Reminder - Check Your Flights Regularly!

[Roz]

I have 2 ocean cruises and 1 river cruise booked over the next 6 months, all involving international flights.  I've gotten in the habit of checking my flights weekly on the airline websites.  Last night I was checking the flights for my Tauck river cruise and discovered my flight home from Brussels at the end of the cruise had been changed from 10:30 am to 6:40 am.  Yikes! 😲  I hate those early morning flights where you need to get up at 2 am and have your bags out at 2:30 am so you can leave on the transfer van by 3 am.  After a nice, enjoyable vacation you arrive home feeling like a pile of doo doo.

 

I called Tauck's air dept. this morning and talked with a very nice lady who confirmed that the change occurred yesterday.  They weren't able to notify me because they were busy dealing with the Lufthansa strike.  I told her there was no need to apologize, I just wanted to confirm the correct flight information.  She checked to see if something was available later, but it would mean I would only have 1 hr. and 10 min. at Heathrow to change planes and that wasn't going to work.  While she was in my acct. she made the flight changes and sent them to my TA who forwarded them to me, so now I have something in writing from the cruise line.

[franski]

I understand your pain... I was looking at Seat Guru to see the configuration of our planes for the shorter regional flights.  I discovered that our 3 hour layover in Frankfurt is now 8+ hours 🤯 -  and our flight from Warsaw is now 6 am (instead of 9:30 am...).  

 

As with your flights, any changes result in too short a time between flights. So not changing anything.  

 

Oh well...  It is what it is... At least we can now travel (praying for rain in the lower Danube....)

 

Fran

[beesKate]

We had the same thing happen on our Frankfurt connection too.  Original layover was about 5 hours, now 11.  We book a day-rate room at the Hilton Garden Inn at the Frankfurt Airport, so we can shower & try to nap since we'll be arriving in Bucharest at midnight.

[ljandgb]

Maybe things are better now, but 6-12 months ago, we had flights canceled without any notification.  With everything going on with the airlines, we got into the habit of checking on our flights weekly, just to keep tabs on them.  Good thing we did.

 

We had friends show up at the airport for a trip to Iceland, who obviously had not been checking, who found out their flight no longer existed.  They had to reschedule their entire trip, and were luck that was even an option for them.

[TMLAalum]

2 hours ago, beesKate said:

We had the same thing happen on our Frankfurt connection too.  Original layover was about 5 hours, now 11.  We book a day-rate room at the Hilton Garden Inn at the Frankfurt Airport, so we can shower & try to nap since we'll be arriving in Bucharest at midnight.

We arrived jet-lagged at FRA with a reservation at the Hilton Garden Inn for the night prior to picking up a rental car the next day. We are only "silver" Hilton Honors members, but when we reached the check-in counter @9 am we asked if it was possible to get into our room then for whatever the upcharge might be. The category we'd reserved wasn't available, but an upgraded room was. Imagine our surprise when the clerk noted our "status" and gave us the keycard to that room at the same rate of our original booking!

 

After a long nap, we took the train into Frankfurt and enjoyed our afternoon sightseeing and dining on weiner schnitzel!

[CPT Trips]

If the departure time change was due to the airline canceling your flight and rebooking you onto another flight, you may be entitled  to compensation under EU Regulation 262/04 based on cancellation. Similarly, compensation may be available if arrival at your final destination is delayed from your original flight schedule. 

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm

[sharkster77]

Air Canada changed the departure times of my flights prior to our flying with them in June.  They DID notify me via email, COMPLETELY WRITTEN IN FRENCH!!!  Now, I spoke French as a small child (descendent of French Canadian immigrants), and I did take 4 years of French in HS almost 50 yrs ago, but......

 

Google Translator can be a very good thing.......

[Canal archive]

Okay very tongue in cheek - could it have been a far flung by product of Brexit, oh ho ho

[TFree]

On 9/2/2022 at 9:22 AM, Roz said:

I have 2 ocean cruises and 1 river cruise booked over the next 6 months, all involving international flights.  I've gotten in the habit of checking my flights weekly on the airline websites.  Last night I was checking the flights for my Tauck river cruise and discovered my flight home from Brussels at the end of the cruise had been changed from 10:30 am to 6:40 am.  Yikes! 😲  I hate those early morning flights where you need to get up at 2 am and have your bags out at 2:30 am so you can leave on the transfer van by 3 am.  After a nice, enjoyable vacation you arrive home feeling like a pile of doo doo.

 

I called Tauck's air dept. this morning and talked with a very nice lady who confirmed that the change occurred yesterday.  They weren't able to notify me because they were busy dealing with the Lufthansa strike.  I told her there was no need to apologize, I just wanted to confirm the correct flight information.  She checked to see if something was available later, but it would mean I would only have 1 hr. and 10 min. at Heathrow to change planes and that wasn't going to work.  While she was in my acct. she made the flight changes and sent them to my TA who forwarded them to me, so now I have something in writing from the cruise line.

@Roz: The same thing happened to us on our back to back to back cruises in May and June. As we were leaving to drive to Los Angeles to fly to Fort Lauderdale for the first cruise, we learned that the short hop flight from Prague to London Heathrow have been canceled. As a result, our perfectly reasonable 3.5 hour layover turned into a 6.5–7 hour layover. We were not notified directly by either British Airways, or it’s partner American Airlines, but learned of the cancellation through somebody else who was going to be with us on the third cruise. This is happening a lot now, from what I read.

 

Tom & Judy

[Roz]

@TFree, hi Tom & Judy!  Interesting that my changed flight is also on British Airways.  Going over to Amsterdam I'm on American Airlines but coming back from Brussels I'm on BA.  

 

With changing airline schedules and Covid requirements, it's a lot to take in and keep track of.  

[Host Jazzbeau]

We've never had problems in getting decent connections, but a cruise next spring in the Azores and Madeira has terrible connection times in Lisbon on both ends.  I finally decided to spent the 9 hour layover by visiting the Gulbenkian Museum, and the 17 hour layover by getting a hotel room.  There's always a way, as long as you know in advance...

[bundtkate]

Even domestic seems to be a mess. Our outbound flight for our next cruise had already been moved, but at least Southwest sent me an email and gave me the option to swap online if the new flight didn't work. Just checked our return flight and American had moved it to 9am without any notice and if I want to change it I have to call. Given we're docking at 8am, I feel pretty safe saying we wouldn't make that. Thank you for this thread! Seriously, if it weren't here, I probably wouldn't have checked because who does that without emailing  you??

[Host Jazzbeau]

7 minutes ago, bundtkate said:

Seriously, if it weren't here, I probably wouldn't have checked because who does that without emailing  you??

Trust – and verify!

[bundtkate]

31 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Trust – and verify!

And read Cruise Critic for timely reminders. 😅 Once again, it turns out okay, though. I was able to cancel the American flight and get a new one on Southwest for $100 cheaper. At least until everything changes again. 🙈

[Canal archive]

It’s been done to but a few years ago by Air France stopping a complete service they then routed us back to Birmingham on connecting flights our closest airport by quite a few miles is where our car would be Bristol.

Now one of the main excuses is lack of staff and staff preferring to work from home, I cannot get my head around baggage handlers and ground crew etc working from home. So hey if they don’t want the business which we’ve backed with our taxes during covid maybe someone else can do a better job. We’re lucky we have other ways of reaching Europe but you North Americans and Australians don’t maybe someone soon will wake up to that fact. 
sorry for another rant!

[Canal archive]

Calais: Ferry companies apologise for long waits https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62783358
 

Although it may take a 6 hour wait but only at one crossing point.

 

Who said we wouldn’t go to Europe after Brexit!

Edited September 4, 2022 by Canal archive