Check your Delta flights! **CHECK AGAIN**

[DebbieB]

I read on flyertalk that they are reducing flights in September. On my December trip to FL, I was scheduled for a 45 min layover at JFK, arriving Orlando 4:21. It's been cancelled, now rescheduled to a 4 hour layover arriving 8:00! I have to call to see if I can reschedule through Atlanta for an earlier arrival.

 

[snowbunny]

I know you are an experienced traveler but honestly 45 minutes to connect at JFK in the winter is asking for trouble anyway.

 

[jaccceee]

I've been watching Delta flights for the fall . This morning, I noticed that the 25,000 miles flights have no more nonstop and the prices went up to $799.

 

[tkldisney]

I'm checking our Dec flights everyday. We have an 8 PM n/s out of CVG and hope they don't do away with it. So far they've just changed the flight numbers.

 

[Mouse511]

I've been watching Delta flights for the fall . This morning, I noticed that the 25,000 miles flights have no more nonstop and the prices went up to $799.

jaccceee - you must be watching the same flights we are out of BDL - Delta keeps changing the flights - looks like the fight today is 799 - but that is for 1st class - they dont have the regular seats for sale yet it seems. I am assuming that they switched back to a MD88 and need to re-seat all the other people that have already bought tickets for the other flight they have been selling for the past month which was an Airbus.

We are going in October and have been holding off - I noticed last week they were 218 + fees but we didnt buy so we are still waiting/watching.

 

[debster812]

Our flights in February have been booked since late March. So far there have been no changes, but I'm keeping close watch. They are the only Delta non stops from BOS to RSW and back, for over President's Week. Non-stops are very important to us for our winter trips, as the New England winter weather has impacted us the past three years. If we had to figure in stops and connections, it would have been much worse.

I'll start checking more frequently now that we know that there may be some changes in the works...

I'd even take a change to another Florida airport, as long as it was a non-stop, and we'd rent a car to drive down to Ft Myers. Gotta roll with the punches to get in the winter vacation!

 

[JJ&JHsmom]

Just checked DH's August 18 flight, the 3:05 direct flight was eliminated, he was changed to a 1 stop flight with a 4 hour layover. I booked a direct flight because he is traveling with his mother and our niece. Both of whom have health issues. I called Delta and they were put on the direct flight at 7AM, the only direct flight out of Boston all day. I could not get assigned seats for them, but the agent did say they could sit together because of the medical issues. We are a major airport, the flight was almost full, the day before and the day after are still showing the afternoon direct flight. I don't understand why they would make these changes now.

 

[pooch]

say what you will about SWA's seating policy/date release policy but I've never had a flight changed once booked on SWA. Delta's penchant for changing flight schedules would make me nuts!!!

 

[francie57]

For those of you watching the BDL flights and time - also check Northwest since they are now part of Delta. We booked our Aug. flights on Delta and it has been changed to Northwest at the same time - first flight out in the morning (non-stop). The flights from BDL to MCO through Atlanta are listing at $201 today on the Delta sight for mid-Oct. They don't seem to be listing the non-stops though.

 

[francie57]

For those of you trying to get pricing out of BDL - when you go onto the Delta site click on "full search options" under booking a trip and you will be able to put in more information. I just checked and the nonstop at 6:50 in the morning is listing at $245 with tax/fees.

 

[MrsToad]

Wow! Thanks for the heads-up! I just checked our October flights - what a mess. DH and I were originally flying out on the 6:50am non-stop flight BDL to MCO and then back on the 5:40 pm non-stop flight MCO to BDL. One of our tickets was cash and the other used miles.

They have been re-arranging the flights over the last several weeks but we still had our approximate times, just a switch from Delta and an MD88 to NWA and an Airbus. Today, however, the website says we are going BDL to MCO on the same flight, but they bumped me to a 1-stop with a layover in DTW and left DH on the non-stop coming home!

DH's itinerary still shows an NWA non-stop flight coming home at 5:40 pm but if you search for new flights for that day, you see a Delta flight coming home at 5:30 pm. The rep was able to get me on the non-stop at 5:30 but then realized DH is still showing on the 5:40. Now, I can't believe they are going to have both an NWA and a Delta plane leaving for Hartford within 10 minutes of each other. I'm still on hold - the rep is trying hard but still can't get us on the same plane. And, if you look at DH's itinerary, the BDL to MCO times show the correct times but when you click on the flight number, it is going somewhere other than what shows on the itinerary itself. My confidence is slipping here, though my brain says Delta will get this right in the end.

After a long time on the call, the rep just came back on and said that the computer system itinerary info has not caught up with the actual flight changes for all passengers but that he now has me on the correct flights (both directions non-stops) and now DH's flights are WRONG! The computer will not let the rep change DH's info just yet - we have to call tomorrow to make sure DH's itinerary changes to the new flight information. Oh, well - we will get to WDW one way or the other - no sense stressing too much, I guess. And, I must say, the Delta rep was extremely friendly and really did try to help us get this fixed.

 

[DebbieB]

I know you are an experienced traveler but honestly 45 minutes to connect at JFK in the winter is asking for trouble anyway.

When I originally booked it was an hour. I wasn't crazy about connecting through JFK, I've never connected there and I know northeast airports can be a mess. But that's what they had for 25,000 miles.

I just checked again, now it's a 2 hour layover arriving 5:36. I'm still going to call to see if we can get a flight through Atlanta arriving earlier. I've connected many times through Atlanta and they have several Orlando flights.

 

[snowbunny]

I wasn't crazy about connecting through JFK, I've never connected there

It depends on the time of day...I fly through JFK fairly often. In the afternoon traffic gets very backed up and there are frequently ground holds from other airports and delayed landings. There is a huge number of international departures in late afternoon/early evening. Any kind of weather creates chaos. If you can't get the change to ATL, 2 hours sounds about right to me for being fairly sure to make your scheduled connection (I've missed them with even longer layovers).

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

Our flight changed last year drastically, especially on the way home.

Now, I checked about a week ago and our flight going into WDW in September has changed to leaving 15 minutes earlier, lay-over in LAX is longer and we arrive 8 minutes later. If that's the only change this year, I'll be happy... a lot of people travel on Fridays so I hope that helps in our flights not being changed too much

 

[MrsToad]

I really have to chuckle. I logged back in this morning to see if DH's flight info had caught up with the system changes. It did, sort of, but my flight fix from yesterday was undone and his correct flights were now wrong; both of our itineraries showed flights together to Orlando, but not on the non-stop flight; we had a layover in DTW. Coming home, we are both on the correct non-stop flight.

I feel so bad for the reps who must be swamped with calls from passengers. I did speak with another rep today who was easily able to get us both back on the correct direct flight BDL to MCO. I just can't get my head around a computer system that would take passengers off direct flights, when a newly re-numbered direct flight still exists at the same time, and push those passengers to flights with lay-overs. Doesn't this cause a big rise in their phone support costs?

 

[TiggerD]

I am really glad I read this yesterday about Delta changing flights. We booked our flight in March for our September trip out of BDL and we have always taken the 6:50a.m. flight. We had it all set and then when Delta merged with Northwest, I checked back again and they changed us to a Northwest flight leaving the same time and non-stop, so no problem. Yesterday, after reading this disboard, I decided to check again, and wow I got a shock. First of all they changed us again, and it was no longer a non stop flight but a flight leaving at 6 in the morning, going to Detroit first and then on to Orlando. I was really upset because we always fly non stop, so I called Delta last night and a very nice woman listened to my story and she also could not understand why they re arranged us to a 1 stop so she changed our reservation for us and we are now on the 6:50 flight in the morning non-stop and sitting next to each other and also a non stop back to BDL on the 19th of September sitting next to each other. We were going to be seated apart on the return trip. Thanks so much for posting this and I am going to continue to re check every couple of days to make sure things do not change again.

 

[gullyf]

I am really glad I read this yesterday about Delta changing flights. We booked our flight in March for our September trip out of BDL and we have always taken the 6:50a.m. flight. We had it all set and then when Delta merged with Northwest, I checked back again and they changed us to a Northwest flight leaving the same time and non-stop, so no problem. Yesterday, after reading this disboard, I decided to check again, and wow I got a shock. First of all they changed us again, and it was no longer a non stop flight but a flight leaving at 6 in the morning, going to Detroit first and then on to Orlando. I was really upset because we always fly non stop, so I called Delta last night and a very nice woman listened to my story and she also could not understand why they re arranged us to a 1 stop so she changed our reservation for us and we are now on the 6:50 flight in the morning non-stop and sitting next to each other and also a non stop back to BDL on the 19th of September sitting next to each other. We were going to be seated apart on the return trip. Thanks so much for posting this and I am going to continue to re check every couple of days to make sure things do not change again.

Yes, I must say it was a great "heads up". We were in the same situation: our non-stop flight in August went from Delta to Northwest to layover in Detroit on 3 different reservations! Jeesh... flying used to be so simple! Calling this morning got us all back to basically our original non-stop flights and seated together.

I just hope that this is the last change! Too many more and I would have saved time just driving down! Now I just hope the predictions for a strong El Nino and below normal hurricane season hold true!

 

[Luv2Diz]

I just checked our Delta flights for September. I am finding that there are far fewer changes this year than last. By this time last year they had changed our flight numbers and times at least 4 times. This year the flight numbers have not changed at all and the only change to our flights is a longer layover in Los Angeles, which is actually a good thing considering the size of that airport.

 

[francie57]

For those of you that had your flights changed from a Delta to NWA - you have lost any seat assignments you made when you booked your Delta flight. NWA only lets you pick your seats at 90 days from the flight. So you have to go on at 90 days for your flight to MCO and then again at the 90 day mark for your return flight. Just go to NWA.com and click on my reservations at the right, put in your confirmation no. and last name and your info will come up. Click on seat assignments and you will be able to do them or it will tell you how many days until your flight. I found this out when checking my Delta flights and found it was changed to NWA. I don't want anyone to get to the airport thinking you still have seat assignments and find out you don't.

 

[JB2K]

I read on flyertalk that they are reducing flights in September.

I would imagine travelers on both Delta and Northwest will see more of this as the two legacy carriers begin to merge their flight schedules into what will eventually be "the new Delta".

That said, I agree with the poster who gave props to Southwest -- you won't see any of this going-on, over there...