Curious about flight info

[Freckles_51]

I'm not too concerned, just curious about some changes in our flights. We booked flights last June for upcoming April cruise, YYZ-MIA on Air Canada, booked through a TA.

 

Original flight times have changed. We're fine with that although the outgoing flight is earlier by 1hr:15mins - glad I went online to check. ;)

 

Odd thing now is that there are 2 listings for homeward flights, same flight number, flight time is 10 mins later on the 2nd item. I'm assuming this is just to point out the flight time change but curious as to why it is listed as both the old time and new time, when there is no such 2nd listing for the original outgoing flight when the time difference was so much more. :confused:

 

There is a note in between the 2 homeward bound items : "Airport change from YYZ to MIA" This notice was not there about a month ago after the outgoing flight time changed (the homeward bound had not changed at that time)

 

The other odd thing is that the fare type and codes have changed.

Original outbound was Tango P and homeward was Tango G

Now it shows outgoing as Tango T and both homeward listings are Flex G

 

I didn't realize the fare type change at first, realized Flex allows complimentary seat reservations so went to do that, it came back as confirmed but did not show the seat numbers, went back and looked at the seats again and they were still available.

 

Is all the above normal? I did call my TA but he no longer works there and another TA, who seemed to not want to bother with my questions, only said everything is fine, which I'm sure it is, I'm just too curious for my own good :p

 

A question about reserved seats, online shows only 9 seats available as of yesterday. We are a party of 5. Does Air Canada allow online reservation for all seats, or hold some back for assignment at check-in? I know we could have paid extra to reserve seats when we first booked. I just want to know what to expect.

 

Sorry my post is a bit long winded, thanks for reading and hope someone can explain, to satisfy my curiosity. ;)

[kenish]

Are you on AC flights, or codeshares? "Airport change" usually means an airport at either end of the roundtrip are different, but nearby airport...for example into MIA and out of FLL.

 

You're asking some good but very specific questions while being vague with background information. Provide dates and flight numbers, and better answers can be provided.

 

From the symptoms you've described, it sounds like an airport has changed on one end or the other, and AC has not deleted the old flight out of their system. Or, some of your party was rebooked while others were not.

 

FYI, seat availability shown on airline websites is highly inaccurate for a variety of reasons.

[Freckles_51]

Thanks for responding. I don't think they are codeshare they are AC flights.

It seems that we are still together and no change in airports. I will try to post image of before and after....if it doesn't work then I will type out the details :)

 

Images look small but if you click on them to enlarge

 

Original booking:

 

 

Now:

 

Edited February 11, 2014 by Freckles_51

[RickT]

Looks to me like Celebrity isn't the only company with Website issues ;)

 

I wouldn't be too worried about this but would definitely go to the Manage My Bookings section of the AC website to make sure everything is OK there. While there I'd try again to book seats and if you have the same problem give AC a call.

 

As far as other seat assignment, the only problem I've had with AC and not having seats pre-assigned is that I didn't get a seat next to my wife. Only a short flight so no problem.

[kenish]

It looks like you caught their website in a strange software glitch. Seems like when the MIA-YYZ flight time changed, the original return flight got re-interpreted as the outbound flight. Hence, the "airport change" from YYZ to MIA!

 

I would pull up your reservation again, and I'd bet the problem has gone away. If not, definitely contact AC. Sometimes seemingly minor issues turn into a problem when you actually travel.

 

Also be sure you check in early for your homeward flight. On May 1, the 3 daily flights on Airbus change to only 1 daily flight on an Embraer E190 (nice plane BTW). But there's fewer seats and only one flight.

[Freckles_51]

Thanks RickT and kenish.

 

The info in Manage My Bookings was like this yesterday, and earlier today before my original post, and I just checked again and it is still the same.

 

I just tried again to reserve seats and again it says confirmed, but in the space where it should give the seat number it just gives the flight number.

 

We will be staying in Miami for one night after getting off the ship so will try to check in from the hotel for the return flight, assuming it can be done 24 hours before departure. If not we will definitely get to the airport early - 3 hours prior to departure at least.

 

We are a family of 5 - not expecting to be able to sit together but we do have 2 children and hope that the younger one can be seated with a parent. The older one is 13 and will be fine on his own.

 

I put another call in for the TA to check everything but still not heard back. :mad: I gave up on using a TA for cruise bookings, maybe it is time to book my own flights too. It's too bad, I had great service from the previous TA who is no longer there.:(

[em-sk]

Thanks RickT and kenish.

 

The info in Manage My Bookings was like this yesterday, and earlier today before my original post, and I just checked again and it is still the same.

 

I just tried again to reserve seats and again it says confirmed, but in the space where it should give the seat number it just gives the flight number.

 

We will be staying in Miami for one night after getting off the ship so will try to check in from the hotel for the return flight, assuming it can be done 24 hours before departure. If not we will definitely get to the airport early - 3 hours prior to departure at least.

 

We are a family of 5 - not expecting to be able to sit together but we do have 2 children and hope that the younger one can be seated with a parent. The older one is 13 and will be fine on his own.

 

I put another call in for the TA to check everything but still not heard back. :mad: I gave up on using a TA for cruise bookings, maybe it is time to book my own flights too. It's too bad, I had great service from the previous TA who is no longer there.:(

 

On the seat assignment front, they normally block the first couple of rows in the economy section for frequent fliers. Those get released at check-in time.

 

They also move frequent fliers from economy to business class to free up seats in economy usually at the gate just before boarding. If you don't have the kids sitting next to the adults if you go up to the agent at the gate before they start processing the upgrades there is a chance they may be able to adjust some of your seats when they do the other adjustments.

[kenish]

Do not wait for your TA, and do not delay in getting this resolved! Call Air Canada directly and explain your concern. Since your reservation is still displaying strangely, something could be amok. You do *not* want to find that out at the airport, or a few days before you travel. At that point your options may be very limited. Chances are everything is fine but you need to fix it ASAP if it isn't.

 

The E190 for your return flight is 2+2 seating. So plan accordingly.

[Freckles_51]

It is resolved :)

 

AC reservations was really busy yesterday, I was on hold for over an hour and I couldn't continue to hold and work at the same time so I gave the TA another try and this time spoke to a supervisor who looked after it right away.

 

TA said that when flight times change, even if it is just a minute difference, the change should trigger an email to the TA, but the TA had not received anything since the original booking.

 

AC said the reservation was showing that way because the email was not sent to the TA yet. Doesn't make sense to me really because the reservation did not appear that way after the outbound flight time change weeks ago, only after the return change.

 

Anyway it is fixed now and with the benefit of the return flight fare type still showing as Flex :D so we were able to reserve seats for that flight. We managed to get a cluster of 4 together and 1 seat a few rows away so we are good with that.

 

Thanks again everyone for your help and advice (including waterbug123 - don't know what happened yesterday but I know you posted here, I received it by email, but the message has disappeared from this thread during web site maintenance :( )