Air Canada changed our flights!

[pkhosla]

Hi All,

We tend to use Aeroplan for our Florida trips and have encountered the schedule change situation many times. I have found that if I find the flights I want and can piece an itinerary together the agents are good about it booking the changes. My experience is that offering them the intinerary you want cuts down a bunch of work on their end and so they are a little more accommodating. The frustrating thing for me is that the day on either end is often caught up in travel.

Magical Express requires us to depart the resort super early for flights heading to Canada and so we are going to try doing the HYATT at the airport on our last night in MCO--- that way we can enjoy the day at the resort head to the airport and get a good sleep before catching an early morning flight back to Canada.

Glad they made the changes for you.

 

[bcwife76]

Sorry to resurrect a bit of an older thread but this happened to us today. We have flights booked on Air Canada in May direct Vancouver to Maui and I got an email from Priceline today to say we have a schedule change. I figure it'll be a few minutes or hours or something. Nope a completely different DAY. Our flights were originally Saturday to Saturday, now they are Sunday to Sunday. Um....ok?? Good thing for us we are able to change the dates of our condo rental with no problems but because now we are landing in Vancouver early Monday morning instead of early Sunday morning my DH will have to take one extra day off work.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Sorry to resurrect a bit of an older thread but this happened to us today. We have flights booked on Air Canada in May direct Vancouver to Maui and I got an email from Priceline today to say we have a schedule change. I figure it'll be a few minutes or hours or something. Nope a completely different DAY. Our flights were originally Saturday to Saturday, now they are Sunday to Sunday. Um....ok?? Good thing for us we are able to change the dates of our condo rental with no problems but because now we are landing in Vancouver early Monday morning instead of early Sunday morning my DH will have to take one extra day off work.

I would get on the phone and call AC and ask WHY? May is a long way off and i would be surprised if they aren't able to change it back? BUT i did just search and there are no longer any direct flights on Saturday, only Sundays?? Still I'd be calling and whining slightly

 

[bcwife76]

I would get on the phone and call AC and ask WHY? May is a long way off and i would be surprised if they aren't able to change it back? BUT i did just search and there are no longer any direct flights on Saturday, only Sundays?? Still I'd be calling and whining slightly

This is the fine print that accompanied the email re: schedule change

"Airlines adjust flight schedules for various reasons; this is a common practice. We have sent this notice as a courtesy and since your airline can continue to change flight schedules, please call the airline to confirm your flight information prior to each departure.

If your dates of travel have changed or your flight arrives later than originally expected and you have hotel or rental car reservations, please confirm your new arrival time with your hotel and/or rental car company to avoid problems upon arrival. "

Basically tough luck. Because it doesn't really inconvenience us (condo dates were easily changed, car rental was not booked yet, hubby needs to take one extra day off but will get paid) there is not much point in me trying to argue with Air Canada. I feel badly for those that ARE affected negatively though.

 

[alohamom]

Honestly-changing by a few hours is acceptable( not great, but acceptable) BUT by a day? That is ridiculous! I admire your calm approach bcwife, I would have probably had a bit of a tantrum!

 

[shoppgirl]

Sorry to resurrect a bit of an older thread but this happened to us today. We have flights booked on Air Canada in May direct Vancouver to Maui and I got an email from Priceline today to say we have a schedule change. I figure it'll be a few minutes or hours or something. Nope a completely different DAY. Our flights were originally Saturday to Saturday, now they are Sunday to Sunday. Um....ok?? Good thing for us we are able to change the dates of our condo rental with no problems but because now we are landing in Vancouver early Monday morning instead of early Sunday morning my DH will have to take one extra day off work.

I found out yesterday that our flight coming home from Honolulu to Toronto in July ,was delayed TWO days because Air Canada cancelled all Sunday departing flights out of HNL!!!!! I called right away and had them change our flights to one day later, coming home Monday. This just means one more day on Waikiki Beach! I have to keep an eye on the flights to see if they add the Sunday flights back so that I can get our original dates back. AC is very accommodating with finding alternative flights if the one you book gets changed. The agent I spoke to says that the "computer" randomly selects an alternative flight for the passengers with itinerary changes, so they are more than willing to change it for you in person.

 

[bcwife76]

@shoppgirl that's very good to know, thank you! As of now this itinerary change isn't a 'huge' deal to us so we're just going to roll with it. However, if they mess with it again I'll call up!

 

[alohamom]

I found out yesterday that our flight coming home from Honolulu to Toronto in July ,was delayed TWO days because Air Canada cancelled all Sunday departing flights out of HNL!!!!! I called right away and had them change our flights to one day later, coming home Monday. This just means one more day on Waikiki Beach! I have to keep an eye on the flights to see if they add the Sunday flights back so that I can get our original dates back. AC is very accommodating with finding alternative flights if the one you book gets changed. The agent I spoke to says that the "computer" randomly selects an alternative flight for the passengers with itinerary changes, so they are more than willing to change it for you in person.

Hey Shopgirl-did they email you or did you find that out on your own? We are booked for August on Air Canada as well and I was a little worried when I did book them because I have read over and over about AC and their notorious changes! I have already had one email with a slight time change and I am expecting more, just wondering if they always notify you directly. Any one know?

 

[shoppgirl]

Hey Shopgirl-did they email you or did you find that out on your own? We are booked for August on Air Canada as well and I was a little worried when I did book them because I have read over and over about AC and their notorious changes! I have already had one email with a slight time change and I am expecting more, just wondering if they always notify you directly. Any one know?

We have experienced a few "notice of change in flight itinerary" over the years, unfortunately. The agent said that's the risk you take when booking so far in advance, but I will take this risk when it means I get an amazing deal! When booking my flights AC has my email contact so they have been good at letting me know via email right away when there is a change. I have had changes of a few min, to many hours, and now this one where we were put on a flight TWO days later. I don't know why we weren't put on the next available flight leaving Monday?!? But a call to AC quickly corrected that and I'm not complaining too loudly about having to spend one more day in Hawaii!

When they changed our San Diego flight to 6 hours later, or something ridiculous like that, I called and changed the entire itinerary to land in Los Angeles instead earlier in the day! This change by AC allowed me to change the whole purpose of the trip and we included 3 nights in Disneyland, when this trip was originally a San Diego only trip! Hahaha!

 

[bcwife76]

In our case it was Priceline who alerted us to the change because that's who we booked through. I'm also not exactly bummed; while it doesn't mean an extra day in Maui I'm still happy with this flight because we paid $350pp round trip and a week on the price is now over $600pp! So yeah, I'll take the change in itinerary, it's still 7 days and I saved a ton 'o dough

 

[cijay]

Air Canada is actually getting a bit better (in my experiences). I don't even know if they were subject to more screw ups than any other airline but they were just so un-apologetic, like it's your fault for booking the flight in the first place. They really pulled through for me last year. My cousin works close to the airport so I asked for a drop off but it had to be very early (my flight was at noon and he got me to the airport at 7:00am). Well, I can sit at home and read or sit at the airport and read so can't be choosy - free ride. Tried to get my eticket, didn't work. I use my European passport so sometimes I have to go to the wicket but this was a flight to the UK so it shouldn't matter. She said my flight (to Toronto) has been delayed 'til 4pm...but I had a flight to London at 6 (Toronto time). She just got typing like mad - her fingers were smoking! She said "There's a flight leaving in thirty minutes, give me your luggage, run!" So she got me on there. For my 'inconvenience' they gave me a breakfast sandwich for free. Air Canada breakfast sandwiches are...just...don't.

 

[phabric]

I booked flights Fort Lauderdale to Toronto in the spring for Jan 2 for the time I wanted. I always keep checking my flights. I noticed that the time had changed, never got notified from Air Canada. I called and the agent put me on the 1pm flight. Two weeks later, I got notified by email that Air Canada had changed my 1pm flight to 8:55pm. I called to complain why only 2 weeks before an agent had put on the 1pm flight and now they changed it to a late flight. I was told with the 1pm change that is like a new booking so you are now at the bottom on the list. I told her if I had wanted a 8:55pm flight I would have booked it. I was offered a flight the next day, which I refused. She then offered a flight out of Miami, I took this and told her this was to going to cost me more to get to Miami than Ft Lauderdale.

My flight to Florida has changed many times by 10-15 minutes without notification from Air Canada.

You have to keep checking your flights and not depend on the airlines.

 

[sayhello]

Delta is notorious for this kind of thing, too. They frequently make small changes without informing you, sometimes big changes. I've had several times that their changes negated my seat selections, and I had to go to the website and re-select my seats. Delta makes me very paranoid! I had one time that I had a direct flight from Ohio to California, they changed it to a stopover in Atlanta and added almost 7 hours to my travel time! (The non-stop was completely gone; no getting it back). I had another time they changed my departure time so that I only had a 10 minute stopover between flights (they did fix that one for free.) I only travel Delta if there's no other good alternative, or if the price is really exceptional.

Sayhello

 

[bcwife76]

That's how I feel about Air Canada - we're only flying with them to Maui because they had such a phenomenal Black Friday seat sale that no other airline could beat. Incidentally, our flights are now almost TWICE as much even with Air Canada so I am glad I jumped on it, even if it meant changing our plans by an entire day lol

 

[squirrel]

Glad things worked out for you! I'm flying Delta for my December trip. Flight changed happened to me too, and not just once but twice! I didn't mind the first change as it was just the departure/arrival time, but for the next one, they made our direct flight to a flight with stopover. I was so mad. The point of my booking the original flight is that it's direct as I do not like long layovers. Good thing they were able to change it for me and now it actually works better as I arrive in Anaheim earlier. Always check the policy, call in, and see what they can do for you.

I knew that there would be a good chance of flight changes since I always book my trip a year in advance (I have to wait to book as soon as the airlines open up for the dates I want and then book everything). The worst was booking a direct flight for September and then finding out on my own in the spring a good 5-6 months later that they decided to not fly direct from Bellingham to Honolulu. I was very upset as I could just as easily flown out of Vancouver and got a direct flight. The airline was not helpful at all and insisted they did nothing wrong. I called up at least 4 other airlines and asked them if a flight that was direct was cancelled would they contact the customer, every single one said yes as soon as they knew of the flight change. I called back and talked to a supervisor about it since I had no idea how long they knew and didn't inform me about the change I was now forced to fly with them or pay a lot more for a direct flight since the flight was 4-5 months away at that point. They offered me some coupons for my next flight with them. If they hadn't I was willing to cancel my Credit Card with them.