My airline ticket says I should “reconfirm [my] reservation 72 hours prior to departure”. Is that at least 72 hours or at most 72 hours? I don’t really feel like sitting on hold just to find out I can’t do anything because I’m too early.
And a more general question: if I didn’t reconfirm, would I lose my seat? I paid for it, it’s non-refundable, so they can’t take it away, right? Are the people who don’t reconfirm the ones who get stuck in the middle seat?
You should reconfirm to make sure that they didn’t cancel your flight. It gives you plenty of time to change your schedule to take another flight.
I have had flights canceled several times since 9-11. If I had not called to reconfirm then I would not have known until I got to the airport and would not have had the opportunity to take an earlier flight.
Call at least 72 hours before hand. I usually call the day before hand too just to double check. But, you can call any time you want. If you can manage to type all of the numbers in the phone correctly you can usually reconfirm without even having to talk to anyone.
It’s at least 72 hours, although the vast majority of airlines don’t require reconfirmation any more, so your chances of actually losing your seat are slim. Can’t hurt, though.
Well, I’m glad I called 2 nights before my flight because I found out my Reagan National airport destination was changed to Dulles, to and fro! I then had to scramble to change my rental car from one airport to the other. My tickets are non-refundable, too. There was no other charge. I also had to get new seat assignments. The arrival times were about the same.
It’s at least 72 hours. You can confirm a flight any time up to 72 hours before it leaves. After that, you might be taking a chance. Although as Fretful Porpentine says, the majority of airlines don’t require reconfirming now, it never hurts. And if your ticket says that you should, it’s probably a good idea.
What do I mean by “taking a chance”? Well, some years ago when flying on business, my assistant forgot to confirm my outbound flight. (She always had before; if I knew that she had forgotten, I would have done it myself.) As a result, I was in that traveller’s limbo that the airline referred to as “Oh, you showed up? Well, we will get you there but not necessarily on the flight you booked.”
Thankfully, as things turned out, there was room for me on that flight, but it was a nerve-wracking wait by the gate to find out. (I had an important meeting at my destination that I would just make if I took this flight, but I would miss if I flew out later.) Anyway, after that, I confirmed my flights myself, even if my assistant already had.
Another reason for confirming is that airlines often overbook flights, knowing that some travellers won’t show up. By having you confirm, they are trying to find out in advance how many people actually intend to travel on that flight–if there are too many, the airline might offer an incentive of some kind to encourage people to fly on an earlier or later flight to that destination.
Reconfirmation of flights is still pretty standard practice in countries with less sophisticated systems, eg, outside of North America and Europe. I pay special attention to international flights for this as well, since it’s usually more difficult to change those.
/travel guru hat ON/
Reconfirming usually isn’t usually necessary if you bought your ticket from a trusted source. If you bought from a travel agency or airline, they probably asked you for your phone number, so they can contact you in case of a schedule change. They ask YOU to reconfirm 72hours prior to departure as a way of covering themselves if a schedule change/cancellation slips past them.
However, since the 11Sep incident, it’s been a mad scrable for the airlines to put together their schedules. LOTS of flights have been cancelled. Some airlines have pulled out of certain low-volume cities completely!
So, for your own peace-of-mind, call the AIRLINE three days before departure, again the day before departure and agin morning of your flight. Make sure the airline has a phone number where you can be reached before departure and a phone number where you can be reached while on your trip. Get the AIRLINE’S “record locator” (usually a six digit alpha-numeric), also called a “confirmation code” by some.
In short, just cover yourself!
Actually a better way to phrase that would have been to call about three days in advance. As was said upthread this is primarily in case the flight has changed schedule so you won’t show up at 3:15 for what is now a 2:30 flight.
Also (as an advantage to you) if you do not have an assigned seat you can probably get one when you confirm.
Probably not.
Not exactly. Standard policy at most airlines is that if you have not checked in by a certain time prior to departure then your seat may be released to standby passengers. If you show up after that and there is seat you can still get on (but maybe not the seat you wanted, you may wind up in one of those middle seats) but in a worst case scenario you might have to wait for the next flight.
There is (at least) one scenario where you can lose your seat completely. If you have a multi-leg flight (say, BOS to JFK to LHR) and don’t show up for the first leg (you don’t check in at Boston) the second leg will be canceled. The assumption is that if you didn’t get on the plane in Boston you won’t be in New York to catch your plane there.
Actually, “often” should be “almost always” and “some travellers” should be “over 10% of travellers”.
Usually we have a pretty good idea if we are in trouble before that. 
This does help though. The main beneficiaries are the gate agents who can be warned in advance that they are about to have a really bad day.
The reverse can also be true too. This is where some of those “last minute travel” type deals come from.
Most major carriers allow you to check your confirmation online, so you can quickly do it right before you leave for the airport too.
I hope this question is close enough to the OP. If not, I apologize.
Question is: If the ticket is non-refundable, shouldn’t that be enough to guarantee me the seat, as long as I do show up on time? They have my money, and they’re not going to return it even if I don’t show up. Why isn’t that good enough? Why should I have to reconfirm? Why should I have to worry about overbooking? Why should they be allowed to deny me a seat, as long as I show up at the gate on time?
The ultimate answer to your oft-asked question, my friend, is that is simply the way the airlines choose to do business. One benefit to yourself is the fact that because the airlines can re-sell seats, the overall average ticket cost is lower. If an airline could not re-sell the 10% of seats where someone does not show up, then they would lose additional revenue.
Another benefit is that it allows for standby passengers who have fortunate travel situations to get on earlier flights - or different flights, should there be a problem with their own. If the flight was forced to take off with 10% empty seats, then no one really benefits from that.
You see…your nonrefundable ticket is not totally nonrefundable. You can change the time/date of the flight by paying a change fee.
This is not to say that I do not sympathize with you. I thankfully have never been bumped from a flight, but I know people who have quite a few times. And those “travel vouchers” they give you as a token compensation are often next to worthless. They normally have expiration dates, sometimes have blackout dates, and often just don’t get used. I do feel that the airlines should do far, far more to compensate passengers who get bumped off of a flight.
(As an aside - if you get bumped, insist on frequent flyer miles as the compensation. These will not expire for a much longer time, and can be used for a variety of things. And gate agents seem much more willing to give them out. I saw a friend get 10,000 FF miles over a $200 travel voucher - and I would rather have that than $200. 10,000 miles is 1/4 a biz class upgrade round-trip to Europe…but I digress)
[borrows travel guru hat from GrizzRich]
There are some places around the world that, if you don’t reconfirm, it’s quite likely you’ll be cancelled. Some places that come to mind are: India, South Africa, and a number of Middle Eastern countries. That doesn’t mean you should blow off reconfirming any other international flights, but if you don’t do it while in these countries then it’s quite likely you’ll have a problem.
A note about reconfirmation…
You are supposed to reconfirm. You. Not your secretary. Not the travel agency. Not your mom. You.
If you’re in Capetown or Madras or Dar es Salaam…you call the airline. I had a rep from Lufthansa tell me that they don’t recognize a reconfirmation from anyone other than the traveler himself/herself.
By the way, I fully endorse everything tanstaafl said.
[hands Grizz his fez with “FAM Animal” written on it back]
Yeah, at least 72 hours, but also close to 72 hours before. Otherwise, I’d just get it out of the way real nice and early…say, right after purchasing the tickets in the first place.