Quote:
Originally Posted by Randi
chadd,
When they cancel flights before you leave (either months or weeks, sometimes days) are they not trying to combine flights due to low occupancy? A few years ago we were to fly out of Washington to Aruba in December, they cancelled the flight in the summer and had to reroute us  ! Not easy to do as we were travelling during Christmas and on points. It was a lot of aggrevation as all the flights were full!!!
Last year, two weeks before we were to leave Aruba they cancelled our return flights home. Had to scramble again! |
Again, canceling solely due to low load factors is not legal.
Canceling months in advance is quite common as the airline is adjusting their schedule due to current market conditions. Anything more than three months in advance is an estimate, though some flights are more solid than others.
Last minute cancellations are often due to maintenance or crew scheduling problems. They might cancel a flight that has fewer people and move that aircraft to a flight with more people, and revenue, on board. But the cancellation is still driven by a mechanical, or some other, problem elsewhere in the system.
December is a bad time for one particular airline as their pilot union loves to play games just about every year. Some of the guys time out and the ones that are legal to fly call in sick at absurdly increased rates. They have had to cancel large numbers of flights and strand thousands of passengers.