Delta flights - check your flight status.

[bUU]

That's a good point. The requirement isn't to arrive at the airport or even the ticket counter 20 or 30 minutes prior to departure. The requirement is to arrive at the gate that early, and it is the passenger's responsibility to ensure they make it to the gate on-time, regardless of what delays they may encouter with respect to parking/rental car return, shuttle busses, checking luggage, getting boarding passes, getting through security, and getting through the teminal to the correct gate, which may or may not have been changed at the last minute. Again... this is the passenger's responsibility, no one else's. Passengers are well-advised to arrive very early.

[imsulin]

Many people don't understand airline pricing. There are several "classes" of coach fare, and a certain number of seats are assigned to each "class". For example, a seat in K class is cheaper than a seat in M class, even though they may be side-by-side seats in the same coach row. This is why early booking may be an advantage, since the cheaper classes sell out first, and then the pricing will move to the next class. This is also why you hear about 21-day, 14-day, and 7-day advance purchasing. If a flight is not showing as fully booked, the airlines will routinely offer "last-minute" low fares..just to get money for empty seats. Delta is definitely not the only airline that does this...they all do. Business and First-class have very different ticketing guidelines, and many of these seats are fully refundable, which coach seats are generally not. Non-transferable (you can't sell your ticket to someone else), and non-refundable mean just that. You buy it, you own it. If you can't use it, you must pay the transfer fee before the original date of travel or lose the ticket. There are many exceptions, but they're pretty restricted. For example, most airlines waived the transfer fee during Hurricane Frances to allow cruise passengers to get on and off ships on dates not originally scheduled. I always get my tickets on E******, and am always notified by e-mail if there's been a change. Just some info.

 

I also agree that "arriving at the airport" 29 minutes before flight time is an invitation to...not making your flight. You need to check your luggage, clear Security, and actually be at the GATE at least 10-20 minutes before flight time. Just watch "Airline" on A&E Monday nights. It'll make you a believer!

[JMG]

Sea Island Lady,

We are flying out of Harrisburgh, PA. Smaller airport than Philly with a lot less congestion. Our original flights were to Cincinnati then to Miami and return. We are now routed through Atlanta.

 

 

Yes, agents will notify you of changes but what I found out was that even though the flights had been cancelled - that information had not been posted so NO agent would have notified me to rebook my flights. They themselves would not know the flights were cancelled. I can understand that the airline is busy working on flights that leave within the next few weeks, but, meanwhile, they will gradly accept new reservations on flights for our time period. That would have left us with less choices by the time they publicly announced the flights as cancelled and someone notified us.

 

VACruzers - glad that the "headsup" post prompted you to take action!

[Sea Island Lady]

Sea Island Lady,

We are flying out of Harrisburgh, PA. Smaller airport than Philly with a lot less congestion. Our original flights were to Cincinnati then to Miami and return. We are now routed through Atlanta.

Checked my flights out of Atlanta and they are OK.

[jerzzgirl]

Thanks to the OP, I went on Delta.com to check my flight to find that it is not on there. I've got a call in to my TA to check the status <whew!>

[Joy ride]

Our family is booked on delta for January also.. I sure hope there won't be any problems!!

[jerzzgirl]

She said she called RC and our itinerary changed. We're now on Air Tran (instead of Delta) UGH! We were so happy when our original plans were on Delta - any other airline but Air Tran. On the plus side, the flights are direct and we depart from home at 11:50 a.m. as opposed to 7:40 a.m. and get in to FLA at basically the same time. Suppose I hadn't checked??? :eek:

[bUU]

Last time I checked, AirTran was far less likely to be in bankruptcy in a few months than Delta is.... You may end up being very happy to have been switched over....

[Seaside2358]

I've flown Air Tran before and had no problems whatsoever with them...

[jerzzgirl]

Last time I checked, AirTran was far less likely to be in bankruptcy in a few months than Delta is.... You may end up being very happy to have been switched over....

You make a good point!

[jerzzgirl]

I've flown Air Tran before and had no problems whatsoever with them...

As long as I make it on the ship - I'll be a happy cruiser! :D

[Seaside2358]

Back to the credit voucher from Delta, I saw it down again this morning. This time when I called they gave me the $40 credit voucher x 2. Guess it depends who answers the phone:D

[Sea Island Lady]

I am pleased to say that we are back from our cruise and had absolutely no flight troubles. All flights left and arrived on time or earlier.

 

 

On our flight out of Atlanta, they did change our airplane to a small one. Since we had booked the two outside. isle and window seats so that we would not have to sit with anyone else (one set for us and one for my parents), we were a little upset that the airplane would now have three seats on the outside instead of two. We were pleasantly surprised that no one was assigned to either of our third seats...making the ride out to Vancouver roomy and comfy. Our seats were the only area that had three seats available with only two passengers. I don't know how we got so lucky as the airplane was packed!

 

The only complaint I would have was with the food. We were served lunch on both our outgoing and incoming flights. Both lunches were a hot Mexican chicken and bean dish. :p

[Firefighterhoop]

My march flights from MSP to ATL and ATL to MCO were both cancelled and rescheduled too late in the day, RCCL Switched to Northwest non-stop for us.

[sugardaddy1952]

Checked flights for Nov 19 and return Nov 27 and all seems fine at Delta.com. Seat assignments still good. Keeping my fingers crossed! Buffalo is not exactly the happening airline capital of the world!