Airline Rant!

[crokett]

My AmEx card gives me 1 free companion on Delta per year when I buy a flight. (well the 'free' ticket costs 80 bucks after fees, etc and I am pretty sure they soak me on the regular fare) but...

Booked flights for myself, wife and 3yr old. 3 yr old is on 50k skymiles award ticket cause only 25k level flights delta had were non-delta airlines. No choice there cause the companion fare has to be Delta. Anyhoo, wanted to change wife's ticket to daughter's name and daughter's to wifes so she could fly a different day and I'd rebook on non-delta airline at 25k level. Except Delta says they can't change names on ticket. Well why not? Sorry sir, the rules. So I talked to a supervisor who told me them's the rules. So I talked to her supervisor who told me them's the rules for security reasons. So I said 'well supposing I originally booked it for my brother, he'd have to show ID at the airport, right?' 'Yes'. 'and just supposing we then changed it to my wife, she'd have to show ID when boarding, right?'. 'Yes'. 'So how would the TSA know the name on the ticket changed. Do they care as long as person with the boarding pass has valid ID?' A few seconds of silence, and then she repeats that them's the rules.

Gah!

[cgallery]

Airlines more often than not would be smart to offer such a service for a nominal (but still profit-making) fee. They're going to bet the ranch that you will have to buy more tickets to accomodate your schedule, but most people will absolutely refuse to do so. The airlines would be better off accomodating you for (say) $20.

[Alex Franke]

They can do it but they have to jump through some hoops. You might try calling again and sweet talking or jut playing dumb -- "I wanted my wife to fly on Day1 and my daughter to fly on Day 2, but somehow they got reversed! Oh my, what am I to do?!?"

I think the records are keyed in part off the name fields, so changing a name requires locking the inventory, canceling the booking, and then rebooking into the same seat -- this can be a problem especially when the original booking class or rate is no longer available. I've heard that some systems will simply drop the reservations even if a name is accidentally changed.

Also, once the tickets are printed, they're like money. If you change the name, you need to reissue the ticket, and then you've got two tickets out there for the same seat with different names. Of course tickets are usually electronic now, so I wonder if that's an old excuse now. This is usually why they're called non-transferable.

Airlines will usually do this for things like changing from a maiden name to a married name, because that typically only requires notating the record. At least it used to.

Try calling again and make it sound like you're just going to break down and cry if you can't get it fixed. Maybe you'll get a motherly agent who will want to help you out by bending the rules a bit. Myabe you'll just get laughed at. Who know... Good luck!

[crokett]

Alex

I tried sounding desperate and/or dumb. Didn't work. One of the guys here pointed out he thinks it is a law rather than a rule - the gov't runs background checks/searches watchlists on names that are booked. But it is easy to get around that.

Supposing I stole your credit card and booked a flight. Then I just check in online and print the boarding pass to PDF. Photoshop that to have my name on it, then clear security with the pass that matches my name and board the flight with the one that has your name. Airlines have stopped checking IDs at the gate.

[Alex Franke]

Supposing I stole your credit card and booked a flight. Then I just check in online and print the boarding pass to PDF. Photoshop that to have my name on it, then clear security with the pass that matches my name and board the flight with the one that has your name. Airlines have stopped checking IDs at the gate.

Ah-ha -- that explains the recent charges from Delta!

I didn't realize that they stopped checking IDs at the gate. You're right - there do seem to be some security loopholes -- especially if you print your own boarding passes. You'd be good on a network security team, BTW.

I could very well be a business rule required by law, too. I traveled *a lot* before 9/11 but not so much after (for totally unrelated reasons). It always strikes me how much air travel has changed... e.g. Not 20 years ago I used to dress up to fly, especially in business or first... Soon we'll all need to be under general anesthesia while on the plane.

[JimD]

Did you ask about just leaving the names the same and changing the day? I am not sure I followed your situation, it also appears you were trying to go from 50K to 25K miles for the ticket but U. S. Air was much more flexible about changing day of flight than they were names when I flew grandparents out on award travel (more than a year ago). I could change the day for nothing as long as I called a minimum time in advance.

Jim

[cgallery]

Supposing I stole your credit card and booked a flight. Then I just check in online and print the boarding pass to PDF. Photoshop that to have my name on it, then clear security with the pass that matches my name and board the flight with the one that has your name. Airlines have stopped checking IDs at the gate.

Man, you're a criminal mastermind. I hope Osama isn't reading this.

[crokett]

You'd be good on a network security team, BTW.

I was on a network security team once. Been too many years and what technical knowledge I have is way out of date, but I still remember good practice at least. I have lots of customers who don't - talked to one guy this week who said he may lose his job after somebody rezoned his fabric. Could have been a screwup, could have been deliberate but it never shoulda happened.

Jim,

I can change the date of my wife's ticket for 100 bucks. Problem is the miles awards ticket had to be booked on Delta for 50k miles because the companion ticket has to be flown on Delta. There are/were 25k mile flights available but those are only on on partner airlines. So for the same 100 bucks it would cost to change the date I was trying to return the 50k miles, change the ticket to my wife and rebook for her on a different day at 25k miles. But I can't put her current ticket in my daughter's name.

[Rslaugh]

......who said he may lose his job after somebody rezoned his fabric.

Ok - I'll show my ignorance - rezoned his fabric???

I have a real hard time understanding airline business thought process. Aren't these the same bozos we bailed out not too many years ago because of? oh who remembers and who cares, we gave them a bunch of tax money for not being able to operate a business profitably. Looks like they learned so much. "Boohoo, woe is us, fuel prices are going up. How are we to survive?" Raise your prices Nimrods. "But our competitors won't." Then won't they eventually go out of business?

[crokett]

Ok - I'll show my ignorance - rezoned his fabric???

A fabric is a network for storage. (SAN stands for Storage Area Network). Zoning limits who can see what. A good idea for lots of reasons. This case got to me cause the customer had servers that could no longer see drives, and hence data. These were his payroll servers. The switches do a good job of recording who does what when. I could see the servers were not zoned to their drives. Checking the audit log I sawwhere admin logged in and rezoned - told the fabric not to let the payroll servers see their drives anymore. this was during a batch run of payroll data. Point is, nobody should use admin ID. Only those who need to should have their own, unique ID. A very basic security concept. It preserves the audit trail. In this case since a lot of people had admin's passsword, no way to tell whodunuit.

[Rslaugh]

A fabric is a network for storage. (SAN stands for Storage Area Network). Zoning limits who can see what. A good idea for lots of reasons. This case got to me cause the customer had servers that could no longer see drives, and hence data. These were his payroll servers. The switches do a good job of recording who does what when. I could see the servers were not zoned to their drives. Checking the audit log I sawwhere admin logged in and rezoned - told the fabric not to let the payroll servers see their drives anymore. this was during a batch run of payroll data. Point is, nobody should use admin ID. Only those who need to should have their own, unique ID. A very basic security concept. It preserves the audit trail. In this case since a lot of people had admin's passsword, no way to tell whodunuit.

Interesting - sounds so simple now.

[crokett]

Interesting - sounds so simple now.

The security concept is but far too many of my customers overlook it though.

[Rslaugh]

Just wish we could get our IT guys to stop moving stuff around, or if they need to maybe they could actually plan the move and act like they care about how the users are going to be disrupted. I know they might be surprised to find out that if we can no longer use the resources we can't take care of customers and then we all can go find something else to do.

[OpaDC]

Just wish we could get our IT guys to stop moving stuff around, or if they need to maybe they could actually plan the move and act like they care about how the users are going to be disrupted. I know they might be surprised to find out that if we can no longer use the resources we can't take care of customers and then we all can go find something else to do.

Been in the computer/network business for 20+ years and one thing I am still amazed at is how many IT people think the network is their customer. The users are just a distraction to the REAL work.

[crokett]

I am still amazed at is how many IT people think the network is their customer. The users are just a distraction to the REAL work.

You mean it isn't and they aren't?