Cancel One Bound
My Digital Experience team delivered a highly requested self-service feature: the ability to cancel a single bound (leg) of a round-trip reservation without calling customer service.
The Problem
Customers with round-trip reservations who needed to cancel only one direction had no self-service option:
- Phone calls required - Canceling one leg meant calling customer service
- Long wait times - Customers waited on hold for a simple transaction
- Agent time consumed - Representatives spent time on routine cancellations
- Customer frustration - A common request with no digital solution
This was one of the top reasons customers called our contact center.
The Solution
We built a self-service cancellation flow that allows customers to cancel individual bounds:
How It Works
- Customer retrieves their reservation
- System detects round-trip itinerary
- Customer selects which bound(s) to cancel
- Confirmation shows travel funds created
- Remaining itinerary stays intact
Key Features
- Selective cancellation - Cancel outbound, return, or both
- All passengers included - Cancellation applies to everyone on the reservation
- Instant travel funds - Value immediately available for rebooking
- Clear confirmation - Email confirms what was cancelled and funds created
Results
The cancel one bound feature delivered significant value:
- $2.4M projected cost savings from call deflection
- 345K calls deflected annually to self-service
- Reduced wait times for customers with complex issues
- Improved satisfaction for customers needing partial cancellations
Customer Experience
The feature addresses a real customer need: plans change, but not always completely. A business trip might get cancelled while a vacation stays on. A family emergency might require changing one direction. Now customers can handle these situations themselves, instantly, without waiting on hold.
Operational Impact
By moving this high-volume, routine transaction to self-service, we freed customer service representatives to focus on more complex issues while simultaneously improving the experience for customers who just need a quick, simple cancellation.
Launched single-bound cancellation, projecting $2.4M in cost savings by deflecting 345K customer service calls annually.
