Air Canada flight change

[Divi]

We booked our flights through HAL’s Flight Ease for our February cruise out of FLL.  Final payment is due December 7th.

We got an email yesterday from AC changing our flight. We are not comfortable with the time we have to clear U.S. customs and make our connection in Terminal 1 in Toronto. February 🌨🌬❄️😬

My question, do we try to change flights before or after final payment.

Thanks

[canadianbear]

I’d be phoning flight ease now.  See if there’s a better flight for you.  You can Google first to see or just phone flight ease.  

[Fouremco]

We had an AC flight change yesterday as well, and their system to confirm the change crashed, so there may have been a lot of changes yesterday. All that to say that if you want/need to find a different flight, it would be best to get on with it now.

[1kaper]

43 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

We had an AC flight change yesterday as well, and their system to confirm the change crashed, so there may have been a lot of changes yesterday. All that to say that if you want/need to find a different flight, it would be best to get on with it now.

We have an AC flight booked for our return trip from our cruise (we aren't flying directly to our cruise destination and had some leftover credits to use up).  We got a notice the other day too.  My husband hasn't been able to get through. 

[loupana]

Add me to the list, I got the email from AC that my Jan 14th flight changed. I was told not to do anything wait for a phone call or another email within the next 7 days because my cruise is still over 30 days out.

[gubby]

Add us to the AC change list. Our time moved forward by almost 3 hours, same aircraft and flight number. We were not directed to do anything. Flight is not til April. I purposely chose late flight because we were leery about FLL, but hope things are better by then.

[CKCruising]

It's not just AC.  I've had both of my Westjet flights changed this month (Dec/Mar) by more than 3 hours.  In one case, one flight was cancelled and I had to get on a different flight.  In the other, it was just time change on the same flight number.

[bebe08]

I had direct AC flight from Ottawa to FLL changed to a connecting flight through Pearson.  I called and changed it to a direct flight from Montreal.  We will take train to Mtl....much prefer that to changing planes at Pearson.  This is for an April cruise with Celebrity.   We still have a direct return flight.  I keep checking to see if new flights get added as we prefer to fly out of Ottawa.  

[OVgirl]

We also had both our AC flights through Holland America Flight Ease changed.

A few months ago our return flight was changed and we didn't like the flights they booked us on. I called Flight Ease and told them the flight we preferred. They changed it for us and gave us price protection even though our choice cost more.

 

Hope everyone gets flights that they are happy with.

[GeriatricNurse]

2 hours ago, Fouremco said:

We had an AC flight change yesterday as well, and their system to confirm the change crashed, so there may have been a lot of changes yesterday. All that to say that if you want/need to find a different flight, it would be best to get on with it now.

I had an AC flight change as well; FLL to YYZ!  Same departure time, different plane; changed to AC ROUGE!  My (original) return flight was booked as 'Premium Economy' & my (changed) return flight was 'upgraded' to 'Business', (with a refund of $34.55)!

[GeriatricNurse]

1 hour ago, 1kaper said:

We have an AC flight booked for our return trip from our cruise (we aren't flying directly to our cruise destination and had some leftover credits to use up).  We got a notice the other day too.  My husband hasn't been able to get through. 

This is (one) of (many) reasons why I just love to have my 'Travel Advisor' attend to all the details; flight changes, included!

[NWT Cruiser]

Add us to the Air Canada change of many flights.  We are going on a cruise on Jan. 17/22 and were booked to fly to Los Angeles on Jan. 16th (and were supposed to arrive early afternoon).  They've now changed our flights (still the same day) but we don't arrive until around 8:30 PM now so by the time we get our luggage, go through customs and leave the airport we'll probably get to our hotel around 11 PM (if we're lucky).  It'll be too late to enjoy anything (will probably just watch a bit of TV and get to sleep.  lol),  The worst part about AC changes for us is that we are flying from L.A. to Vegas on Jan. 24 (right after the cruise) and were going to spend 4 nights in Vegas and fly back to Yellowknife on Jan. 28 leaving Vegas at approx. 8:00 AM, with a 4 hour layover in Vancouver then a 2 hour layover in Calgary and continue on to Yellowknife and arrive in YK at around 10 P.M.  .... changes now have us leaving Vegas at around midnight on a red eye flight (Jan. 28) and fly to Toronto with a 5 hour layover, then on to Calgary with another 2 hour stop and get to YK (Jan. 29) at 5:40 pm.  Terrible flights ... I tried calling to cancel, but can't seem to get through so I tried cancelling online and couldn't even do that.  I can cancel sometime next week, no hurry.  Anyways, we're now booked on WestJet leaving Vegas at 1:30 pm with a 4 hour layover in Calgary and arrive in YK just after midnight.  My rant for the day.  lol

 

[lots-of-km2]

I too got a flight change e-notice yesterday from AC.  Mine was for a spring 2022 flight to the US.  The email asked for a reply confirmation from me,  and provided for a reservation change as an option. AC sent a second email 24 hours later because I hadn't yet confirmed my acceptance of the change. 

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the departure time and/or number changes multiple times between now and spring 2022.  Everything is in flux. 

[MamatoJack]

Oh I got one too! Mine is for coming home, about 30 minutes later than before which probably works out better in Orlando. At least it's still direct. 

 

To the original poster, I would contact them now, I doubt they will make another change to the flight and you might want to make sure you get the flight timing you want. 

[Florida_gal_50]

They must have done a lot of changes yesterday.  I just booked mine on Wednesday through flight ease.

[Britchip]

My flights changed too. Terrible as I now have an 8.5 hour layover in Montreal, I looked at hotel for the night but decided not to pay over $250 for at most a 5 hour stay. I booked these flights on points months ago. Pretty unhappy with AC at this point. I hate Pearson so my options were limited. Accepted the revised flights even though they are awful. Guess I’ll just be exhausted upon arrival at FLL.

[cnd crsr]

Like so many others we received an AC flight change  (Toronto to Fort Lauderdale). We are happy with the switch, still a direct flight and will leave  a few hours earlier. Also a bit of a price reduction.

[Divi]

We were able to change our flight yesterday. Thanks @canadianbearand @Fouremcoand all posters.

There are very few direct flights from Ottawa so  most times we connect through Toronto or Montreal . I prefer Toronto probably because the flight to Montreal is on a small plane and involves a walk across the tarmac into the airport. 🥶

I tried to reply several times yesterday but the CC gremlins were out in full. Hope this works.

Deen

[ladysail2]

2 hours ago, Divi said:

We were able to change our flight yesterday. Thanks @canadianbearand @Fouremcoand all posters.

There are very few direct flights from Ottawa so  most times we connect through Toronto or Montreal . I prefer Toronto probably because the flight to Montreal is on a small plane and involves a walk across the tarmac into the airport. 🥶

I tried to reply several times yesterday but the CC gremlins were out in full. Hope this works.

Deen

Just as an idea, Deen, do you ever consider taking the train to Montreal to start your flight. Once departed at Dorval, there’s a free, frequent shuttle that takes you to the airport. It only takes a few minutes.  My preference is to do that vs going through Pearson where the walking seems endless.  Also, the cost of the train isn’t so bad either.  
I understand your, and others frustration at flight changes. Even pre-Covid, AC seemed to throw out flight availabilities, then as the time approached, they’d start consolidating flights to ensure full flights. More times than I’d like to remember I was thrown off a direct flight and placed on a connecting flight.  It’s annoying for sure.

[Barwick Cruiser]

2 hours ago, Divi said:

We were able to change our flight yesterday. Thanks @canadianbearand @Fouremcoand all posters.

There are very few direct flights from Ottawa so  most times we connect through Toronto or Montreal . I prefer Toronto probably because the flight to Montreal is on a small plane and involves a walk across the tarmac into the airport. 🥶

I tried to reply several times yesterday but the CC gremlins were out in full. Hope this works.

Deen

Glad your changes all worked out. We also had AC notifications of flight changes for January. Our departure time was pushed back about 15 minutes so no biggie but our return flight went from a 7am AC flight on a 330-300 to a 6:50am Rouge flight with 3 and 3 configuration…yuck. Not concerned with the time change but to book on a decent plane and get stuck on Rouge after a wonderful cruise holiday will be quite the return to reality lol. At least I was able to easily change my seats thru the app…no wait times on the phone required. I am anticipating that even these flights could possibly get changed again….still two months away! 

[bebe08]

19 minutes ago, ladysail2 said:

Just as an idea, Deen, do you ever consider taking the train to Montreal to start your flight. Once departed at Dorval, there’s a free, frequent shuttle that takes you to the airport. It only takes a few minutes.  My preference is to do that vs going through Pearson where the walking seems endless.  Also, the cost of the train isn’t so bad either.  
I understand your, and others frustration at flight changes. Even pre-Covid, AC seemed to throw out flight availabilities, then as the time approached, they’d start consolidating flights to ensure full flights. More times than I’d like to remember I was thrown off a direct flight and placed on a connecting flight.  It’s annoying for sure.

I second this!  We've taken the train to Dorval several times to get direct flights out of Montreal.  Works great.  If I can't get direct flights from Ottawa this is what I look to next.  Anything to avoid changing planes...especially at Pearson.

[schiff1997]

56 minutes ago, ladysail2 said:

Just as an idea, Deen, do you ever consider taking the train to Montreal to start your flight. Once departed at Dorval, there’s a free, frequent shuttle that takes you to the airport. It only takes a few minutes.  My preference is to do that vs going through Pearson where the walking seems endless.  Also, the cost of the train isn’t so bad either.  
I understand your, and others frustration at flight changes. Even pre-Covid, AC seemed to throw out flight availabilities, then as the time approached, they’d start consolidating flights to ensure full flights. More times than I’d like to remember I was thrown off a direct flight and placed on a connecting flight.  It’s annoying for sure.

Great idea, our flight time may not correspond very well with the train time so we will rent a vehicle from the Ottawa airport to the Montreal airport instead,

.  We get family to drop us at the Ottawa airport then we fly back into Ottawa.  Coming home I don’t care about non direct flights, but I do going down !

Edited November 27, 2021 by schiff1997

[GeriatricNurse]

55 minutes ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

Glad your changes all worked out. We also had AC notifications of flight changes for January. Our departure time was pushed back about 15 minutes so no biggie but our return flight went from a 7am AC flight on a 330-300 to a 6:50am Rouge flight with 3 and 3 configuration…yuck. Not concerned with the time change but to book on a decent plane and get stuck on Rouge after a wonderful cruise holiday will be quite the return to reality lol. At least I was able to easily change my seats thru the app…no wait times on the phone required. I am anticipating that even these flights could possibly get changed again….still two months away! 

My flight, FLL - YYZ, was changed as well as yours from a 300 to a 320 (ROUGE), although the departure time remained upchanged!

Since I had (originally) booked 'Premium Economy', I was upgraded to 'Business', with even a refund of $35, all taken care of by my 'Travel Advisor'!

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by GeriatricNurse

[MamatoJack]

5 hours ago, Divi said:

We were able to change our flight yesterday. Thanks @canadianbearand @Fouremcoand all posters.

There are very few direct flights from Ottawa so  most times we connect through Toronto or Montreal . I prefer Toronto probably because the flight to Montreal is on a small plane and involves a walk across the tarmac into the airport. 🥶

I tried to reply several times yesterday but the CC gremlins were out in full. Hope this works.

Deen

 

I had the same thoughts about Montreal but it seems they have redone the airport, when we came back from Orlando through YUL we didn't have to go outside! It seemed like a brand new area of the airport, with proper gates and no walking on the tarmac. We're also in Ottawa. Now it was a small plane from Montreal to Ottawa but we had more leg room than we did on the Rouge flight Orlando to Montreal. Honestly, it was so smooth, quite a comparison to Toronto from when we went down, that was a mess and so many long lines. 

[Froufie]

On 11/26/2021 at 3:36 PM, bebe08 said:

I had direct AC flight from Ottawa to FLL changed to a connecting flight through Pearson.  I called and changed it to a direct flight from Montreal.  We will take train to Mtl....much prefer that to changing planes at Pearson.  This is for an April cruise with Celebrity.   We still have a direct return flight.  I keep checking to see if new flights get added as we prefer to fly out of Ottawa.  

That is my worse nightmare LOL - currently have a direct flight booked YOW to FLL on AC - got a notice (from flights by celebrity) that there was a 'change' but email didn't even say what it was - just that they would contact me in 7-10 days - I am still waiting LOL.

 

But I did immediately log into my AC account and noticed the flight was still direct, just leaving 2 hrs later - so yes we get in later and less time to look around/have dinner - but still okay.  If I did have to have a connection I would much prefer Montreal to Pearson and would do what I could (including the train) to make that happen.

 

Currently looking at return flights and I see a direct one evening of disembarkation - now researching day rooms! in FLL! 🙂