Handle involuntary changes from airlines and understand rebooking automation limits

Steps

1. Monitor for involuntary changes via webhooks (if your API supports them), periodic order polling, or airline notification emails forwarded to a processing inbox — there is no universal real-time channel across all airlines.
2. Classify the change: schedule change (departure/arrival time shift), equipment change (aircraft type), routing change (different routing or connection), or full cancellation; each has different passenger rights and rebooking rules.
3. For schedule changes within airline-defined tolerances (typically under 2 hours), the airline may rebook automatically and the PNR will already show updated times — fetch the current order state before taking any action.
4. Check passenger rights by jurisdiction: EU Regulation 261/2004 applies to flights departing the EU or arriving on EU-carrier; US DOT rules apply to US domestic; these set minimum compensation and rebooking entitlements that your agent must respect.
5. Automated rebooking is feasible when: the alternative flight is within the same day, the same fare class has availability, and the passenger has not already been rebooked — use the booking API's rebook or exchange endpoint if available.
6. For complex situations (multi-carrier itineraries, passengers already in transit, group bookings, special service requests), do not attempt automated rebooking — escalate to a human agent with all booking details pre-populated.