit, linear will put you in a learjet for $1k per person. This is me, looking this up as a consumer, on fucking Kayak. I think somebody fucked up BIG at United and they're flat-footedly trying to figure out how to differentiate their typical neutral-evil behavior from their current chaotic-evil move.
they are, just not same day. fucking up and missing your flight is different from deciding to change something around a couple days in advance. for the latter you won't get a full refund, but they'll work with you. this is the major advantage of booking directly with airlines rather than using cheaper third party travel agenciesOkay, I was under the impression that most regular airline tickets are still mostly refundable and / or easily canceled.
I have no idea what magical fantasy flights you're booking, but United charges $200/$400, Delta offers a $200/$450 rescheduling fee, Alaska's at $175 and Virgin is at $100 (which, since they don't do round trip, means it's actually $200). I had a $159 ticket from Los Angeles to Seattle. I was going to help my uncle haul a trailer. Then the person who needed the trailer hauled backed out. So I called up Alaska to cancel my ticket. They tried to charge me $16. To the best of my knowledge, all of the above require you to book directly with them and don't entertain third party tickets.