Check You Air!

[zrmolly]

:eek: Check your air flights! I just happen to call United for our Feb flight and they had us leaving 2 hours earlier and taking 10 hours to get to Florida! They changed the flight (no charge) They also said it would most likely change again...:rolleyes:

[billybob123]

You've given some good advice. It's not surprising at all that they've changed your flights - your flights are 8 months away! I highly doubt that the flights you are on today will be the flights you are on come february! If I were you, I would check once a week on your flights (the airlines tend to change their flight schedules on Fridays) and don't stop calling to change them. You don't want to wind up in trouble!

 

-bb123

[ElaineB2]

If you have no seat assignments, you risk the chance of being told you have to fly standby (happened to us returning from Vancouver last week). Lesson learned - from now on I check with the travel agent and the airline as to whether I have seat assignments. Apparently from several people I've talked to (travel agents, frequent fliers, etc.), the airlines are doing this alot - they overbook a flight so they don't risk ANY empty seats, then they hope for people who are willing to be compensated in some small way for being bumped from a flight. I almost did it in Vancouver - we were offered $400 Delta Dollars - but I then had visions of trying to use these Delta Dollars and being told there are blackout dates. Not worth the hassle to me - it would've involved an overnight in Vancouver since I'm on the east coast (at our expense, not the airlines). I wanted to get home, unpack and relax one day before I went back to work. If I knew I could get a flight out reasonably soon, of course I'd take advantage of being bumped - not across country though!

[CaribbeanCruisesRock]

You should always check your flights before you go. :eek:

[billybob123]

If you don't have a seat assignment, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will be bumped. The airline reserves approx 30% of their seats for assignment at check-in, so don't panic if you don't have your seats assigned. Ask once you check in. Also if you DO have a seat assignment and don't make it to checkin in time, they will cancel your seat assignment and THEN you'll be standby.

[howardrf]

any idea how long before departure you can reserve seat on Continental. I will be using cheaptickets, travelocity or orbitz.

thanks

[IScubaSlo]

zrmolly,

 

Were your original flights with UA non-stop? And when are you leaving in February?

 

We are booked with UA for Feb 17th out of Pittsburgh non-stop the night before our cruise. I sure hope they dont change mine.

 

The funny thing about mine are that they are thru United but they are actually on a USAir jet. I tried to buy thru USAir but they wanted $467 per ticket and United only wanted $249.00. Go figure............

[zurmoly]

No they are not non stop. We are also leaving the 17th for our cruise on the 19th! Not too bad though. We get to FLL Thursday at 11:30am so we have two whole days to hang out. I will be cheking that flight for changes again soon. I certainly hope they don't screw up our return flight at 11:45am.

[cjp]

No they are not non stop. We are also leaving the 17th for our cruise on the 19th! Not too bad though. We get to FLL Thursday at 11:30am so we have two whole days to hang out. I will be cheking that flight for changes again soon. I certainly hope they don't screw up our return flight at 11:45am.

 

Keep an eye on United. A friend told us never to fly United out of Chicago. They are a mess. I just shrugged it off. But he was right. They were late getting us to our cruise ship because they were late arriving in Chicago & late leaving Chicago. After our cruise we were late getting into Chicago & then our connecting flight left without us. They had us running to three different gates & then telling us all flights were full. Their customer service line was very long & no one was there to help. Finally one nice ticket person suggested we could fly stand-by on a flight that we were earlier told was full, but now had plenty of seats! There was no actual gate for this plane so they escorted us out to one of the runways. We were finally home 4 hours later. I wish you better luck.

[billybob123]

I've had some delays out of chicago (arriving and departing) and would reccomend padding your connection times a bit just in case (if that's possible) but I've flown through O'Hare dozens of times and never had a HUGE problem. The worst I ever had was being put in the "penalty box" for 40 minutes because we were 20 minutes late (and they had no gate for us). Otherwise, knock on wood, I've had no problems.

 

Enjoy your cruise!