# Why confirm airline reservations?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-confirm-airline-reservations/144711>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 24, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-confirm-airline-reservations/144711 "2002-12-24T13:42:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-confirm-airline-reservations/144711/21 "2002-12-25T05:56:23Z")

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The thick plottens…

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**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-confirm-airline-reservations/144711/22 "2002-12-25T06:21:34Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ratatoskK \*  
> \*\*Another reason for “confirming” might be that the schedules often change, and if the airline “couldn’t” contact you about the change, this is an added way to find out about it. Even a change of only 15 minutes could cause you to miss a flight. \*\*

This is the answer to the OP. Everyone read it twice!

I was in Florida last month for 3 weeks. For some reason, I don’t know why, I decided to call and confirm my flight the night before I was to leave. Turns out they did in fact change my flight, and for some reason did not leave a message about it on my answering service. Had I not made that call I would have missed that flight, and would not have gotten home when I needed to be.  
The strange thing is, in the past I never confirmed flights. I cannot explain what made me confirm that one. Very spooky.  
You can bet I’m going to be paranoid enough to confirm every flight I take from now on!

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-confirm-airline-reservations/144711/23 "2002-12-25T06:24:29Z")

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I travel often, and it seems to me that the only help reconfirming does is tell you that yes, in fact, there still is a plane going out at the time of your ticket to your destination. It doesn’t help you get on that plane or anything. I’ve gotten bumped off flights which I’ve confirmed forty-eight hours in advance. To be fair, I also got bumped up to first class on the next flight and my entire ticket refunded, although I’m fairly certain that my confirming the flight had nothing to do with it, as we didn’t get first priority as volunteers deboarded the plane. At any rate, confirming seems to be a nice exercise which doesn’t hurt, but to this date I’ve found it absolutely useless for anything but scheduling.

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