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[update], it is still allowed to mandate reconfirmation, so the risk of being cancelled remains.[3]
Each arline 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.
^
abcBeaver, 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.
^"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.