Airlines changed time for flight home!

[FunForUs]

Help!! American Airlines just changed our return flight from LGB to PHX from Noon to 10:05 A.M. We disembark in San Pedro. Do you think we can make it in time? All comments greatly appreciated. Thanks, Shirley

[Kamloops50]

What time does the ship arrive at ? If the ship isn't late , no customs problems and self disembark you probably can make it. LGB is only 30 minutes from San Pedro. If scheduled for 7AM or earlier you'll be finr.

If you can talk to American and see if can be changed to a later flight or one from LAX around 12PM.

[Potstech]

Call American Airlines and insist that they make better arrangements for you. It is their fault be making this change and they should be able to make better accomadations for you at no extra cost. I have done it before.

[Colo Cruiser]

Should be ok making a 10:00 flight from Long Beach.

Do the self disembarkation with your bags and get an Uber or taxi. (Uber/$22)

We were at the gate in LGB by 7:30 in March on the Ruby.

[rgmacm]

When something similar happened to us with Delta, (they ALL do it...) I called. They couldn't find anything that would work for us so refunded our money. Of course, that meant I was back to the drawing board with finding a flight (and ended up paying more to get the next one ugh!!) but at least we have a flight that we can make (ours was IMPOSSIBLE....not saying yours is....) :)

In defense of the airlines.. (and BOY do they NEED a defense...ugh) they don't know which passengers are cruise passengers (who possibly can't make earlier flight times) and which passengers aren't. (just trying to see things from all points of view..haha)

[DrivesLikeMario]

Anytime an airline changes your original reservation, you have the right to request other flights. If they can't accommodate you, then you should get a refund. It's very simple to handle, just call them and have alternative flights figured out that you want. It'll make it quicker once you're on the phone with them.

 

While you might make that flight without a problem, if you don't make it, then it becomes a much bigger problem and you have to deal with it at that time, hoping that the next flight isn't full. It's up to you what you're willing to risk.

[RocketMan275]

Help!! American Airlines just changed our return flight from LGB to PHX from Noon to 10:05 A.M. We disembark in San Pedro. Do you think we can make it in time? All comments greatly appreciated. Thanks, Shirley

If American can't find you a better flight, you can always fly Hertz. Should be less than a six hour drive. Might even save some money depending upon how many in your party. Don't forget, you get a refund if they can't fix this. Use the refund and rent a car.

[VibeGuy]

Since the change is >60 minutes you have a lot of leverage here.

 

Personally I would keep the new time - security at LGB is a breeze and it's a tiny airport so showing up as late as 9:15 is probably not an issue if you just have carryon. That would require you to be off the ship and through customs/immigration by 8:45, a completely realistic goal.

 

If not, ask them to accommodate you via LAX and give you future travel credit of $25 each for the extra taxi expense.

[Bonnie1750]

I personally would change. Once our ship had a mechanical problem and we limped back to port arriving around 11:00. Our relatives had a flight to catch and they were literally running thru the airport to make their connection.

 

 

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[Cruise Raider]

Ah ... American Airlines strikes again. I know it is all of them lately but this one seems to take the grand prize lately. American should be able to accommodate you on another flight, even if on another airline or from a different departure airport.

 

Anyhow, I would never chance trying to make a flight that early. We barely made a flight out at noon when docking in San Pedro ... we were still waiting in line onboard to get off the ship at the time your flight is scheduled to leave. You might be able to make it but then again, why put yourself through that kind of stress?

[riclop]

with self assist you will be fine.

[HleeCruiser]

My travel agent said you absolutely have the right to be accommodated on a later flight. A two hour flight change is beyond a reasonable schedule change.

 

Personally I would be very uncomfortable with a 10 A.M. departure.

 

HMC

[Sea Hag]

Here's an illustration of "anything that can happen, will." Once we went to Mexico, sailing and returning San Pedro. Some poor man died at some point on the cruise, and it took hours and hours for the ship to clear customs. We were sitting around and waiting forever. You could probably sail back into San Pedro several hundred times before some snafu or another caused that kind of delay, but these days I leave myself a lot more room on flight times.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Yes agree with those who said to call AA. Tell them the new flight time is unacceptable and ask for later alternatives

 

 

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[pris993]

Help!! American Airlines just changed our return flight from LGB to PHX from Noon to 10:05 A.M. We disembark in San Pedro. Do you think we can make it in time? All comments greatly appreciated. Thanks, Shirley

 

Call American Airlines and tell them you are on a cruise, the time will not work, they will rebook it. I do this all the time. When they make a change, if you call them they will put you on another flight.

[caribill]

In defense of the airlines.. (and BOY do they NEED a defense...ugh) they don't know which passengers are cruise passengers (who possibly can't make earlier flight times) and which passengers aren't. (just trying to see things from all points of view..haha)

 

Not in defense of airlines, how about making schedules and sticking to them?

 

Some airlines, such as Southwest, rarely change the schedule for a flight.

 

 

Some airlines, such as Delta, rarely keep the schedule for a flight (I recently had the schedule for a September flight change two times within two weeks).

 

 

I had another Delta flight change that came with a warning in red that with this change I might not make my connection, but since it still was a "legal" connection they would not change me to another flight.

[Jase0581]

American is the absolute worst with schedule changes, not with the amount but with how they reaccommodate people when they happen. On my last American itinerary I was originally scheduled for 3:05 PM from SFO after a Panama Canal cruise. American changed me to a 10:05 AM, and when I called about it they moved me to a 3:35 PM departure. So instead of of just putting me on a 30 minute later flight they moved it 5 hours earlier.

In your case, I would first see if this may be the case and there isn't really a flight within an hour of your original. The choice is yours if you want to take the worry with an early flight which you may ultimately not have any problems making. American is usually willing to work with travelers in schedule changes and I get the feeling that their own employees can't stand how their computer system works these changes.

[cruisinggaga]

Call American and tell them it won't work for you. They did that to me and when I called them they were very accommodating and became they changed the time it should not charge you.

 

 

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[FunForUs]

Thanks so much for all of your replies. I received great information that will be very helpful. Asking American to change my flight isn't a good option because they only have one more flight that day -- at 7 PM and I'm hoping to avoid going to LAX.

 

Thanks again everyone -- don't know what I do without Cruise Critic! Shirley

[Colo Cruiser]

 

Thanks again everyone -- don't know what I do without Cruise Critic! Shirley

 

 

 

Have a lot of extra time on your hands? :')

[TERESAh]

Help!! American Airlines just changed our return flight from LGB to PHX from Noon to 10:05 A.M. We disembark in San Pedro. Do you think we can make it in time? All comments greatly appreciated. Thanks, Shirley

LBG is not that big of an airport and not far from the pier---you should be fine. You can do the walk off if you want to be the one of first off.

[Tucker in Texas]

I had the same problem in finding a flight from LGB to HOU. When I first started looking, they had a 10:30 flight on SWA (airline of my choice, bags fly free and easy to change) and, after advice from those on CC, decided to chance it.

 

However, by the time the flights were available to book, 10:30 had gone away and my choices were 7:30 a.m. or 4:30 p.m. The 4:30 would have been acceptable except it arrived in Houston after midnight plus a long day of sitting around doing nothing until it took off. Bottom line is we decided to stay overnight in Long Beach and not worry about it. We will have a leisurely breakfast and hang around until they kick us off (lol)

 

As another poster pointed out, there could be unexpected delays in docking. Once we were stuck on a ship when a port was closed for fog until 4:00 p.m. Fortunately, we had driven in so it didn't impact us that much but there were a lot of unhappy people who it did. As a side note, those that were driving in had no place to park as our cars were taking up all the spaces and embarkation didn't begin until 6:00 pm.

[KristyMisty14]

My travel agent said you absolutely have the right to be accommodated on a later flight. A two hour flight change is beyond a reasonable schedule change.

 

Personally I would be very uncomfortable with a 10 A.M. departure.

 

HMC

 

Agreed aaaaaand you don't want to spend your last night on the cruise with this on your mind and worrying about getting off in time right?!

[VibeGuy]

Ok, don't get reaccomodate to LAX if that sounds so awful . . .

 

But you realize if you don't make the flight for whatever reason, you're SOL as far as the fare rules go, right? Even though AA made the change, if you don't request the move due to schedule change prior to the close of the check-in window for the now-earlier flight, and then can't make it for whatever reason, they're under zero obligation to refund or even let you fly standby on the next flight for free. Them's the berries.

 

I would, at the very least, call and ask a supervisor to note in the PNR that the Same Day Change fee should be waived if it's needed and your standby priority be made either R1 or Must Fly due to the schedule change. With flights as full as they are of late, I don't like the combination of a slightly marginal time and a tacit acceptance of the earlier departure.

 

(if you haven't flown AA at LAX lately, it's much better now that they're in T4/T5 without T6 gates, but I admit the ride out to the Eagle gates is kind of a pain)

[Westskip]

Hi all.

As an Australian we are unaware of these constant (?) flight changes in the US. We'll be doing some internal flights in the US next year to make our cruise connection at Fort Lauderdale so can you advise me which airlines to possibly avoid.

I get a bit paranoid about flight changes or late flights so we'll probably fly ion the day before.

Many thanks for your advice.