Reconfirmation

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In tourism, reconfirmation is a contractual requirement that the traveller must explicitly re-notify to the seller that they still intend to use their reservation. [1] [2] If the traveller fails to reconfirm, their reservation might be cancelled. The term is mostly used in commercial aviation. [1]

Airlines

Several airlines require the traveller to perform reconfirmation procedures, even though the airline ticket has already been reserved, paid, confirmed, issued, partially checked-in and flown. A typical reconfirmation rule is: for each flight (or more precisely, a "leg" [1] ) within the trip, the traveller must explicitly re-notify ("reconfirm") to the airline, [3] by telephone or at the airlines' counter, [4] that the traveller still intends to take the reserved flight. The call must be done within a determined range of time in advance of the flight. Example deadlines are: 6 [5] to 72 [3] hours. The earliest acceptable timing is not mentioned, but merely checking-in the previous part of the trip does not count as a reconfirmation for the latter part. If the traveller fails to reconfirm their flight reservation, the airline may cancel it. [3] This also means that if the traveller is forcefully deboarded ("involuntary deboarding", or "bumping", in jargon) from a flight because of the airline's overbooking, the traveller can not receive the standard compensation. [6]

The reconfirmation rule is an attempt to reduce no-shows. [5] Airlines tried several penalties such as reconfirmation, and no-show penalty charges. The reconfirmation system began in 1952. [5] It was hated from the beginning, and the policy was frequently revised and inconsistent. [5] [7]

During the 1970s, travellers were strongly advised to reconfirm, [4] as cancellations actually happened, [4] even on domestic flights. [8] Since the 1990s, some guidebooks told that domestic flights do not need reconfirmation. [9] By 2000, there was a notion that reconfirmation became something of the past, and travellers who actually did reconfirm may have decreased. [10] However, as of 2021, it is still allowed to mandate reconfirmation, so the risk of being cancelled remains. [3]

Each airline has different reconfirmation policies, which are stated in their Contract of carriage . For a ticket that contains multiple flights operated by different airlines, one flight may not require reconfirmation, yet others may do. Each airline and each flight have different rules.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boarding pass</span> Document provided to an air-travel passenger functioning as a ticket.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic ticket</span> Digital ticket

An electronic ticket is a method of ticket entry, processing, and marketing for companies in the airline, railways and other transport and entertainment industries.

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Brussels Airlines is the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium, based and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 100 destinations in Europe, North America and Africa and also offers charter services, maintenance and crew training. It is a member of the Star Alliance as well as the International Air Transport Association. The airline's IATA code SN is inherited from its predecessors, Sabena and SN Brussels Airlines. Brussels Airlines is part of the Lufthansa Group. The company slogan is ′You’re in good company′.

A contract of carriage is a contract between a carrier of cargo or passengers and the consignor, consignee or passenger. Contracts of carriage typically define the rights, duties and liabilities of parties to the contract, addressing topics such as acts of God and including clauses such as force majeure. Among common carriers, they are usually evidenced by standard terms and conditions printed on the reverse of a ticket or carriage document. Notification of a shipment’s arrival is usually sent to the "notify party", whose address appears on the shipping document. This party is usually either the buyer or the importer.

Airline booking ploys are used by travelers in commercial aviation to lower the price of flying by circumventing airlines' rules about how tickets may be used. They are generally a breach of the contract of carriage between the passenger and the airline, which airlines may try to enforce in various ways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air Passengers Rights Regulation</span> European Union regulation

The Air Passengers Rights Regulation 2004 is a regulation in EU law establishing common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in the event of denied boarding, flight cancellations, or long delays of flights. It requires compensation of €250 to €600 depending on the flight distance for delays over of at least three hours, cancellations, or being denied boarding from overbooking. Delays shorter than three hours means no entitlement to any compensation of any kind even if the delay was classified as non-extraordinary. Airlines must provide refreshments and accommodation where appropriate. The Court of Justice of the European Union has interpreted passenger rights strictly, so that there are virtually no exceptions for airlines to evade their obligations for breach of contract.

Overselling or overbooking is sale of a volatile good or service in excess of actual supply. Overselling is a common practice in the travel and hospitality sectors, in which it is expected that some people will cancel. The practice occurs as an intentional business strategy in which sellers expect that some buyers will not consume all of the resources they are entitled to, or that some buyers will cancel. The practice of overselling aims to ensure that 100% of available supply will be used, resulting in the maximum return on investment. If more customers than the seller expects do wish to purchase or use the sold commodity, it may leave some customers lacking a service they expected to receive.

On most modern airlines, flying standby is when a passenger awaiting at the portline without a seat assignment waits at the gate to see if there is an extra seat after all scheduled passengers have boarded. There are several common circumstances in which passengers fly standby:

Boarding is the entry of passengers onto a vehicle, usually in public transportation. Boarding starts with entering the vehicle and ends with the seating of each passenger and closing the doors. The term is used in road, rail, water and air transport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airport check-in</span> Process of being approved to board an airplane

Airport check-in is the process whereby an airline approves airplane passengers to board an airplane for a flight. Airlines typically use service counters found at airports for this process, and the check-in is normally handled by an airline itself or a handling agent working on behalf of an airline. Passengers usually hand over any baggage that they do not wish or are not allowed to carry in the aircraft's cabin and receive a boarding pass before they can proceed to board their aircraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Airline ticket</span> Entrance ticket used for air travel

An airline ticket is a document or electronic record, issued by an airline or a travel agency, that confirms that an individual is entitled to a seat on a flight on an aircraft. The airline ticket may be one of two types: a paper ticket, which comprises coupons or vouchers; and an electronic ticket.

Airline reservation systems (ARS) are systems that allow an airline to sell their inventory (seats). It contains information on schedules and fares and contains a database of reservations and of tickets issued. ARSs are part of passenger service systems (PSS), which are applications supporting the direct contact with the passenger.

A fare basis code is an alphabetic or alpha-numeric code used by airlines to identify a fare type and allow airline staff and travel agents to find the rules applicable to that fare. Although airlines now set their own fare basis codes, there are some patterns that have evolved over the years and may still be in use.

A no-show is a condition when a person does not appear at their expected place. In aviation, no-show is when a ticketed passenger doesn't show up for their flight. Such passenger is also sometimes called a "no-show".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 United Express passenger removal</span> Instance of forced airline passenger deplaning

On April 9, 2017, at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, four paying customers were selected to be involuntarily deplaned from United Express Flight 3411 to make room for four deadheading employees. One of these passengers was David Dao, 69, a Vietnamese-American who was injured when he was physically assaulted and forcefully removed from the flight by Chicago Department of Aviation security officers. Dao, a pulmonologist, refused to leave his seat when directed because he needed to see patients the following day. In the process of removing him, the security officers struck his face against an armrest, then dragged him - bloodied, bruised, and unconscious – by his arms down the aircraft aisle, past rows of onlooking passengers. The incident is widely characterized by critics – and later by United Airlines itself – as an example of mishandled customer service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basic economy class</span> Type of airfare offered by airlines

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An airfare is the fee paid by a passenger for air transport and is made up of the charge for a passenger to fly from an origin to destination and includes the conditions, rules and restrictions for travelling on the airfare.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Beaver, Allan (2013). "reconfirmation (preview)". Oxford Reference. Oxford University Press. A Dictionary of Travel and Tourism. Archived from the original on 2021-08-03. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  2. ↑ "IATA Passenger Glossary of Terms" (xlsx). IATA . 2018-07-15. Row 665 "Reconfirmation". Archived from the original on 2021-08-03. Retrieved 2021-08-03. (link can be found on the right bar under "Related Links" on IATA Passenger Standards Conference (PSC))
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Schedules and Tickets". Fly Rights – A Consumer Guide to Air Travel. US Department of Transportation. 2019-10-04. Archived from the original on 2021-07-19. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  4. 1 2 3 "VI. Reconfirming". Air travelers' fly-rights (Third revised ed.). Washington D.C., USA: Civil Aeronautics Board. 1976. p. 13. hdl: 2027/uc1.c101988132 .
  5. 1 2 3 4 Frederick, John H (1955). "15. Airline passenger handling – Reconfirmation". Commercial air transportation (4 ed.). Homewood, Illinois, USA: Richard D. Irwin, Inc. p. 418. hdl: 2027/mdp.39015023079653 .
  6. ↑ "Overbooking – Involuntary Bumping – exceptions". Fly Rights – A Consumer Guide to Air Travel. US Department of Transportation. 2019-10-04. Archived from the original on 2021-07-19. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  7. ↑ Cherington, Paul W. (1958). "Appendix IX-D – The "no-show" penalty problem". Airline price policy; a study of domestic airline passenger fares. Boston, USA: Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University. p. 431. hdl: 2027/mdp.39015023100541 .
  8. ↑ Comptroller General of the United States, ed. (1978). "2. How tariffs affect passengers – Tariffs an infringe on consumer protection – Case A". Airlines passengers: are their consumer rights protected? : By the Comptroller General Report to the Congress of the United States. Washington D.C., USA: U.S. General Accounting Office. pp. 5, 8. hdl: 2027/uiug.30112012413966 .
  9. ↑ Birnbaum, Stephen (1989). Birnbaum's Great Britain, 1990. Houghton Mifflin. p. 23. ISBN   9780395511480. (URL is Google Books)
  10. ↑ Airline customer service : hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress, second session, June 28, 2000. Washington D.C., USA: U.S. Government Printing Office. 2004. p. 47. hdl: 2027/uc1.b5183360 .
  11. ↑ "Contract of Carriage: U.S." Delta Air Lines, Inc. 2021-02-18. E) Compensation For Involuntary Denied Boarding. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  12. ↑ "Conditions of carriage". American Airlines. 2021-04-29. Oversold flights – Involuntary denied boarding. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  13. ↑ "Do I need to reconfirm my Lufthansa flight?". Lufthansa. Retrieved 2021-08-03. It is not necessary to reconfirm your booking for Lufthansa flights.
  14. ↑ "General Terms & Conditions – Conditions of Carriage for Passengers and Baggage (flight ticket GCC)". Lufthansa. Deutsche Lufthansa Aktiengesellschaft. 2021-07-01. 5.5 Reconfirmation of Reservations. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  15. ↑ "Contract of Carriage Document". United Airlines, Inc. 2021-04-13. Rule 25 Denied Boarding Compensation – Compensation for Passengers Denied Boarding Involuntarily – d. EXCEPTIONS. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  16. ↑ "Do I need to reconfirm my online reservations?". Ethiopian Airlines. Frequently Asked Questions – Online Booking. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  17. ↑ "Flight Reconfirmation Requirement". Kenya Airways. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
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