Airline Cancellations

[Dpflake]

I’m just wondering if anyone else is checking on their upcoming flights several times a day just to make sure there are no changes or cancellations. I’ve had my flights with Southwest changed just once so far. I originally had my flight to MCO booked for 11:40am. The only other flight that would work for us was the flight leaving at 8:20am. I had the 11:40am flight booked so I could take care of a few things before leaving. All of the other flights had us getting to Orlando late afternoon/early evening. Which meant we would loose a whole day at Disney. Now because of the earlier flight we had to book a hotel near the airport the night before our flight. The flight returning to RDU I originally had booked leaving at 8:20pm. I wanted that flight so we could go to the parks before heading to the airport. The only late flight offered was 4:30pm. All of the other flights were before noon. Planning our trips to Disney is tedious and time consuming already. Having to keep rebooking flights and changing itineraries is frustrating. I’m keeping my fingers/toes crossed that our flights don’t change again.

 

[gharter]

Yup. Our October flight was to depart at 6:20, now its 9:30 and instead of arriving at 12:30, its 3:45. We lost our afternoon.

 

[Dpflake]

Yup. Our October flight was to depart at 6:20, now its 9:30 and instead of arriving at 12:30, its 3:45. We lost our afternoon.

It’s so frustrating. I’m afraid to order tickets and make park reservations. If my flights change again I might have to change my vacation dates.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

Unfortunately with the uncertainty of Covid travel restriction coupled with almost non existent business travel, airlines haven't been finalizing their schedules until roughly 2-3 months out. Anything past that is basically a placeholder schedule and prone to change.

We have a January trip with the whole family and have two sets of flights booked. We have our preferred flights booked on AA using cash. We have our backup flights at similar times using SW points (all booked as one ways). I figure if they butcher the AA flights too badly I can always call and get a refund to the credit card. If not, I can just cancel the SW flights for a full refund of points.

Right now most airlines are offering no change fees or miles redeposit fees, so if you have a points stash or travel enough where canceling and getting a voucher isn't a terrible thing...having some backup flights lined up isn't a terrible plan.

OP I hope your flights end up working out!

 

[PalmettoPath]

Yes. We are only days out and still keep checking. They've changed the departure time three times and the gate once (we get a notice each time so I hesitantly open them), but so far so good. When they cancelled our March flight it was about 33 days before departure.

 

[spiders]

The demand is there, the staffing isn’t. Overall, flights nationwide have recovered to 85-90% pre-COVID counts.

 

[WDW Traveler]

Yup checking regularly hoping we keep the decent flights we have. They already changed our flight there from 7am nonstop, getting in at 10am to 1pm nonstop getting in at 4pm. Would have lost the whole day, so we opted to change it to a 5:30am 1 stop flight, getting in at 11am. Then they changed the return flight a couple weeks later. Supposed to leave at 3pm non stop flight getting in at 6pm. They moved us to a 10am non stop flight getting in at 1pm, again, lost a whole day, so we switched to a 6pm 1 stop flight getting in around 10:30pm. These flights are ok and we hope and pray they stay like this. lol Good luck to everyone flying in the near future!!

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

I was checking regularly for about a month before we left. Our flight to MCO was changed several times and eventually ended up back to the very original time we’d booked but we lost the seats we’d selected and got put in the back of the aircraft, but luckily still together. In one of my checks I saw better seats and was able to switch. I believe jetblue was consolidating flights on our route.

 

[helenm29]

Our whole flight was cancelled for October! it was supposed to be a flight that made a stop but I didn't have to get off the flight.....NOW the new flight we have, we need change flights both coming and going!I have really bad arthritis in my knees and use a cane.....I can't walk from gate to gate! I'm flying Southwest and was told that they can get me a wheel chair. It's so inconvenient to have to change flights for me and every one else! UGH!

 

[vetrik]

JetBlue just changed our December flights and we pretty much lost 2 days of a 5 day trip - 7:00 am flight down changed to 5:00 pm, and 8:00 pm return flight changed to 1:30 pm. They went from 2 nonstops per day to only one, so there were no other options to change to (no connecting flights either).

We cancelled and rebooked with Southwest at almost the same times as our original flights, although more expensive (fortunately I was able to use some points to bring cost closer). Now I just worry that Southwest is going to change our new flights since it doesn’t seem like they’ve gotten to rescheduling December yet!

 

[cheshiregoofy22]

I've been checking every day too - leaving August 22nd - I'll even start a new reservation just to see how many seats are still available - granted a lot of folks don't pay the extra to pick a seat (hopefully) because as of now there are 95% of the seats left! Which, of course, makes me freak out that they'll cancel our flight because it can't possibly be profitable at 5% capacity....then I remind myself that not everyone selects their seats ahead of time and I calm back down a little. So far so good - none of the "same" flights have been cancelled in the last week so I'm beginning to "let it go." Ha! Small airport definitely has its pros and cons! Bottom line, if anyone's looking to fly from Maine to Orlando on a direct flight on August 22nd, please book the Frontier 8:00 PM flight! Honestly, it's super cheap now too!!

 

[Dpflake]

Unfortunately with the uncertainty of Covid travel restriction coupled with almost non existent business travel, airlines haven't been finalizing their schedules until roughly 2-3 months out. Anything past that is basically a placeholder schedule and prone to change.

We have a January trip with the whole family and have two sets of flights booked. We have our preferred flights booked on AA using cash. We have our backup flights at similar times using SW points (all booked as one ways). I figure if they butcher the AA flights too badly I can always call and get a refund to the credit card. If not, I can just cancel the SW flights for a full refund of points.

Right now most airlines are offering no change fees or miles redeposit fees, so if you have a points stash or travel enough where canceling and getting a voucher isn't a terrible thing...having some backup flights lined up isn't a terrible plan.

OP I hope your flights end up working out!

Thank you

 

[Dpflake]

Yup checking regularly hoping we keep the decent flights we have. They already changed our flight there from 7am nonstop, getting in at 10am to 1pm nonstop getting in at 4pm. Would have lost the whole day, so we opted to change it to a 5:30am 1 stop flight, getting in at 11am. Then they changed the return flight a couple weeks later. Supposed to leave at 3pm non stop flight getting in at 6pm. They moved us to a 10am non stop flight getting in at 1pm, again, lost a whole day, so we switched to a 6pm 1 stop flight getting in around 10:30pm. These flights are ok and we hope and pray they stay like this. lol Good luck to everyone flying in the near future!!

Sounds like my new flight times to Orlando were what you originally had 7:20am-10:05am.
I booked the latest flight out of MCO so we could have a whole day at the parks. 8:30pm-10:10am. All the choices I had for that switch were for early early morning except for a flight leaving at 4:30p with a 2 hr layover in ATL. I grabbed that one while I could. I don’t leave till next month. I’m hoping nothing will change again.

 

[Dpflake]

Our whole flight was cancelled for October! it was supposed to be a flight that made a stop but I didn't have to get off the flight.....NOW the new flight we have, we need change flights both coming and going!I have really bad arthritis in my knees and use a cane.....I can't walk from gate to gate! I'm flying Southwest and was told that they can get me a wheel chair. It's so inconvenient to have to change flights for me and every one else! UGH!

It’s just a big mess for everyone. Especially with how just about everything has to be planned and scheduled. Hotel dates, rental car dates, tickets, restaurants and special events all have to be scheduled. It’s a headache . I’ve seen people who have had a wheelchair chair at the SW gates. I know it would be a lot easier for you to just stay on the plane. Hope everything works out well for your trip.

 

[Dpflake]

JetBlue just changed our December flights and we pretty much lost 2 days of a 5 day trip - 7:00 am flight down changed to 5:00 pm, and 8:00 pm return flight changed to 1:30 pm. They went from 2 nonstops per day to only one, so there were no other options to change to (no connecting flights either).

We cancelled and rebooked with Southwest at almost the same times as our original flights, although more expensive (fortunately I was able to use some points to bring cost closer). Now I just worry that Southwest is going to change our new flights since it doesn’t seem like they’ve gotten to rescheduling December yet!

I hope your flights don’t change so you don’t loose valuable park days. I’ve heard JB and S have been having more than half of their flights canceled!

 

[helenm29]

It’s just a big mess for everyone. Especially with how just about everything has to be planned and scheduled. Hotel dates, rental car dates, tickets, restaurants and special events all have to be scheduled. It’s a headache . I’ve seen people who have had a wheelchair chair at the SW gates. I know it would be a lot easier for you to just stay on the plane. Hope everything works out well for your trip.

Thank you!me too! I'm gonna be one tired puppy that first day.

 

[puffkin]

I will say I fly Southwest almost exclusively and have had many flights changed/cancelled on me over the years, and even during these COVID times but I always get notifications and emails with an option to choose a different flight if the one they changed me to doesn't work. Now of course there may be availability issues, but generally I have usually just fine and as I said, I have always gotten notice.

One time they cancelled our early AM direct flight and rebooked us on some crazy 2 connection cross country travel extravaganza (it was a 2 hour MCO-BWI flight originally). I wasn't able to change it online as it happened the morning of, but I did call and was able to get us rebooked on a late afternoon direct flight so we kept the car and had an extra day of fun at Disney.