How do you handle cancellations?

TheWife

TheWife

New Member
What do you do if a student cancels? Charge them anyway, charge a cancellation fee, or you're just SOL? Do you make your own policy or does the place you work have a policy? What if you have students that cancel repeatedly, or seem to go on vacation every other week, and you can't really take on another student in their spot unless you ditch the flakey student entirely? So you just have to take what you get? Or do you have rules about that? What if you are at the airport, waiting for a student, and he keeps calling in to delay, over and over, and by the time he finally gets there, you've sat at the airport for 3 hours w/ no pay?
 
TheWife said:
What do you do if a student cancels? Charge them anyway, charge a cancellation fee, or you're just SOL? Do you make your own policy or does the place you work have a policy? What if you have students that cancel repeatedly, or seem to go on vacation every other week, and you can't really take on another student in their spot unless you ditch the flakey student entirely? So you just have to take what you get? Or do you have rules about that? What if you are at the airport, waiting for a student, and he keeps calling in to delay, over and over, and by the time he finally gets there, you've sat at the airport for 3 hours w/ no pay?
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Our school would charge a cancellation fee. I would usually get it waved if my student had a legitimate excuse.
 
They gets charged unless it is a legitimate reason. That time is reserved for them, and I am not getting paid if I am not instructing. Them canceling on short notice is no different than pulling money out of my pocket.
 
So what do you consider legitimate and on how much notice? Cause even if they give 2 days notice, you still can't really fill that spot.
 
I think legitimate depends on the person; do they have family constraints, school or work conflicts, car trouble, illness, etc; that sort of thing.

To me if it is a cancellation because they are simply not dedicated enough to put their training before trivial distractions, then they are getting charged for that time, and may not be on my schedule for long. I have little enough time to fit them all in as it is, so dropping a flake would simply increase my odds of a quality student.
 
TheWife said:
So what do you consider legitimate and on how much notice? Cause even if they give 2 days notice, you still can't really fill that spot.
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There has to be some give and take. The instructor will occasionally have to reschedule a lesson for personal reasons, or there may be school issues that make the flight impossible. Not really fair to nail the reliable student for his first canceled lesson.

The instructor usually will only suffer from the cancellation if

1) the instructor shows up at the airport only to find the student has canceled or

2) the instructor has so many students that he could sell every available slot and a last minute cancellation deprives him of the opportunity to find someone else for the opening.

If the instructor gets a two day warning and can't fill the slot, obviously neither one of these things is true. The student has no obligation to provide the instructor with his business and as long as the instructor doesn't incur any costs due to the student's cancellation, he doesn't have much right to complain, IMO.
 
case by case basis.

Day one I outline my cxl policy & have them sign a sheet of paper with what I explain. That way if I have to enforce they cant claim ignorant...

Anyway, I am one of those busy ones so I usually could have filled a slot. If it is within 24 hours pretty much charge unless it is a reasonable cause (car accident, child sick, death).

It doesn't mean I'm a jerk about it. I have a student who schedules 3-4 days a week. You know what - if he cancels on me that morning for whatever reason I really dont care. He's money. You take care of the good students and deal with the rest.
 
You should make it a part of the initial training process. A discussion of no show consequences. There should be consequences to no-shows, or last minute cancellations, or unreasonable delays. The student needs to know this up front. It is a commitment. Not just for the money, but also for the continuity of training.

Don't spring it on him if you have not given a good briefing on the subject and you have gotten the student's agreement.

If learning to fly is just an "interesting hobby" or "fun activity", most folks don't want to commit to making the appointment like the ones who are career minded, so don't expect automatic commitment.
 
This was always a pain in my rear end. When I was instructing at a Part 141 school, the school charged the student for an hour's worth ground instruction, and I got paid for an hour's worth of ground.

When I went out on my own at a mom and pop FBO, I let flakey students walk all over me because I was too nice. Then I grew a spine (because after all, I had to drive 45 minutes to the airport - and even in a saturn it wasn't cheap) and charged them an hour's worth of ground if they hadn't called by the time I left the house.

Of course, I discussed this with potential students, and most every one held up their end of the bargain, because after all, poop happens, but if they make enough dough to take flying lessons, then they make enough dough to pay my broke a$$ to drive out to the airport and wait for them to fail to show up.
 
The instructor has the leeway to decide how to handle this at my company.

At the beginning of the course, I go over this stuff along with the other course requirements. At my company, the students choose their own schedule, so a scheduled lesson should never be a surprise to them.
I don't mind if someone calls and cancels, even as soon as the day of, as long as I haven't left the house.

First no call/no show's free- after 20 minutes of waiting, I call the student, and let them know that's the freebie.

Subsequent no shows or super short notice cancels, I bill for an hour and a half. That covers my time to get to the airport and back from my house.

Late students- If our block starts at 3:30, and they are *habitually* late for no good reason (no school or work interfering), then I bill starting from the block start time.

If a student has a *good* reason to cancel on short notice, that's a freebie too, as long as it's not a regular thing. I understand, sometimes Work calls, or a babysitter bails, or whatever. :-)

For what it's worth, I've very rarely had to charge someone for missing a lesson. I try to be very up-front about my policy at the beginning of the course. I've only had a couple students who were habitually late, and they weren't very focused on the course anyway (surprise), and they eventually wandered off to find different hobbies eventually. After a few lessons, you can kinda get a sense of who's likely to stand you up, and who's responsible and serious about the course.


-A-
 
too add on to what Av8trix posted, the only students I have had to charge are the habitual no show younger adolecents. It seems that adults tend to recognize time for what it is worth. Fairness and compassion go a long way.

I also, as wildfrieghtess (nice name btw) stated - needed to grow a spine. It took a while for me to value my own time. But given enough no show freebies, the bills roll in and you start to think, " hey, I can't stand for someone to continually not show up when I could've booked an interested student."
 
I have the discretion to charge for an hour of ground time if a student cancels a lesson, and my employer really kinda leaves it up to me, but if the cancellation is within 24 hours of the lesson, I'm okay to charge if I really want to. However, this does not usually happen. I tell all my students that if they just let me know, usually at least an hour before, then they won't get charged. Also, it I kinda look at the history of the student. If a student has been on time and at every lesson, and cancels one on short notice for some reason, I don't charge, but if the student has had a history of canceling a lot, even if they let me know, and then they cancel on short notice because "I was up until 4 a.m. last night and didn't get enough sleep, and I have a headache," I'll charge 'em.
 
PanJet said:
"I was up until 4 a.m. last night and didn't get enough sleep, and I have a headache," I'll charge 'em.
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i have a student doing this lately. she just got dropped on me when another instructor left. she canceled on me 3 times this week. we have something scheduled for sunday and if she cancels again short notice i am billing her for 2 hours of my time and telling her we won't be scheduling again until she can find time in her schedule and commit to this. (after all it is FOR COLLEGE CREDIT, and if she doesn't finish by august she fails and has to retake the course.) on top of that she wants to be a commercial pilot
 
I only get angry if the student cancels on me is the first flight of the day. I wake up, go to the airport and they're not there -- I could have been sleeping an extra hour and a half or so but now I just have to sit there until my next guy comes in.
 
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