Airline employees? Any recourse for pax with 3 hr changes in schedule?

[flashdog_1]

We are booked to fly to Hawaii the day before our PofA cruise. Our original reservation had us arriving at 3:47 p.m. Great! Would get to see the island(s) from the air before we landed, and have a short time before night fall to walk around. But a slight change in the first leg's departure time meant they re-assigned us the 2nd leg a full 3 hours after the original reservation, and we're now not due to arrive until well after dark.

 

I don't imagine they HAVE to do anything to make us happier, but does anyone know if they might be more accommodating?

 

And to complicate matters, we are using skymiles, so no revenue is involved. It's simply that we do not have even approximately the same arrival time.

 

Let me hear how the airlines handled you if this happened to you.

 

And anyone who works for Delta is more than welcome to state the party line.

 

I do understand how an airline has to make money, and that these are tough economic times, but am hoping for some positive feedback if there was any good result with any of you.

[Ontheotherhand]

Don't hold your breath; this has happened to me many times, even with full fare tickets, and I have rarely gotten any help from the airlines (and things seems to be getting worse and worse with thier customer service. In fact, when I had fully refundable tickets, I several times had to cancel my reservation and rebook (usually on another airline) because the airline reservations clerks claimed nothing could be done. When they have you over a barrel with non refundable tickets (or evn worse, mileage tickets which usually can only be used for travel on that airline and cannot be endorsed to another airline), they are even mor unresponsive.

 

My suggestion is to call and be nice and see if there is an earlier flight, but don't count on getting anything changed. good luck.

[Fishbait17]

I have had this happen a few times, even on reward tickets.

If there are any alternative flights that are more appealing to you, call Delta and they should change it for you no problem. If they offer resistance, tell them you have something prepaid for the late afternoon and you do NOT accept their reaccommodation. It's their own schedule change, you are permitted to either accept it or look for an alternative - as long as they have seats available, they should change it for you. I can see you not wanting to have a 3 hour layover, but I assume you are flying into HNL and staying in Waikiki? Walking around Waikiki is also entertaining at night, and then go to bed your regular bedtime (Hawaiian time) to adjust your inner clock. There isn't much to see in Waikiki during the day that you can't see at night, with the exception to Diamond Head or the beaches, which you can visit the next morning before your cruise.

 

Robin

[Fishbait17]

Don't hold your breath; this has happened to me many times, even with full fare tickets, and I have rarely gotten any help from the airlines (and things seems to be getting worse and worse with thier customer service. In fact, when I had fully refundable tickets, I several times had to cancel my reservation and rebook (usually on another airline) because the airline reservations clerks claimed nothing could be done. When they have you over a barrel with non refundable tickets (or evn worse, mileage tickets which usually can only be used for travel on that airline and cannot be endorsed to another airline), they are even mor unresponsive.

 

My suggestion is to call and be nice and see if there is an earlier flight, but don't count on getting anything changed. good luck.

 

 

Wow, we have NEVER had this happen, whether on full-fare, discount or reward tickets. As long as there were seats available on an alternate flight on the same carrier, we have always gotten earlier flights as long as the schedule change was significant. You have a point, you will not be moved to an alternate airline, but we have never been denied an alternate flight on the same carrier.

 

Robin

[Eno]

I flew to Hawaii for POA cruise this past August. Booked flights in March - cheapest had two stops so booked that. Over the months they changed the flight times - in June the difference was landing at 5:30pm vs 2:30 pm - I called Delta and they rebooked me to a flight that got me in at 2:30 pm with only 1 stop for no charges to change.

[purplegoose]

We are booked to fly to Hawaii the day before our PofA cruise. Our original reservation had us arriving at 3:47 p.m. Great! Would get to see the island(s) from the air before we landed, and have a short time before night fall to walk around. But a slight change in the first leg's departure time meant they re-assigned us the 2nd leg a full 3 hours after the original reservation, and we're now not due to arrive until well after dark.

 

I don't imagine they HAVE to do anything to make us happier, but does anyone know if they might be more accommodating?

 

And to complicate matters, we are using skymiles, so no revenue is involved. It's simply that we do not have even approximately the same arrival time.

 

Let me hear how the airlines handled you if this happened to you.

 

And anyone who works for Delta is more than welcome to state the party line.

 

I do understand how an airline has to make money, and that these are tough economic times, but am hoping for some positive feedback if there was any good result with any of you.

 

Do your homework prior to calling - be pleasant and polite, but firm - those times do not work and you would never have booked them (free or otherwise) originally. Look on the website and get the specific flight numbers, times and connections that your prefer (check other connection points too) and ask for them specifically. I would recommend having at least three options (and the website open and online when you speak to them).

 

Airlines have always helped me with schedule changes on paid tickets, not sure if it's so simple with award tickets do to capacity controls. Good luck

[cpdad]

...

I don't imagine they HAVE to do anything to make us happier, but does anyone know if they might be more accommodating?....

 

I believe the best strategy would be to determine what alternate arrangements you would like to have, then call the airline. As an earlier poster suggested, calmly and politely ask for what you want. But it would be helpful if you already know specifically what you want and not just ask the airline agent for some generic "help".

 

Since you are using Skymiles award tickets, I assume you are knowledgable about researching flight schedules. Also look into partner airline schedules (NW?). It goes a long way if you do the work for the airline agent by researching alternate flights and presenting the agent with the result of your search without being controlling. Sometimes it helps to let sympathetic agents get creative. You have to "play it by ear" in your approach to airline agents.

 

Finally, if you do not like the first answer you get from the airline, politely thank the agent for his/her time and effort. Hang-up, and call again.

[flashdog_1]

I have emailed them explaining the 3 hours, and told them I noticed that their non-stop left ATL one hour later than the one they have me on to LAX, and it arrives HNL exactly at the original flight's scheduled time.

 

I had watched and watched and finally found a rt for only 40k miles so we grabbed it. The flights are now 65k so they could argue that. Their schedule change made our 2nd leg an illegal connection of 11 minutes, so they apparently covered us on the next flight out. They are showing seats available (both revenue and mileage seats) on all flights, both classes.

 

Meanwhile I found rule 240 which mostly is dealing with problems on the day of your flight. But there's one definition (the last) that might include me, under schedule irregularity.

 

Delta

Rule 240 applies to All Delta Air Lines flight delays, cancellations or misconnections are as a result of a

1.Schedule Irregularity, or 2.A Force Majeure Event.

SCHEDULE IRREGULARITY

Delta Air Lines defines a schedule irregularity as:

A delay in the departure or arrival of a Delta Air Lines flight that results in a misconnection, or A flight cancellation or omission of a scheduled stop, or any other delay or interruption of a Delta Air Lines flight, or A substitution of equipment to a different class of service, or A schedule change that requires you to be rerouted.

If your flight is delayed, cancelled or you miss a connecting Delta Air Lines flight, due to a schedule irregularity &

1.Delta Air Lines must confirm you on their next flight (on which space is available) at no additional cost. 2.If there is an alternate Delta Air flight that will arrive at your destination earlier than the alternate you have been offered, you have the right to be confirmed on this Delta Air Lines' flight at no additional cost, even if first class space is all that is available. 3.If the alternate Delta Air Lines flight is not acceptable to you, you have the right to be confirmed on the flight of a different airline at no additional cost. 4.If there is an alternate "different airline" flight that will arrive at your destination earlier than any alternate flight you have been offered, you have the right to be confirmed on this flight at no additional cost, even if first class space is all that is available. 5.If no alternate flight (on Delta Air Lines or a "different airline") is acceptable to you, Delta Air Lines must refund your money - even if you have a non-refundable ticket.

 

The rest of the rule is about weather situations and what they're responsible for (food and lodging if the delay is 4 hours or between the hours of 10 p.m and 6 a.m.).

 

But all this is moot because I'm a non-revenue passenger, I imagine.

[ugen512]

They should have schedule change rules on their web site. I used to do reissues and every airlines are a little different. Delta used to be 90 minutes. Like a previous poster advised have all your information in front of you beofre you call. It has no bearing on what you paid but on what is available. I had a flight that they changed the time so drastically I could not get to the port on time, they refunded the ticket fully(econo ticket).

[jame_g]

We had this happen last January. Airline totally switched around our flights at the last minute without notifying us. Fortunately I checked the night before. (I had checked at regular intervals since I booked and the initial changes were very minor.)

 

Going out, they had us flying all over the country making multiple connections (VA, GA, TX, UT, CA), and finally arriving in San Diego after literally spending an entire day in airplanes and airports. We were only supposed to have one connecting flight and arrive early in the day.

 

On the way back, they had our flight arriving 3 hours after our connecting flight left. Don't know how that was supposed to work.

 

I called customer service and they agreed someone made a mess of our reservation and managed to switch things back to the way they were supposed to be. The payback was that now we were flagged for requesting last minute changes and subjected to the extra searches. Good thing we got to the airport early. Ugh. Gotta love it.

 

Not sure if they will do much for you or not. There are limited flights to Hawaii, and it's only 3 hours difference. It doesn't hurt to call them and ask though. Good luck.

[blindrid]

I used to fly a substantial amount for business (weekly). First of all, read the contract we agree to when we purchase the ticket - the airline can pretty much do anything they want (with a few exceptions). I've had a variety of changes thrown on me and I was normally able to sell my way on to different flights either by standby or getting seated on the next flight - maybe even through a different city but I always got there.

 

I think you're probably had since it's a freebie flight and that doesn't carry a lot of weight when they look at the fare class when re-booking. I guess the important part is that you get there just a bit later than you wanted.

[Budget Queen]

You may be stuck with what you got. If I am not mistaken, Delta only runs two flights/day to Honolulu??

 

I also would not be "emailing" for information on rebooking, call them. AND as already mentioned, know code shares and what else is available, including,have the flight numbers.

[G'ma]

Schedule changes are part of the travel experience. The airlines are only obligated to get you to your destination......that's what you've paid for...or in your case, not paid for.

 

What recourse would you want? They aren't going to bring in a plane just for you....they aren't going to change their schedule back just for you...they aren't going to transfer your reward ticket to another carrier...they're not going to compensate you....so, what do you expect?

 

The most important thing is that you arrive in time to board your ship.

[MrLee]

The most important thing is that you arrive in time to board your ship.

 

That's my only concern. If they want to mess around with my flights home, fine. Just make sure I get to the ship in time to board. :D

[weltek]

I've had good luck with calling airlines the few times this has happened and it was an issue. I've simply asked if there was an earlier flight with availability and in both instances there was. They reassigned my flight with no charge, no hassle. If there's not an earlier option that day, you are probably out of luck, but it doesn't hurt to nicely try.

[gtalum]

Call with alternative flights (on Delta) already in mind, and they'll give them to you.

 

My experience is that any change of more than abotu 2 hours is enough for them to change flights for you.

[goodml]

Schedule changes are part of the travel experience. The airlines are only obligated to get you to your destination......that's what you've paid for...or in your case' date=' not paid for.

 

What recourse would you want? They aren't going to bring in a plane just for you....they aren't going to change their schedule back just for you...they aren't going to transfer your reward ticket to another carrier...they're not going to compensate you....so, what do you expect?

 

The most important thing is that you arrive in time to board your ship.[/quote']

 

You used to be a travel agent? This is terrible advice. Delta in particular WILL reaccomodate for a change of this magnitude if seats are available. The advice the OP has been given by others in terms of having a list of alternatives at their fingertips and then calling is the proper direction. Unbelievable.

[Budget Queen]

You used to be a travel agent? This is terrible advice. Delta in particular WILL reaccomodate for a change of this magnitude if seats are available. The advice the OP has been given by others in terms of having a list of alternatives at their fingertips and then calling is the proper direction. Unbelievable.

 

But, as I also have said, I believe Delta only runs two flights/day into Honolulu. There isn't going to be any other option, no matter what alternatives you may think you'll come up with. Hawaii, also is an extremely high load factor. And it's true, read the small print of contracts. It's enlightening what your "rights" actually are and what wrong assumptions many people have.

[gooch47]

Good thing you are going in a day early.

[Fishbait17]

But, as I also have said, I believe Delta only runs two flights/day into Honolulu. There isn't going to be any other option, no matter what alternatives you may think you'll come up with. Hawaii, also is an extremely high load factor. And it's true, read the small print of contracts. It's enlightening what your "rights" actually are and what wrong assumptions many people have.

 

Yes, but they originally had the earlier of the two Delta flights (assuming from the original post). It was their outbound flight connecting to the early HNL flt that was changed so much that they were reassigned the later HNL flight because of illegal connection. They simply need to take an earlier first flight to meet up with the earlier HNL flt, and Delta should have no problem with the adjustment.

 

Everyone is right, be armed with the schedule you want and call right away. You were originally ticketed on the earlier HNL flight (correct?), and they should be able put you on an earlier first flight to make this connection if there is one available (you may have to leave the night before and overnight in the connecting city - you have to decide if it's worth it to you). I have done this multiple times on DL, AA, UA and CO and only have status with CO. Once we even changed the dates of reward flights (AA) less than a week before departure to HNL due to a 2 hours schedule change, simply because nobody could pick us up at the airport - we ended up coming in a day earlier, and this was during prime Christmas week. Generally, if there are seats available (in your class of service, but not necessarily in your fare class), it's not an issue. Please let us know what happens!

 

Robin

[flashdog_1]

Thanks for all the replies and opinions!

 

I had a response to my email which merely said there have been some schedule changes and to call the 800 number.

 

I received no less than 4 emails with those new flight times etc. today which matched the new reservation times.

 

So I called. What did I have to lose? A Carolyn was very accommodating and said when this happens they can make the changes. I told her I wanted to land in Honolulu at about the same time as we were originally scheduled: 3:40 and mentioned that the non-stop flight which actually leaves Atlanta an hour later than our original ATL-HNL via LAX arrives exactly at 3:40. And strangely, if I were actually paying for the flight instead of using skymiles the cost of the non-stop was almost $200 less than the connecting one! I told her we'd only paid 40k and they were now asking 65K. Didn't seem to matter. She put us in row 14 so we are set. I didn't even have my DD's confirmation # (we booked separately) but she pulled up the flight # and found her and fixed us both. I was very impressed.

 

She was unable to do anything about the return via Minneapolis, however, but that was not the issue. We already had row 13 from Honolulu on Saturday. Wonder if anything will be open at 5:55 a.m. in Menneapolis :)

 

She also connected me to Northwest to get seating for the 2nd leg of the return, and he put us in row 41 which was as far forward as he had available. (on an airbus)

 

Again, thank you for all the advice.

[Fishbait17]

Kudos to Delta! Glad to hear about the resolution...

 

Robin

[Ontheotherhand]

Here, here! Customer service at the airlines is rapidly becoming as extinct as complimentary meals on the planes. Glad to hear Delta showed it is not completely gone.