My flights and times have been changed by Delta

[H2Otstr]

Just a forewarning about some of Delta's flights for summer of 2012:

 

Delta has changed some of their flights. I found this information on "cruise air" and decided to look at my flights for May 2012. I was supposed to go from Prague to Atlanta to ILM. Now I am going from Prague to Amsterdam to Atlanta to ILM. I have not been notified by Delta of this change.

 

I know that all airlines change their flights/times, but this was a big change from our original flights. Might want to check Delta's website if you are flying with them next year.

 

Sharon

[caviargal]

We fly Delta often as they are the major carrier from our area. Last year 4 of us had tickets into Munich and out of Vienna and they cancelled the Vienna flight as they dropped the city from their service area completely. We were not informed and did not have the option to cancel the trip without losing a ton of money.

 

I eventually got them to fly us home from Munich but the cost for train tickets was on our own and we have to leave our cruise a day early to make the flight that was available.

 

The year before they had a last minute schedule change that stranded us in Europe between flights.

 

I have learned to check my confirmed itineraries often. Since the trip is not until next summer, I expect there will be more changes to come.

[shoshona2]

To caviargal,

 

You are absolutely right. We travel almost every month and my DH or I check the flights weekly. My friends' paid reservations went out of the computer on AA and she had to scramble to get new ones. That's life now -- flying is not fun -- it's a chore like anything else. If we want to see the World, we have to accept that!! We are off to India in February to see our 8th Wonder of the World -- the Taj. It's a pain traveling, but all so wonderful to see the sights!!

 

Sheila

[newlondon]

Be aware also next year is an Olympic year. We had Air France premium economy BOS-CDG yanked from under us to accomodate the flow from JFK.

AF is a code share partner with Delta-be forewarned.

[stretchcruz]

We had a huge problem with Delta last year....we booked our flights through Avalon, Delta cancelled a flight and basically got us into Budapest after 10 PM, wasting a whole day of our vacation. I was on the phone with Delta, sent many emails, etc, and got the standard answer "nothing can be done". I contacted Christopher Elliott, the travel writer, and he gave me some great advice. I emailed several of Delta's top honchos, the emails are on his website, and within a week someone from Delta contacted me and miraculously got us on a flight that arrived in Budapest I believe around 2 PM. My TA was no help, she tried and got nowhere, Avalon was no help as well. Contacting Christopher Elliott was the best thing I ever did.

[imisseurope]

Yes,,I am in the midst of trying to secure "cruise air" with AF/DL. Were you ticketed, or just "holding" a reservation? I thought if you actually were ticketed, they couldn't mess with your schedule as much. Yikes,,getting nervous!

[stretchcruz]

We were totally ticketed, seat assignments, everything. Then when our flight was cancelled, I was the one who contacted my TA and Avalon to tell them it was cancelled. They said it wasn't. Then it was reticketed to the horrible connections. They told us since it was ticketed we couldn't change it, thus the whole snafu. It was a nightmare. I was actually on the phone to Delta and Avalon and my TA quoting times that were "held" on the webiste for us, that they said didn't exist. OK, nightmare, don't want to think about it any more, but be careful.

[caviargal]

Yes,,I am in the midst of trying to secure "cruise air" with AF/DL. Were you ticketed, or just "holding" a reservation? I thought if you actually were ticketed, they couldn't mess with your schedule as much. Yikes,,getting nervous!

 

You really cannot just "hold" a reservation anymore, and most tickets are not changeable unless you are willing to pay the exorbitant premium these fares require. Being ticketed has nothing to do with it. We were ticketed in both cases where Delta's changes left us stranded and both were also in Business class - so class of service does not matter either.

[Coral]

Yes,,I am in the midst of trying to secure "cruise air" with AF/DL. Were you ticketed, or just "holding" a reservation? I thought if you actually were ticketed, they couldn't mess with your schedule as much. Yikes,,getting nervous!

 

Oh yes they can! I have had tickets and had the carrier stopped flying to my destination city. I have also had many changes that have required lots of changes in schedules.

 

Be pro-active and keep checking on them.

[H2Otstr]

Yes,,I am in the midst of trying to secure "cruise air" with AF/DL. Were you ticketed, or just "holding" a reservation? I thought if you actually were ticketed, they couldn't mess with your schedule as much. Yikes,,getting nervous!

 

I am ticketed. I bought my complete package (air and cruise) through Grand Circle.

[cb222]

Would it not be worth the cost of hotel rooms to fly into and out of the port cities with an extra day before and after the cruise?

 

New Cruiser,

cb

[YoungDubFan]

I tend to have pretty bad travel luck and have had many flights changed, cancelled, etc. Some of the times I've worked with a travel agent and other times I've worked with the airlines directly. Maybe because I've had it happen a few times, but I've always been able to work out an acceptable solution. Luckily I've never been stranded in a city, but have had routes changed, more stops added, etc. Anytime I've had an itinerary change, there is always a number listed that I've been able to call if I didn't like the options they gave me. This summer I was flying into Rapid City, SD for a tour of Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone. I was using frequent flier miles, which can also make things more difficult as they tend to be less accommodating. The change had me getting into Rapid City after the initial meeting for the tour. I told Delta that I had to be in before 8 pm. I probably spent over 1 hr on the phone with an agent, but she was able to put me on a flight that got me in early enough, even though there supposedly weren't any reward seats on that flight. I basically told Delta it wasn't my fault that they cancelled my flight, that I had booked over 9 months earlier and they had to fix it. They stepped up to the plate. I find that often it just takes persistence and being nice and pleasant on the phone. Granted, any time that I fly to Europe, I do go in a day early, just to try and prevent some of this.

 

Good luck to all with your flights / changes and don't give up. Sometimes it only takes calling back and getting a different or nicer agent who is willing to go to bat for you.

[huntersyaya]

I too am on AIRFRANCE from Atl to Paris...on to Budapest and then from Nuremberg to Paris to Atl- We are flying in May and I have had my ticket since September. My Atl to paris flight has changed (two hours earlier- i am fine with that) My Paris to Budapest is unchanged Nuremberg to paris is unchanged but I miss my paris to Atlanta connection because my flight is cancelled and the one they have me on leaves three hrs earlier....just waiting to see what they are going to do with me and three others! Again, it is not until May so it will probably change 10 times between now and then!

[shoshona2]

Hi YoungDubFan,

 

I totally agree with your advice -- always be pleasant to the agents. If you don't get satisfaction, hang up and call again. You might just get a wonderful agent who will be able to help you. We also go in a day earlier, especially for a cruise. Since we have to go from LAX, we sometimes stay over at Heathrow and take a morning flight to our destination. We did that in September and it was wonderful breaking up the jet lag. We once hit the Blackout of August 2003 and had to sleep on the floor at JFK. We were 11 hours late arriving in London and had to go to Dover to board our ship. We did it in plenty of time since we allowed an extra day!!

 

Sheia

[BPCruiser]

We had a huge problem with Delta last year....we booked our flights through Avalon, Delta cancelled a flight and basically got us into Budapest after 10 PM, wasting a whole day of our vacation. I was on the phone with Delta, sent many emails, etc, and got the standard answer "nothing can be done". I contacted Christopher Elliott, the travel writer, and he gave me some great advice. I emailed several of Delta's top honchos, the emails are on his website, and within a week someone from Delta contacted me and miraculously got us on a flight that arrived in Budapest I believe around 2 PM. My TA was no help, she tried and got nowhere, Avalon was no help as well. Contacting Christopher Elliott was the best thing I ever did.

 

Stretchcruz, I am catching up today on some older postings and found your note here most interesting and would like to keep it in my travel notebook for future references in case this type of flight situation were to arise for us. Could you possibly e-mail me your contact info regarding Christopher Elliott as we are not familiar with him. Thanks! FYI, we just arrived home last night from our Avalon Budapest to Prague cruise and had a wonderful time. Had some water level issues but Avalon handeled it all quite well as you can read in some of my CC postings. Your tips from your review of your cruise as well as other communication was quite helpful. Many Thanks!!!:)

[YoungDubFan]

Here is the link to Chris Elliot's web page: http://www.elliott.org/

He is a consumer and travel advocate. He has great contact info on his web page. If you read his site somewhat regularly, you will gain valuable insight on how to handle some issues. His number one recommendation is use e-mail over phone calls to provide a paper trail.

[EmsMom]

We were just notified of a schedule change from Delta for our June 2012 cruise. The new schedule only allowed a little over an hour to change flights in Miami coming from Orlando. My experience has been that flights leaving later in the day from Orlando usually don't go out on time so I called Delta and asked them to change it as I didn't want to miss our connecting flight to London. The agent very nicely changed our flights (we now have to fly through Detroit instead of Miami). One ticket was an award ticket and the other was paid. She also gave us another option through JFK. At any rate I was happy. I agree that you have to be persistent.....sometimes you get a really good agent and sometimes not. Several years ago we had a death in the family and had to get off of our cruise ship in Odessa (not the best place to have to get away in a hurry). I asked our daughter back in the US to try to get our Delta flights switched so we could get home and she had no luck...Delta wouldn't help her. I called myself and asked for a supervisor who bent over backwards to help us and got us the flight we needed. It was an expensive phone call but not as expensive as new tickets. I have also had good luck using the "Contact Us" method on the Delta website. They are usually very responsive.

[stretchcruz]

BPCruiser, glad you had a great time! Did you use Jana in Prague? As you

can see, Chrstopher Elliott's email was posted above. He, and his staff and advice, are wonderful.

[4774Papa]

Would it not be worth the cost of hotel rooms to fly into and out of the port cities with an extra day before and after the cruise?

 

New Cruiser,

cb

We always fly into the embarking port city at least one day prior to the cruise. This is insurance for flight delays or lost baggage. Also, gives us more time to see the sites.

[BPCruiser]

BPCruiser, glad you had a great time! Did you use Jana in Prague? As you

can see, Chrstopher Elliott's email was posted above. He, and his staff and advice, are wonderful.

 

No we did not use Jana, we did the included Prague city tour with Avalon which was quite good of the Prague Castle and Old Town area, had a good guide and the remainder we did on our own (alot of walking) in between enjoying the Christmas Markets which started last Friday in Prague with the official opening and lighting of the Christmas Tree in the Old Town Square on Saturday. It was quite beautiful!! We were able to catch several opened Christmas Markets on this trip to our happy surprise towards the end of our cruise ( Salzburg, Vienna and Prague). Had a great trip, perfect weather with not a drop of rain or snow and everywhere we went was so festive in the Christmas mode. Felt like we got a combo Danube cruise as well as a Christmas markets Cruise for the price of 1. I told my DH he lucked out, one less cruise to scratch off our list although we would not hesitate to go back again at this same time of year. We don't mind the cooler weather and the Holiday festivities added alot to the trip! Thanks for your valuable info. If you ever need a reference for a good transfer service in Prague or Budapest, let me know. We lucked out with very nice and reasonably priced airport transfer cars, alot less expensive then using the Avalon Transfer. :)

[mountainhouse]

In 2006, I read somewhere on Cruise Critic to reconfirm your flights (Milan>JFK>SFO). When I did, I found out Delta have moved us to JFK>SFO flight that left before our arrival from Milan. I guess this is a common problem with them. I've seen no reason to fly them since that experience.

 

Thanks for the tip on that blog.