United, others cut flights: What happens to you?

Good morning, travelers. The airline shrinkage continues. United says it’s going to ground another 70 planes (on top of the 30 they already said they were going to pull), trim domestic schedules 17 percent by the end of 2009, and drop its discount Ted division (which is not a big deal for us because it didn’t fly out of Boston).
This sprightly bit of news in an already dismal season comes a day after Delta said it would need to pare flights beyond the 11 percent already announced (my pal Nicole Wong reported this week that Delta was dropping its Logan-LA flight on Aug. 19), and a couple weeks after American said it was cutting domestic flights by 12 percent
And don’t forget Spirit, which said yesterday that it may need to lay off crew members in at least four cities but that it hadn’t decided whether it would need to trim schedules -- although it’s hard to imagine job cuts of any significance without such changes.
We’ve already talked about how all these cuts will make planes more crowded, prices higher, and flights harder to get in some medium and smaller-sized cities. And about how this might need to happen for the carriers to survive.
But it also occurs to me that this also means there will be a lot of passengers whose plans will be disrupted. The airlines book months in advance. So what happens to those folks who’ve booked on flights that will eventually be canceled?

Ned Raynolds of American says that they have an automated system that tries to put passengers who are bumped on the very next flight, and airline reps then call to let them know about the change.
But what if that shift won’t work for you? Let’s say your airline has a Boston-LA flight only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They cancel the Tuesday flights so the airline tries to book you on the next Thursday flight, but you can’t make it. But you could go a week from Thursday.
It only makes sense that the airlines will try to work things out, and all the spokespeople I talked to said as much.
I have, however, heard stories -- there is one currently posted on the Online Travel Review blog -- suggesting that some airline reps under that scenario might try to charge a schedule-change fee. These day that amounts to $100-$150 a ticket.
Bill Mosley of the Department of Transportation says that as a general rule airlines need to try to accommodate any such reasonable request (taking into consideration things like flight schedules and seat availability). There also appear to be gray areas in what "reasonable'' means. If an airline can get you on another flight today or tomorrow, everyone pretty much agrees that there should not be any fee involved. But what about a change involving a week? Or two? Or a month?
Mosley says if you fail to reach an agreement, you have the right to a full refund. Or you can always file a complaint on agency's website -- but the agency doesn't act on every complaint. Your final recourse would be to sue in small-claims court but that generally isn't worth the trouble even should you prevail.
Your best shot seems to be trying to work things out. But be direct and firm about what you want and if you think you're asking for a reasonable schedule accommodation don't immediately cave if the topic of a fee comes up. You'll probably find they want to work it out as much as you do.