Airline Reservation Changed

[MBELSANTI]

Hi,

I am so upset. I booked a non stop flight on United to MCO from O'Hare and I just received a change of flights. So I was a little miffed that instead of landing at 9:45PM now it is 11:30PM. When I went to the website to check it out, they also changed my flight home to have a layover in Dulles. So instead of 3 hour flight, it is now 5 1/2 hours. Do I have any recourse? Am I stuck with the crappy flights or have to pay $150 pp fee plus any other changes in fare price? Please help I am so upset!

 

[jlewisinsyr]

You can call and ask to be rebooked onto a different flight, but do not demand a change. When you book flights you are booking a flight from destination A to destination B on a specific date. Flight times, aircraft and seating are all subject to change and airlines are not required to change flights at customer request.

Recommendation would be to find out if there are other flight times that would be fitting for your travel and ask to be rebooked on these other flights. The airline may or may not agree, it depends on the differences in flight times (yours are significant in my opinion) and if there are similar fare classes still available on those flights (this may be an issue, but not always). It is unlikely you will be able to get a refund though, although you can ask.

 

[MBELSANTI]

You can call and ask to be rebooked onto a different flight, but do not demand a change. When you book flights you are booking a flight from destination A to destination B on a specific date. Flight times, aircraft and seating are all subject to change and airlines are not required to change flights at customer request.

Recommendation would be to find out if there are other flight times that would be fitting for your travel and ask to be rebooked on these other flights. The airline may or may not agree, it depends on the differences in flight times (yours are significant in my opinion) and if there are similar fare classes still available on those flights (this may be an issue, but not always). It is unlikely you will be able to get a refund though, although you can ask.

HI,

I can't believe they are actually going to do this. I am on with them now and he said he will change to me. I am leaving on a early morning flight departing and I am going home on an afternoon flight which is actually what I really wanted. I am keeping my fingers crossed that there are seats...I am on hold now.

 

[nemofans]

This is why I always fly Southwest out of Midway Airport.

 

[MBELSANTI]

This is why I always fly Southwest out of Midway Airport.

Can you tell me about Southwest? I heard that you cannot chose your seats ahead of time, is this true? How do you chose your seats?

I live 5 miles from O'Hare, so this has factored heavily into my decison to fly out of ORD.

 

[DebbieB]

You can actually use this to your advantage. My last 2 trips to WDW on Delta I couldn't get the flights I wanted for the lowest miles. I waited until they made a schedule change, called and got the flights I wanted for no extra miles.

Southwest is open seating. You are given a boarding letter & number to determine the order of boarding and just pick an open seat.

 

[seashoreCM]

The first thing to try is to hand pick alternate flights you would like and ask to be changed over to them, but not agreeing to pay more.

Be prepared to talk to more than one person over the phone, including supervisory persons.

Sometimes the time has to change more than an hour or two before they will change it for you but, note that having to leave half an hour earlier and arriving one and a half hours later equals two hours difference.

Note that they do not have the right to change you to a different flight when the old flight still exists at close to its original time (except for connecting flights where the connection becomes too tight say less than 45 minutes; the airline's own rules specify the minimum connection time).

 

[MBELSANTI]

It worked!! They were able to put me on an early flight going to Florida and I am able to leave on an afternoon flight going home instead of an early morning one! I would have picked these flights to begin with, but they were more $$...the only glitch is going out they didn't have 2 seats together, but I guess I can worry about that once we arrive. Thanks for everyones advice!

 

[DonnaL]

You asked about Southwest and as another poster stated SWA has "open seating". I actually really like the way SWA does their seating since it allows ME the option to sit where I want the day of the flight NOT several weeks or months before.....by that I mean, with SWA zones A, B, and C....all passengers with blue HA sleeves on their boarding passes will board first, A boarding pass holders board next, then they call passengers with children under 5 (I believe it's 5) only parents/siblings..not extended family... who did not have A passes, then B passes and then C's. IMO the low B's are the ones to have and are the ones I hope to get when I call 24 hours before our flight......reason being when it's just DH and I, we prefer not to sit TOO close to those young ones .....please no flames.....we've been there/done that and do continue to do that.....with grandchildren.....however, when we're traveling alone....we prefer to do THAT....not with someone else's children/grandchildren....so with the low number B boarding passes you can sort of scope out where you would like to sit AS you are boarding......rather than weeks/months before and then end up sitting next to that crying baby for 2 1/2 hours. Again, just my opinion and it doesn't always work, but, most times does.

 

[brockash]

Glad you were able to get what you wanted, but just for the future...

I've been able to get refunded without a hassle when airlines have changed our flight times if they don't have/can't put me on a flight with the time I want. I'm not sure that every airline will do this, but just for our last Disney trip alone, I was able to do this multiple times with United and Delta, and also did it once with American. -We had a lot of flight time changes, and I had made the arrangements for our extended family as well. None of them were ever rude or gave me any problems at all. I just told them what I needed and if they couldn't accommodate the time I needed; they just refunded me. (Didn't buy refundable tix, didn't have insurance, no fees ect.)

It actually worked to our benefit a couple times, because we ended up saving money on a couple flights that went down.

 

[dburg30]

What you experienced happens quite often with carriers that allow you to book so far in advance. As you saw, sometimes it can work out for you, sometimes it doesnt. Now all you have to do is hope they dont change the new flight .

 

[jsilvers]

I've been able to get refunded without a hassle when airlines have changed our flight times if they don't have/can't put me on a flight with the time I want. I'm not sure that every airline will do this

Actually, every airline must do this. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires airlines to refund a ticket if significant changes have been made to the flight times, even if the ticket has been described as nonrefundable. See http://airconsumer.dot.gov/rules/20010925.htm.

 

[MBELSANTI]

I honestly never knew any of this...and to think my ex husband has worked for United or over 25 years! Many other times my flights have been changed and I just rolled with it. Glad I know about this now!

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Actually, every airline must do this. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires airlines to refund a ticket if significant changes have been made to the flight times, even if the ticket has been described as nonrefundable. See http://airconsumer.dot.gov/rules/20010925.htm.

Note, there are a few key things in this, first it talks first about change in flight date, that is true statement and I am not aware of any airline that will not offer a refund due to flight dates.

As for flight times, there is a key word of significant, an airlines each take this differently, some it may be 1 hour (actually some are minutes, which is crazy, IMO), others it can be 4 - 5 hours.

 

[usrtyz]

Hi,

I am so upset. I booked a non stop flight on United to MCO from O'Hare and I just received a change of flights. So I was a little miffed that instead of landing at 9:45PM now it is 11:30PM. When I went to the website to check it out, they also changed my flight home to have a layover in Dulles. So instead of 3 hour flight, it is now 5 1/2 hours. Do I have any recourse? Am I stuck with the crappy flights or have to pay $150 pp fee plus any other changes in fare price? Please help I am so upset!

I noticed that United also changed my return flight from MCO to O'hare as well when I was checking this past weekend. I wasn't happy with the change as I had purchased a non stop flight and I was now landing in Washington and sitting for an hour and a half. I have three young kids who have never flown before and it was important to me that if I was going to fly, I wanted non stop flights. I called United and said that I wasn't happy with the change and could I get on a non stop flight. The lady on the phone said I was on a non stop flight. I said, how can I be on a non stop flight when I'm landing and sitting for an hour and a half. She said she would look into it. I was able to get on a flight that left around 8pm instead of the morning flight I had.. No big deal. More time at Disney.

 

[babyrich]

Jet Blue told me last year that if the flight time was changed more than an hour either way, that you can change your flight at no cost.

 

[nemofans]

With SWA, you don't need to pick your seats ahead of time b/c you pick them when you board the plane. You just need to make sure you do online check in at the 24 hr mark b4 your flight. We usually get high A or low B boarding #. The 4 of us always find seats together. SWA doesn't change your flights ever & theflights have been on time or early every time we have flown w/them. Not to mention no baggage fees & no cancellation fees!

 

[nemofans]

I was dealing w/a flight change yesterday. We are going to St. Croix w/Delta & they canceled our return flight. We were flying back home into Midway, but now we have to fly into O'Hare instead.
Every time we fly w/a different airline, I always miss SWA.

 

[backyardponder]

Southwest is like catching a bus. You get on, select a seat, and sit down. The only difference from a bus is they won't let you stand!

I had a recent problem with United. I read the Conditions of Carriage (you know, the contract) and it says that United would try to get you flights which match your schedule, even if it means booking a different airline, if your departure time or arrival time is more than 2 hours different.

I urge anybody with airline problems to read the Conditions of Carriage before contacting the airline. It doesn't take a lawyer to read them.

 

[ccgirl]

Jet Blue told me last year that if the flight time was changed more than an hour either way, that you can change your flight at no cost.

I just had to do this with them a few weeks ago and it was any changes more than 30 minutes. Airtran let me change for a 15 minute difference. I don't think I have ever had changes to my SW flights.

Really, SW open seating is not bad at all. I only fly SW, JB, and Airtran so I can get a flight credit if the price of the flight goes down.