ATA Heads Up

[cdrn1]

After reading the thread about ATA seats being changed I decided to look at our itinerary that we booked back in August for our December trip. Two big problems noted. Not only have they changed our seats, but it looks like they have changed our times, causing us to arrive two hours later in Orlando and leaving Orlando almost six hours earlier, causing us to lose our whole last day of our trip. Also, the itinerary does NOT SHOW A SEAT for our infant granddaughter. We did buy her a ticket as we do not want her loose in the aircraft. I have been on hold for 15 minutes now waiting for someone to straighten things out. If you have ATA tickets booked, better check your itinerary.

 

[bujuni]

I'm surprised that they changed your itenirary without notifying you. Aren't they suppose to notify you by email of changes.

 

[inkkognito]

Normally ATA does it by phone, and normally they are great about it. Even when it's only a few minutes, I've often come home to a message on my answering machine. But we had flights that were changed next month and heard nothing. I wonder if the plane reconfiguration mess, plus the financial difficulties, have had some impact because it is definitely not usual for them not to notify people.
Barb

 

[Captain Blue Sky]

ATA will likely only contact you regarding flight schedule changes IF you have included your telephone number in the reservation AND you have not purchased your ticket through a travel agent or on-line consolidator (i.e., Expedia, Orbitz, CheapTickets, Travelocity, etc.). And this is standard practice in the travel industry. So, if you buy your ATA Airline tickets from Joe the Travel Guy, Joe the Travel Guy is responsible for updating you on flight schedule changes because, after all, you are HIS customer.

 

[seashoreCM]

If you don't like the new travel times and you can't find (or they won't give you) better travel times, then cancel for a refund.

Don't just put up with a lost half day of Disney fun.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[hezreck]

I booked ATA through Expedia back in July for a Late Nov trip to Disney. Had us leaving at 5:30 am and getting into Orlando at 10:30 am (with a plane change at Chicago Midway) Thought that was great to get to Disney so early.

Well, The flight times changed 3 times until I checked again last week. They moved us to a 7:00 am flight, which was not that big of a deal, but the connecting flight in Chicago didn't leave until 4:00PM!!! I was not about to sit around an airport for7 hours and lose a whole day at Disney!! So I cancelled that flight and booked with US Air!!

I will never book with ATA again!!! Too many schedule changes and NO communication!!

 

[smcbaker]

My December ATA reservations have been "changed" as well and not a single word from ATA. They have both my phone # and my email address. This is my first experience with ATA and unless everything else goes well, I'm thinking I may not book a trip on them again. It's just a quick weekend trip for DS's birthday so every hour counts. The time changes have already bumped us out of a MVMCP possibility - glad I hadn't already purchased the tix. SOME sort of notification is warranted and I am quite disappointed.

 

[Captain Blue Sky]

I'm really surprised that one of the posters mentioned that they had a 7 hour layover in Chicago for their MCO connection.

I'm surprised because ATA services that city from Chicago several times a day, and you should be able to make a much earlier connection to MCO on ATA.

I would go back to the person/agency you bought the ticket from and have them check your itinerary and make changes. 7 hours is just too long for a layover!

Down here in Charlotte, North Carolina, USAir had a judge impose a 21% pay cut for all unionized workers this week (which is everyone who works for USAir that is not in management). Consequently, the company is expecting a huge number of employees to leave rather than stay at lower pay. They are attempting to hire new employees to fill unexpected and numerous vacancies, but so far they haven't received a huge interest from the public in applications. But that should not be a surprise as the company is expected to disappear some time next year.

At least with ATA there is no chance of them disappearing...

 

[inkkognito]

I can verify what Captain Blue Sky says. ATA has excellent service from MDW to MCO, leaving many times a day. Unless the earlier flights were all full, there shouldn't be a 7-hour gap. And if they are full, you can still try to go standby. We have done that when we've gotten to Midway earlier than planned, and we were not charged anything to do it. It's not guaranteed that you will get on, and you have to take the seats they give you, but it sure beats a wait.
Barb

 

[DemoBri1]

Originally posted by bujuni
I'm surprised that they changed your itenirary without notifying you. Aren't they suppose to notify you by email of changes.

Actually, when I had a time change on our itinerary last year they did notify us. This year, I made reservations in June so that our party of 8 was going to be able to sit in close proximity. Since June we have had our planes changed 4 times, and arrival and departure times changed once. On none of these occasions have we been notified.

When they change planes, all the seating assignments are randomly revised by the computer. I can't stress this enough, if you're worried about where you're going to be seated on your flight, check your intinerary every day.

Brian

 

[nuke]

ATA Has cut flights from Chicago to Orlando in December. If they don't get to Chicago for the 10am flight there isn't another one on some days until 7:15pm.

 

[cathy59]

cdrn1, thank you, thank you, thank you!

I don't normally check this forum, and for the last couple of days I've been thinking that I should check my flight times.

And low and behold, our ATA flight times were changed! To getting in at 6pm instead of 12:30pm, and leaving at 12:10pm instead of 5:55pm!

It took me 30-40 minutes on hold, but they were nice about it and changed us to other flights with better times, no change fee. I think their policy is if it is more than 2 hours different, they don't charge you to change to a different flight, same day ... because I've had this happen before.

Thank you so much for the heads up!!!

 

[iloveokw]

I really feel sorry for ATA - we have flown them many, many times and have been happy. But after checking two our our upcoming trips I had to cancel our tickets with them because of schedule changes. They very nicely asked me if I wanted a refund with no penalty. They also changed me to an early flight when I asked for no charge when there was a schedule change - I sure hope they survive this and keep flying out of Indy.

 

[sgtdisney]

Unfortunately I think you are going to continue seeing more schedule changes than not with ATA. Rumor has it that they are currently in talks with America West Airlines as well as a couple of other airlines to either do a buyout or a massive restructuring of the business. I have seen rumors that America West could possibly be picking up a number of ATA's 757s and that Air Tran or America West could be picking up the Midway gates. The owner of of ATA is highly motivated to do whatever it takes upto and including selling off huge chunks of the business at a discount to avoid banruptcy since his stake in the company would be at risk. There are some massive changes in one way or another with ATA, it should be interesting to see what happens.

 

[robinb]

I flew ATA to San Francisco over Memorial Day and was very happy with them. I had no hesitation to book them for my Christmas/New Year trip. They came in at only $230 for a late afternoon flight on a Friday after school and a late afternoon flight back on Sunday while all the other carriers were at least $100 more.

Then, ATA has been cancelling flights and moving times. My flight now gets in 1.5 later (at almost 11:00 PM!) and leaves an hour ealier. There are now 2, count 'em, 2 itineraries from Madison to Orlando. One that leaves at 5:00 AM and the other that leaves at 5:00 PM. No, they did not call me. I stumbled on the change myself. I spent 30 minutes on hold yesterday trying to talk to someone before I finally hung up.

I wish I could cancel, but flights are still over $300 or I would have to come back on Monday and my DD would miss another day of school .

 

[DemoBri1]

Originally posted by sgtdisney
Rumor has it that they are currently in talks with America West Airlines as well as a couple of other airlines to either do a buyout or a massive restructuring of the business. I have seen rumors that America West could possibly be picking up a number of ATA's 757s and that Air Tran or America West could be picking up the Midway gates.

I would be skeptical about the America West rumors. They are not in a great situation themselves, and a majority of their planes are Airbus, not Boeing. Wouldn't make a great deal of fiscal sense for a struggling company to pick-up a bunch of aircraft from a different manufacturer. Also, I would bet that AirTran and SW would be vying for any of ATA's gates that become available. I'm hoping that ATA comes out of this, but it's not looking too good at the moment.

 

[sgtdisney]

Originally posted by DemoBri1
I would be skeptical about the America West rumors. They are not in a great situation themselves, and a majority of their planes are Airbus, not Boeing. Wouldn't make a great deal of fiscal sense for a struggling company to pick-up a bunch of aircraft from a different manufacturer. Also, I would bet that AirTran and SW would be vying for any of ATA's gates that become available. I'm hoping that ATA comes out of this, but it's not looking too good at the moment.

AWA isn't in a great situation, none of the carriers really is when you come down to it, but they have been profitable recently. They have been replacing the 737s with Airbus but still use the 757 as a staple for the thicker longer runs. Apparently the rumors are that they can buy some of ATAs planes and renegotiate the leases from Boeing and GE. The 757 production line is closing if it hasn't already been closed and ATAs planes are very new. If AWA could get them at a discount it could give them more capacity on longer flights. This subject is a hot topic on airliners.net with crew from both ATA and AWA.

I agree, I think it would be a big mistake for AWA, or any airline for that matter to simply merge with ATA. I think Mikelsons wants to keep the charter part of the business which has been profitable and scale back operations in Indy but wants out of the hotly competitive Chicago Market. Since he holds such a large stake in the company that would be wiped out if ATA declared bankruptcy, I think he will do something soon. It

is unfortunate, but I think ATA grew too fast, adding too many new planes at high lease expenses. There were rumors also that ATA had hoped to jettison some of it's fleet and pick up the smaller 717, but I don't think that will happen now. Either way and no matter who buys all or part of ATA, I think the carrier is in for some big changes.