Watch your flights !

[Shippy]

  We booked our fights from San Francisco to Miami on United along time ago. At random, my husband checked the fights. Both ways totally changed & THEY DID NOT NOTIFY US !

 Our nonstop to Miami changed to a flight to New York with a 3 hour layover. The return changed to a time to early to make it from the ship.

   My husband was so mad he totally cancelled & rebooked with American.

At random he checked today....again, no notice from the airlines....both flights totally changed.

On the way out, not only the flight changed, but our seats. First class but now we are split up on opposites side of the plane

   MORAL OF THE STORY.....do not just worry about what the cruise lines are going to do....

[Bgwest]

Great advice. I have gotten into the habit of checking all of our airline reservations DAILY.

[Paphillyguy]

My flights have changed as well with no notice from the airline.  Luckily we fly in the day before because our flight was moved from arriving at 11 am to arriving at 6 pm.  

[jules815]

1 hour ago, Shippy said:

  We booked our fights from San Francisco to Miami on United along time ago. At random, my husband checked the fights. Both ways totally changed & THEY DID NOT NOTIFY US !

 Our nonstop to Miami changed to a flight to New York with a 3 hour layover. The return changed to a time to early to make it from the ship.

   My husband was so mad he totally cancelled & rebooked with American.

At random he checked today....again, no notice from the airlines....both flights totally changed.

On the way out, not only the flight changed, but our seats. First class but now we are split up on opposites side of the plane

   MORAL OF THE STORY.....do not just worry about what the cruise lines are going to do....

 

Read an article yesterday about American canceling lots of flights due to labor issues. Hope it all works out for you. 

[phissy]

Our direct flights from LAX to FLL were cancelled.  They tried to put us on connecting flights over 2 days.

NO....researched options and found more desirable schedules.

Called in and they did the change I requested without any issue. 

It helps to know your airlines policies for cancels and changes. For AS, If flight change is 60 minutes or more or cancelled, you are entitled to change without additional fees or fare changes. 

If I had cancelled and booked new airfare - that change would have cost us $1,200 more. 

 

 

[tallnthensome]

I would post this in the Cruise Air forum since this has nothing to do with MSC Cruises. 

[MotownVoice]

I gotta believe the airlines are getting hit just as hard as the cruise lines by last year's covid racka-racka.  Hopefully this quirk in the booking process is temporary. 

I'm somebody who baby sits my bookings on, pretty much, a daily basis.  So I feel confident I would see a change at least within a day or two.

But you're right ... finding out this way that your flight activity is now as vulnerable and in some respects as potentially unreliable as the pandemic has made the cruise industry is disturbing.

[JAGR]

You can always set up alerts for changes on any booking you have.  I do mine on all flights and tie it to the frequent flyer program memberships.  If you want any one flight, you can do it by flight as well, asking to be notified on any cancellation, departure time or arrival time. It beats having to check in every day.

 

[DCGuy64]

6 minutes ago, JAGR said:

You can always set up alerts for changes on any booking you have.  I do mine on all flights and tie it to the frequent flyer program memberships.  If you want any one flight, you can do it by flight as well, asking to be notified on any cancellation, departure time or arrival time. It beats having to check in every day.

 

Good advice. I use an app on my phone that alerts me if my flights change, and as you pointed out, the airlines themselves can alert you.

[Shippy]

2 hours ago, tallnthensome said:

I would post this in the Cruise Air forum since this has nothing to do with MSC Cruises. 

        Sorry.....this was in reference to flights for our MSC cruise.

The world has changed & many things are affected. Thought this would benefit my fellow cruisers.

This type of issue was not a real big problem before so doubt if anyone would have gone to the 'air forum'.

In other words.....I feel that there are probably many issues that might have seemed unrelated before Covid....but are issues for many now.

 

[dexddd]

Maybe it is because we have to connect, but we typically had cruise booked 18 months out and book air as soon as it opens.  We typically see more than one change with final settling around 60 days before flights.  Almost always those changes create a connection issue.

 

American not good at letting you know, Delta is.

[MotownVoice]

This was, in general, the story Jules was talking about.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/more-people-are-flying-so-why-are-airlines-slashing-flights-n1271623

[JAGR]

1 hour ago, dexddd said:

Maybe it is because we have to connect, but we typically had cruise booked 18 months out and book air as soon as it opens.  We typically see more than one change with final settling around 60 days before flights.  Almost always those changes create a connection issue.

 

American not good at letting you know, Delta is.

Oddly, I find American to be best at notification immediately when changes are made, but it may be correlated to what elite level you have in the frequent flyer program.

Edited June 22, 2021 by JAGR

[MotownVoice]

51 minutes ago, JAGR said:

Oddly, I find American to be best at notification immediately when changes are made, but it may be correlated to what elite level you have in the frequent flyer program.

Oh yeah, that's a good policy.  Because cancellations are much more important to individuals of high net wealth than to ordinary schmucks like me.

[DCGuy64]

52 minutes ago, JAGR said:

Oddly, I find American to be best at notification immediately when changes are made, but it may be correlated to what elite level you have in the frequent flyer program.

We aren't elite or anything with American, but I always *DO* get notifications via email if there are schedule changes. For instance, last fall we had several flights change from non-stop to ones with a layover, and we were notified several weeks in advance.

[JAGR]

59 minutes ago, MotownVoice said:

Oh yeah, that's a good policy.  Because cancellations are much more important to individuals of high net wealth than to ordinary schmucks like me.

It's not related to net wealth.  It's related to frequency of use.  Some people have jobs that require travel, not that they travel because of disposable income.  That being said, it makes sense to alert any customer impacted, but any business will pay attention to major customers,  Even a schmuck can understand that, I would hope!😉

[quattrohead]

Update your profile with the airline. I have found some of my information to be 10-15 years out of date with some companies I used intermittently over the years.

[DCGuy64]

The app I use is called Tripit, and one thing I particularly like is that it sends notifications regarding gate changes and departure/arrival times on the fly. It also tells me which baggage claim area to go to. It's a huge timesaver. Last November we were flying to Florida from Louisville, KY and the flight got delayed several times, to the point where we ended up taking a different flight altogether (this was on American, BTW). I used the American Airlines app to switch flights and it was very easy.

[cellfree]

On 6/21/2021 at 12:12 PM, tallnthensome said:

I would post this in the Cruise Air forum since this has nothing to do with MSC Cruises. 

I agree, this Post should be moved, has nothing to do with MSC, seems like no one is monitoring the Board.

[MotownVoice]

3 hours ago, cellfree said:

I agree, this Post should be moved, has nothing to do with MSC, seems like no one is monitoring the Board.

Hey, here’s a way to think about it.     At least 8 members found this thread a worthwhile read.   You don’t.  So don’t read it!

Edited June 22, 2021 by MotownVoice