Atlanta-Hartsfield Connection Time - Need Expert Advice - Another Delta Schedule Chg

 

Checking the schedules this morning, we saw that the 7pm flight on Saturday night is no longer on the schedule.

 

Delta has removed all three evening PHX flights from their schedule. There is now absolutely no way that someone could leave FCO and connect in ATL to get to PHX same day. Delta also flies FCO to JFK but there aren't any connections to PHX same day either. Both FCO to USA flights from Delta require an overnight stay if you are continuing on to PHX.

 

I'm truly disappointed in Delta. I have always enjoyed my Delta flights but this is just too much. This is bordering on bait and switch. They were competing against other airlines at the time I booked.

 

I'm confused. I just put in a random date and still see an evening flight to Phoenix from both ATL and JFK, with plenty of layover time between arriving flights from FCO and the onward connecting flights.

 

I also don't understand the statement regarding competition; they're are still in competition with other airlines. ???

I'm confused. I just put in a random date and still see an evening flight to Phoenix from both ATL and JFK, with plenty of layover time between arriving flights from FCO and the onward connecting flights.

3 November 2018 is the travel date. The ATL-PHX departures are at 0810, 1147 and 1643. The FCO-ATL flight doesn't arrive until 1654.

 

And the OP originally had a 5-hour connection at ATL, because they're on two separate tickets - and still there's a query in my mind as to how much they can rely on DL's apparent assurance of misconnection protection given the reason that they were booked how they were booked. Re-routing via JFK now would probably not be a problem for the ticket on which FCO-ATL is currently written, but would DL agree to re-route the ATL-PHX ticket to JFK-PHX for free? It could be messy. And the JFK connection time is 3 hours, which could be uncomfortable if it turns out that there is no misconnection protection after all.

To be fair, you could run into these two problems on other airlines as well. You have two issues:-

1. Cabin requirements that cannot be satisfied on a single ticket because you cannot combine the relevant fares; and
   
2. Schedule changes that have (now) left you with a compulsory overnight.
   

If you only had the second problem, you would have a perfectly good alternative, even now:-

• DL445 FCO-JFK 1100-1550
  
• DL2435 JFK-PHX 1850-2133
  

You could almost certainly have been switched to this itinerary, very probably for zero extra cost as it was triggered by an airline schedule change that meant that the original routing no longer worked for you. Almost every airline could have done this to you, and fixed it in a similar way. The reason that there isn't an easy fix for you is because of the first issue: you have specific cabin requirements that require the issuing of two tickets, making it much harder to fix the problem.

 

Now that you're here, do remember that you can come and ask for advice before you book if that would help.

 

I suspect that when you say "international airlines" you really mean non-US airlines. And if so, one of the things that makes many non-US airlines' schedules more stable is often that most of each airline's flights are international flights. These are usually scheduled within the IATA system, which means that the rhythm of schedule publication and changing is more predictable.

 

 

Hi Globaliser,

 

The perfectly good alternative you cited wasn't available when the last round of changes happened. The connecting flight to PHX is brand new. I guess they added it at some point after they removed their evening Atl to Phx flights. The FCO to JFK has been sold out of comfort plus seats for months now. When I originally booked, the JFK option required an overnight as there were no connections scheduled.

 

And yes, I meant a non US Based carrier. I can set my watch by the BA LHR to PHX flight. All of my non US carrier based flights have gone off without a hitch. Of course they have been slightly delayed at times. But in my current circumstance I really have absolutely no idea what my final flight schedule will look like and I have to incur the costs associated with an extra night in a hotel. Now that we're getting closer, I hope the schedule stops changing so drastically. I'm pretty convinced at this point that I would not be protected should I miss the connecting flight regardless of what I was told on the phone and am not willing to gamble missing the flight.

 

This was a hard lesson to learn. I didn't try to scam the system with hidden city itineraries or buy consolidator tickets or book through cheapie air. Nope, I called Delta and they sold me smoke and mirrors. Live and learn. Happy Cruising!

The perfectly good alternative you cited wasn't available when the last round of changes happened. The connecting flight to PHX is brand new. I guess they added it at some point after they removed their evening Atl to Phx flights. The FCO to JFK has been sold out of comfort plus seats for months now. When I originally booked, the JFK option required an overnight as there were no connections scheduled.

It's all academic now, but the JFK option was already there when I first posted to this thread (ie 17 June) - but it didn't seem worth mentioning then because of your separate ATL-PHX ticket which would also need changing, and a 3-hour interval might have been risky for a two-ticket "connection". I don't think it's any more viable for you now than it was then, but it is an option.

 

If it had been a viable option for you and you had one ticket for FCO-ATL-PHX, Delta could easily have forced the space for you on FCO-JFK in order to make that connection. After all, if you had one ticket and Delta had done nothing more than put you onto the next day's ATL-PHX flight, it would have been responsible to you for the costs of the compulsory overnight stay at ATL, and this would have provided the airline with an incentive to create space for you on FCO-JFK. It is always possible to do that, even if the airline would not take a new booking now.

 

And yes, I meant a non US Based carrier. I can set my watch by the BA LHR to PHX flight. All of my non US carrier based flights have gone off without a hitch. Of course they have been slightly delayed at times.

It's funny you should mention that, because the introduction of the second LHR-PHX flight (not daily) and BA's gate arrangements at PHX have led to some delays that should be avoidable. Both flights use the same gate, but the second flight is scheduled to arrive only 25 minutes after the first flight departs. So even a trivial delay to the departure of the first flight means that the second flight has to sit around after landing until the gate comes free.

 

So, like your original problem, the problems that you've had could happen on any airline. I've had cancellations, long delays, aircraft changes, inconvenient schedule changes and the like on plenty of non-US airlines - even the ones generally regarded as having stellar reputations. The only guaranteed things about travel are that it will sometimes go wrong, and that it will go wrong more often than you'd like.

I guess at this point I'm just wondering why it was so necessary to book 2 separate tickets to begin with; that's what led to all the complication. The OP wanted Comfort+ for the transatlantic portion, but first for the domestic portion. Obviously, anyone can book whatever they desire; I'm just thinking that if Comfort+ was good enough for the transatlantic part, why not just stay with that for the shorter domestic part so it could all be booked on one ticket?

We have just been notified of a 9 hour time change on a Delta flight on 9/2 from YUL-TUS via ATL. This is our return flight on a roundtrip ticket in first class (P) purchased directly from Delta. I have found a better option for our return flight on United (and at a lower price) but I want to keep our outgoing flight to YUL. Reading though the fine print it is not clear to me if I can cancel only the return flight due to the schedule change and receive a refund or if my only option is to cancel the entire ticket? Before I spend an interminable amount of time on hold with Delta does anyone have idea whether i can just cancel part of the ticket?

 

 

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Dropping the return, even with the 9 hour change will reprice your ticket.

You are entitled to a full refund so check the price of the outbound and/or before you call Delta make a list of suitable alternatives.

FYI, I called earlier this week and was on hold less than two minutes. If you THINK you will be on hold forever take a look at the home page to see if they have any travel waivers. That's always a clue.

Delta also offers a call back if the wait time is over about 15 minutes.

FYI, I called earlier this week and was on hold less than two minutes.

 

Any chance you are a frequent flyer with DL? If so, once your sky miles # is entered, it moves you up in the queue so you have a shorter wait time.

Just a small suggestion. Before you even telephone Delta, do your on line homework and know you alternative options...which may include completely canceling with Delta and booking with a different airline. If you are going to consider a different airline make a faux booking in order to check for available seats. When I once had to do a similar exercise I actually had two computers (my desktop and a laptop) running at the same time. I booked a new reservation on a different airline almost simultaneously at the time I canceled (and demanded a full refund) from the original airline. In my case we had to cancel with United and change to Delta.

 

Hank

Just a small suggestion. Before you even telephone Delta, do your on line homework and know you alternative options...which may include completely canceling with Delta and booking with a different airline. If you are going to consider a different airline make a faux booking in order to check for available seats. When I once had to do a similar exercise I actually had two computers (my desktop and a laptop) running at the same time. I booked a new reservation on a different airline almost simultaneously at the time I canceled (and demanded a full refund) from the original airline. In my case we had to cancel with United and change to Delta.

 

Hank

 

You may also want to have a look at the WestJet website. WestJet is Delta partner in Canada. You will earn Delta miles on them. Not certain if they have any code-shares with Delta to TUS. They do fly in Phoenix.

 

If you do use their website if you search round-trip or one-way starting in the US it will price in US dollars. If you search one-way starting in Canada it will price in Canadian dollars.

Thanks to those who responded. Thought I would report back here with the outcome.

 

I called Delta and even with a FF number I was put on hold. After being asked to input various bits of info (name, FF number, flight confirmation number etc.) I was finally told the wait time to speak with an agent was 27-42 minutes. I opted for the callback and it finally came after a 33 minute wait. Then I had to repeat all of the info I had previously entered to the agent. She kept saying she could not find the reservation - turns out she could not understand me and I could not understand her. She was in Jamaica and had a very heavy accent and clearly has trouble understanding and speaking English. After 10 frustrating minutes back and forth she pulled up the reservation. At first she denied there was more than a two minute time change. Finally she admitted it was a nine hour change and then said something about seeing if they could “do me a favor” and cancel the whole reservation and refund my money even though they didn’t ordinarily do that. I read back Delta’s terms and conditions on a flight change or cancelation to her and she seemed surprised. She also kept ignoring my question as to whether it was possible to cancel only the return portion of the ticket. After another frustrating 10 minutes of this I finally convinced her to let me speak with a supervisor. After another hold a supervisor from Atlanta got on the line. He very quickly confirmed that if I did not want to accept the change I could either cancel the entire ticket or convert it to a one way and receive a refund for the return flights. The amount of the refund was based on the original price of the roundtrip ticket less the current cost of the outbound flights. Luckily in this instance the outbound flight was only slightly higher than the price I paid as detailed in the original flight construction. I was then able to quickly book the United flights with a better schedule and save some money as well.

 

So anyone in a similar situation in the future know that when there is a schedule change of more than two hours with Delta if you have a roundtrip ticket you do NOT have to cancel the entire ticket if you don’t want to accept the new schedule for flights in one direction.

 

 

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So anyone in a similar situation in the future know that when there is a schedule change of more than two hours with Delta if you have a roundtrip ticket you do NOT have to cancel the entire ticket if you don’t want to accept the new schedule for flights in one direction.

 

But you do have to recognize that you will NOT just get back the return portion of the trip. You will get:

 

(Total price originally paid) minus (current price for the flight segment you are keeping)

 

In effect, you are getting a complete refund, and then purchasing the segment you are keeping AT TODAY'S PRICE. Albeit without any change or cancellation fees.