Delta Changed Flight AGAIN!!!

[Dislifer]

Check your flights everyone! Delta has once again changed my flight. First it was scheduled for 7:00 pm (so I wouldn't miss any work), then it changed to 4:00 pm; now it's been changed to 3:30 pm. If it changes to an earlier, I'm in big trouble because I'm a teacher and I really CANNOT take the day before a holiday off and this departure date is!
Do you think Delta is going to change their flight schedule AGAIN????? My departure date is 12/23.

 

[SB in KY]

If you are not happy with the 3:30 departure time you can see what else Delta has scheduled...if there is a later flight that you would prefer to take then just call them and let them know that the new departure time does not work for you and you want to be on Flt#xxx.

Since they have changed the departure time by more than 90 minutes they will put you on any available flight without a change fee. Sometimes you have to talk to a supervisor or someone in Customer Service , but it can be done (actually at Delta usually the phone agent can do it for you)....if Delta does not have any other flight times that would work for you, but another airline does (at a price you want to pay) you can also ask for a full refund. (I would make REALLY sure I could get something else at a better time before I turned my reservation loose for 12/23 however!!)

Not to be a prophet of Doom or anything here, but it is entirely possible that flight times will change again before 12/23 too!!

Anytime you book a plane ticket more than 90 days in advance it is really likely the schedule will change (except on SW who very rarely changes a schedule after it has been posted...)

 

[michellex2]

Yes, my flights have been changed multiple times as well by Delta -- 3 times in the past month, with the last change an 8 hour difference in arrival time, which would not work for me. And the flight, although a Delta flight number, was a Northwest flight -- not normally a problem for me, but due to the Northwest mechanics strike, I deliberately did not book Northwest this flight. I called Delta to see what we could work out and ended up with a flight time that was better than my original booking (I wanted that flight time, but all of the cheap tickets were sold, so took the next best option) and no change charge nor increase in fare. The reservation person was very helpful and commented on what a "nice passenger" I was, with a sigh that seemed to suggest that she'd had to deal with lots of upset people recently. She even managed to override some seating options so that my mother (84 and in a wheelchair) could have an aisle seat close to the door, which makes flying much easier for her. Overall, I've found the reservation people try pretty hard to find options that will work for you, but it REALLY is necessary to keep a close eye on your reservations so that you can call and make changes while alternative flights are still open. By the way, it's not only Delta -- I ended up with the Delta flight due to a change by American that did not have an alternative which worked for me, hence they refunded my money and I rebooked on Delta.

 

[bicker]

Flights will change four times a year at a minimum, assuming you book as early as you can. With the airlines struggling to find a way to stop losing so much money each time they fly someone somewhere, we can expect even more changes than that.

 

[nliedel]

It's the strike. They are cancelling flights and consolidating, pretty normal but darn annoying.

 

[bicker]

Strike? I think you're thinking of Northwest, not Delta... unless Delta's been hit with a strike I didn't hear about...

 

[jennymouse]

Mine's still the same, so far. Ours has already changed once so we no longer have a direct flight coming home. Our direct flight down isn't full yet so I'm thinking that flight will be changed any time. I can deal with it as long as I can get an earlier flight.

 

[NJBlackBerry]

Delta is not on strike. Bankruptcy, yes. But no strike.

 

[Airplane dis freak]

they're ******* bankrupt!
they aren't on strike!
i would know, my dad's a pilot for them

 

[Brian Noble]

The strike hasn't materially affected NW's ability to fly. But, they are also in bankruptcy, and they've also been consolidating flights, though not as drastically as Delta seems to have been. I suppose that makes sense, as NW's load factors have been quite high lately.

Though I am on a flight to gatwick later this month that's only half full---and got a $100 credit after they dropped the price. Again. If you want to go to London this fall, now's a good time to look for tickets. I'm paying only $50 more to get to the UK than NW currently wants for President's Week to Orlando!

 

[TAKitty]

I am in this same position as a teacher. NW changed my flights. I explained it to my principal and he is letting me leave at 12:30 and someone who has planning during the last half of the day is going to watch my class for free. I teach secondary, so it may be easier than if you teach elementary.

 

[m4travel]

After reading several threads on the subject of flight changes and thinking 'Poor kids! What a hassle for them,' because our flights had remained the same as when they were booked - it has happened to us!

Right after buying into DVC in August we decided that we really should visit WDW for our first time and see what we've got, and as long as we're there, we should try a DCL cruise, too. So we booked the week around my birthday (can you guess who was pushing the suggestion for this trip?) at the end of January on Song. Having read the threads about flight changes, I dutifully checked our flights every week to ten days, never noticing a change.

This morning it was a different story! The changes were relatively minor (we leave LAX half an hour later (it's a red-eye flight already) and leave MCO 45 minutes earlier) and we were still on the same non-stop flights. So far, so good, but our seat assignments had disappeared. When we brought up our reservation itinerary online and tried to change seats, the screen didn't work. When we went into the flight as if we were a new booking, our seats were marked 'Available.'

It only took a quick phone call to Song to sort things out. The agent said they needed to verify that the new flight times would work for us and they still had our seats - making it sound as if they were holding them for us. I pointed out that when we looked at the seat plan for the new flight times our seats were shown as available, but he quickly secured them for us. (As a quick refresh of the screen on our computer showed that the change had been made: the old flight times had disappeared and the new flights had our original seats). So whether they were really available or whether they were on some sort of hold, it's hard to tell. Other disboarders have reported that they went from rows 5 or 6 to the back of the plane, so his explanation is suspect.

On the other hand, another disboarder pointed out that regardless of what flight you look at, most of the seats in the front cabin are shown as taken. They suggested that the seats were being held for the airlines' very frequent flyers and actually named the rows that would likely be shown as booked months in advance on any combination of flight/airline.

BTW, the Song phone system is great: Instead of listening to a menu of choices and pressing phone keys, you speak into the phone and it recognizes what you're saying! Ah, the wonders of modern science.

As we have three and a half months to go before our flights, you can bet that we'll continue to check them regularly.