Does United book flights that they never actually intend to fly?

[dwg]

Wife and I have not flown in many years. last time we flew was when Airtran was a thing. They merged into Southwest in 2014. So not very experienced with flying these days. We are taking a Disney Cruise out of Fort Lauderdale in December and since it is a little further than we usually drive we decided to fly out of Newark, NJ with United. We are flying out of Newark on a Sunday and returning on the following Saturday. We already booked the tickets but I keep watching the schedule every few days including looking at the same days that we travel but in earlier months. . I have noticed that as our travel date gets closer United has cancelled several flights on the earlier dates when looking at the same travel days as my flights.

Is this a normal way that airlines do business? Showing more available flights on a given day, then as the date gets closer start to cancel/eliminate the flights and consolidate them into a few remaining flights. One of my biggest concerns with this besides the time of the flight is our assigned seats. We purchased the extra room economy seats so wouldn't want to lose that because the flight changed.

 

[OKW Lover]

No, normal airlines don't do that. If it's on the schedule, they expect to fly it. Even if the passenger load isn't very high on one leg, that aircraft needs to be somewhere for the next flight.

 

[Kailunkat]

How far out are the “cancelled” flights? It isn’t totally unheard of for something that is flown by a United affiliated contractor (United Express for example) and doesn’t actually use United planes or if an actual United aircraft has to be taken out of rotation for a lengthy maintenance update. In those cases, it’s possible they could need to cancel multiple flights in a short time/consolidate options because of it. If you don’t have a safe aircraft that’s a big deal breaker.

In general, when something like that happens they will try to keep all guests in the exact same ticket/seat type that they booked. They wouldn’t downgrade you to economy from economy plus for example. If for some reason that DID have to happen (usually it doesn’t because frequent flyers get automatic upgrades to economy plus seats and those upgrades would get downgraded based on seniority before your paid upgrade would) you would receive a refund AND and travel voucher (usually $100 or so) for the inconvenience or if you preferred you could be rebooked on a different flight with available extra legroom seats.

 

[sam_gordon]

I am not surprised with airlines cancelling/merging flights 6 months out. Sometimes that can work in your favor.

Check the airlines policy regarding THEIR flight changes. Usually it will say something like if the departure or arrival time changes by 'x' amount (an hour or two), you can change to any flight on the same day leaving from and going to the same airports.

I've used that to my advantage a number of times, booking the cheaper flight that the times weren't great, airline makes a change, and then get on the flight I really want, that was much more expensive, for no cost.

 

[_19disnA]

Airlines make money when planes are filled to a certain capacity. I wouldn't be surprised that any airline modifies their future schedules to match the demand they are seeing. Flying an airplane with 5 people on it won't make them any money.

What specific airlines do/don't do would not be a consideration when making my travel plans. Things can happen for a lot of reason including weather or mechanical issues. Those aren't things I can do anything about. All airlines have policies in place to deal with unforeseen circumstances.

 

[sam_gordon]

Just looked it up... you get a free flight change if United makes a change of more than 30 minutes...
https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/company/schedule-change-policies.html

There was one time with Delta, we were booked out of a neighboring airport (because it was significantly cheaper), and they made a change. I called them, said none of the other flights from that airport worked, can you move us to go out of our home airport. And they willingly did.

The airports were ~an hour apart (driving), and I would have made something work if they wouldn't move airports, but I figured it didn't hurt to ask.

 

[Sykes]

They don't schedule flights that they don't intend to fly, but ever since the beginning of the pandemic the schedules for almost all US domestic flights more than 90 days out are just a rough approximation of the final schedule--the elimination of change fees made it a bit more difficult for them to forecast demand so they end up adjusting the schedules to match demand a lot more than they used to. (External factors have also been a big issue lately--Boeing delivery delays impact aircraft availability, wars impact demand on some routes, etc.)

Once you are within 90 days of departure major changes get a lot less common, and even more so within 30 days.

 

[sam_gordon]

They don't schedule flights that they don't intend to fly, but ever since the beginning of the pandemic the schedules for almost all US domestic flights more than 90 days out are just a rough approximation of the final schedule--the elimination of change fees made it a bit more difficult for them to forecast demand so they end up adjusting the schedules to match demand a lot more than they used to.

Once you are within 90 days of departure major changes get a lot less common, and even more so within 30 days.

I'd say about 4-5 months out the schedules are pretty set. Timings might change by minutes, but pretty solid.

 

[Sykes]

I'd say about 4-5 months out the schedules are pretty set. Timings might change by minutes, but pretty solid.

Things are definitely trending that way now (my guess is that their forecasting tools have adequately adjusted to the new normal now), but for a while my clients' flights were almost always seeing schedule changes at almost exactly 90 days ... probably about 25% of the time they had relatively significant changes (ones that would cause a misconnect, etc.).

 

[Lewisc]

OP is flying, I think to FLL, for a cruise. I strongly suggest against flying in the day of cruise. Schedule changes, weather related issues, crew issues and me mechanical issues can affect your scheduled flight. The next is not likely to have enough empty seats to accomodate all the displaced passengers.

 

[sam_gordon]

OP is flying, I think to FLL, for a cruise. I strongly suggest against flying in the day of cruise. Schedule changes, weather related issues, crew issues and me mechanical issues can affect your scheduled flight. The next is not likely to have enough empty seats to accomodate all the displaced passengers.

I don't see any DCL cruises leaving from FLL on a Sunday. So hopefully the OP isn't planning on catching a cruise that day.

 

[Lewisc]

I don't see any DCL cruises leaving from FLL on a Sunday. So hopefully the OP isn't planning on catching a cruise that day.

I didn't bother to check DCLs schedule. My observation is valid for others reading this thread. Flying in the day of the cruise was never a great idea. It's now a terrible idea.

 

[sam_gordon]

I didn't bother to check DCLs schedule. My observation is valid for others reading this thread. Flying in the day of the cruise was never a great idea. It's now a terrible idea.

Totally agree.

 

[OKW Lover]

OP is flying, I think to FLL, for a cruise. I strongly suggest against flying in the day of cruise. Schedule changes, weather related issues, crew issues and me mechanical issues can affect your scheduled flight. The next is not likely to have enough empty seats to accomodate all the displaced passengers.

Excellent advice!!!

 

[dwg]

Yes, we are flying the day before. The cruise starts on the Monday after we fly in. I have heard to many horror stories about flying in the day of a cruise.
The chart below shows departing flights on Sundays at various dates that I have been tracking. There are no flights between the times I have listed on the specific dates. Flight 477 My flight was on 6/2/24 and than it was cancelled on subsequent flights until 9/29. There is also flight 2158 that shows up on 10/27. That flight was cancelled on earlier dates. I did not chart August but it is similar to July. The mid day flights are gone from through most of September. Waiting to see if this continues into October, November and December.

 

[Lewisc]

Some airlines don't display sold out flights. Airlines are reducing flights to MCO.

You appear to be observing a schedule change.

 

[sam_gordon]

Yes, we are flying the day before. The cruise starts on the Monday after we fly in. I have heard to many horror stories about flying in the day of a cruise.
The chart below shows departing flights on Sundays at various dates that I have been tracking. There are no flights between the times I have listed on the specific dates. Flight 477 My flight was on 6/2/24 and than it was cancelled on subsequent flights until 9/29. There is also flight 2158 that shows up on 10/27. That flight was cancelled on earlier dates. I did not chart August but it is similar to July. The mid day flights are gone from through most of September. Waiting to see if this continues into October, November and December.

View attachment 872282

I would expect different flights to be available (or not) at different times of the year. In other words, scheduled flights in June/July may not be available in December. That doesn't surprise me. Just like department stores don't generally put out winter clothes in May. They offer what they think people will buy.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Yes, we are flying the day before. The cruise starts on the Monday after we fly in. I have heard to many horror stories about flying in the day of a cruise.
The chart below shows departing flights on Sundays at various dates that I have been tracking. There are no flights between the times I have listed on the specific dates. Flight 477 My flight was on 6/2/24 and than it was cancelled on subsequent flights until 9/29. There is also flight 2158 that shows up on 10/27. That flight was cancelled on earlier dates. I did not chart August but it is similar to July. The mid day flights are gone from through most of September. Waiting to see if this continues into October, November and December.

View attachment 872282

All airlines will consolidate flights as you get closer in if demand is not enough. It’s not that they don’t intend to fly it, they would like to, but if there isn’t enough demand they’ll make changes.

UA will email you if your flight is changed. They’ll automatically rebook you on the nearest available. There is no benefit to you in tracking any of this as I assume you did not buy a refundable ticket and therefore can’t really be making changes. If your flight gets axed, you’ll be rebooked. If you don’t like what they pick you should be able to pick another one for no cost.

 

[sam_gordon]

UA will email you if your flight is changed. They’ll automatically rebook you on the nearest available. There is no benefit to you in tracking any of this as I assume you did not buy a refundable ticket and therefore can’t really be making changes. If your flight gets axed, you’ll be rebooked. If you don’t like what they pick you should be able to pick another one for no cost.

I disagree that there's no benefit in tracking your booked flight. I would NOT count on an airline to email/notify when there's a change. Sure, they may eventually, but by being on top of things, you should be able to act sooner.

I posted earlier that United's policy is a 30 minute change allows you to PICK the flight you want for free. While I wouldn't be checking every day, I would keep an eye out up until the day I leave.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I disagree that there's no benefit in tracking your booked flight..

I’m speaking specifically to OP. OP is so paranoid they’re attempting to track all the UA flights similar to theirs until Dec and all that will do is drive trip anxiety into overdrive. They need to draw a hard line. UA is pretty good about sending notices so I feel fine advising them to go cold turkey on this one. (Even though best they’ll probably be able to do is limit themselves to checking their reservation like every other day.)