I don't believe cancelling or delaying a flight, on purpose, just to meet demand on an overbook flight at a hub helps the airline at all. I would think in the long run it would hurt because a) you still have to meet the obligation of getting passengers from point a to point b, which may mean putting them on another airline (And it is my understanding that when airlines do that, they are charged the full fare) b) having those with connection miss them entirely which again causes my problems than their worth and c) the airlines would have to overbook more flights to handle the demand of customers on a canceled flight. And if they don't get on, it means the Airlines have to pay up.
I'm just simply speaking; I don't believe the airlines would in fact intentionally cancel a flight to deal with such a mess in the long run. However you did the right thing by calling back and speaking with a second agent. As you can just because you get one bad apple doesn't mean they all are, as I've learned through my own travel experiences.
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