Delta changed our flight - again!!

[Luv2Travel]

Just wondered how early Delta tends to make changes to their flights? We are booked for the first weekend in March on flights that aren't even half full yet. I'm worried these flights may be changed or combined with another to fill the flight. Any advice?

 

[Alexander]

Just wondered how early Delta tends to make changes to their flights? We are booked for the first weekend in March on flights that aren't even half full yet. I'm worried these flights may be changed or combined with another to fill the flight. Any advice?

Let me tell you, it's not too early! We are booked for April 7th and we have had 10 changes as of tonight to our flights. We were originally sheduled to depart SYR at 5:12 PM, plenty of time to get there after school. Well.....we are now leaving at 3:30 PM. Uh-school ends at 3:00....Well I guess we'll have to take the day off. However since this is the case, I'm hoping when I call we can get on an early morning flight since I have to take the day off of work anyways.

Our seats are also all now in the back of the plane. I had requested all near front seats since I'll be 8 months pregnant and don't want to stay ont he plane any longer than necessary. They have a ton of front seats left but I am unable to change them online. I called and she said, "sure where would you like to sit?" She told me she changed them, but guess what.....We are still showing our seats in the back. URGH!

 

[yellowfish78]

Last time I flew Delta and wanted to go standby for an earlier flight they charged me $25 per person. You might want to double check on that before you try it. Also if you don't like the times that they gave you, you can call them and tell them that that time isn't going to work, what else do you have available...check their website first before you call so you know what you "really" want.

 

[RobInBigKC]

Any advice?

Yes, check Delta's website as frequently as you want to know whether or not your flight has been changed. The last time we flew Delta (and hopefully it will be the last time ever), they cancelled our flight and changed us to another flight on that same date.

That I didn't mind so much but the kicker is that we never received any communication of any kind (email, phone call, fax, letter, nothing) from Delta that this had happened. With today's technology, there is no reason that Delta couldn't have generated an email to us (we had booked online so they had our email address).

-- Rob

 

[delilah]

For our last trip in November, on ATA (which no longer flies out of Indianapolis), I had quite a discussion with a reservations agent about how ATA had changed our flight time, and seats, separating us all over the plane. We are a party of three, and are not fussy. We just like to sit all together in one row, that's it. I can't imagine why somebody else would prefer to sit in next to us, I would imagine just pure meanness, more than anything--we had one aisle, one middle, and one window between us. The agent couldn't quite comprehend that to a parent with a young child (7), in the next row wasn't the same as "next to". Apparently, there must have been a transcript of the call on the computer, because when we arrived to check in, the agent took quite a long time to read the screen, shook her head, and reassigned us to one row, three seats across.

 

[bicker]

It's reasonable to expect people to move so at least one parent can sit with a 4-5 year old child. It really isn't reasonable to expect couples to split or people to move to a middle seat just so you can sit next to your teenager, or even 10 year old. There may be some excpetional circumstances.

That's it in a nutshell. While it is bad when families aren't seated together, it happens, and folks need to remember that when this happens to them that is their problem, not everyone else's problem. While such folks can hope for some generosity, it should be acknowledged as generosity, and shouldn't be expected if what you're offering would simply put your problem onto the person you're asking a favor of. Your best bet would be to look for folks to help you who are seated in middle seats, and further back in the airplane than the seat you plan to give up.

 

[JFrey4240]

I have moved several times for parents with children and couples so they could sit together. I do this because it's nice and people should do nice things for one another. I don't understand people who refuse to move so a child can sit next to a parent. Do they think it will be fun sitting next to a crying child for an entire flight? or entertaining a bored child? I reserve seats so I can be next to my child but the airlines sometimes switch and do whatever to those assignments. I think the airlines do the best they can to accomodate parents with children. I have been on flights and everyone pretty much moved around. There may be some "grumps" but the rest of us are happy to do what we can to make it work out. The flight attendants are great at helping with this.

 

[MissMichelle]

My flightr was changed on Delta for my upcoming flight only once (but who knows with over 2 weeks to go still! LOL). I didn't mind but it then left us "Seats unassigned". When calling it took us a few different people to finally fix it so we can all sit together since my niece (9) is on a reservation of her own while the other 4 of us were together. They had to link the 2 ressies so she would be with us.

In a whole other story, it messed with my DME as I have called DME to change my flight info 3 times as it keeps showing my old info on the wdw site. Well my yellow tags came...and with my OLD flight and coming in a different day (which isn't the flight change's fault it is WDW fault as they didn't put us coming into a Room Only, they put us with our package that starts a day later).

So I guess these things happen, not a fun way to start your vacation when things keep changing, but I just remember---It IS vacation, and there are other things for me to worry about---I am doing my best to enjoy every aspect--including the planning (HAHA that is hard!!)

 

[maine_jennifer]

Another thing to watch out for is gate changes. 3 out of my 4 flights last weekend, there was a gate change. One segment, it changed twice. Flights were full for all but the first segment and oddly enough, that was the one that the gate didn't change. Though when there are only 11 or12 gates at the local airport, a change is unlikely to occur.

Had no problems with time changes, though that may have had more to do with the fact that I only got my tickets a week ahead of time.

Will be flying with Delta in June. Bought tickets in November and still have not had flight times changed.

Cheers!

 

[Esmerelda]

YES...this did happen to me and my two sons about 4 years ago and it was my last Delta flight. Our flight time changed on our outgoing flight from Orlando (even though I called at 9pm the night before to confirm and all was well...grrrr). When we arrived EARLY the next day to check in for our 11am flight...was informed it was now a 4pm flight and we would have to hold onto our luggage....great...NOT! I immediately got on my cell phone...called Delta's 800 number and told them this was not acceptable as I had two young boys with me ages 5 and 8 at the time. I did get a sooner flight out...only to find at the next stop it was WAAAY overbooked (by at least 20 people...grrrrrrr) We got bumped involuntarily because we were just put on that flight 3 hours back in Orlando. When we finally did get on a plane...we were all separated. It was an L1011 (huge plane) and I was in the center and my two boys were somewhere up on the left side. NO ONE would switch seats with me and the flight attendants just shrugged their shoulders...as in..."oh well..sorry about your luck lady".....grrrrrrr

This was my LAST Delta flight ever......we have since flown USAir...AAA...and Southwest..and Airtran with no similar issues...and we have always sat together. (yes, even on Southwest...we sat TOGETHER...

off her soapbox now and still continues to fly....
Esmerelda

 

[Alexander]

Well, since Delta had now made 12 changes to our intinerary for April and all of our seating assignments had been lost, even the bad ones, I decided to give them a call last night.

The man I spoke to was the absolute best customer service rep ever! He looked at the changes and said, "What have we done to you?" Then he changed all of my flight times to meet whatever I needed! We are getting to Orlando 5 hours earlier on much better flights! We now have very short layovers (just about an hour) on both the departing and returning flights. He changed our return flights so we don't get in at 1:00 AM. He was awesome. And......he assigned us good seats.

Totally restored my faith in Delta!

 

[JennSaint]

As much as it can be annoying to see alot of schedule changes I have found Delta is always accomodating. My flights changed alot for our up coming trip and most always I got the flights I wanted. I had originally booked flights that had layovers and now I'm on non-stop flights. I've been very happy with Delta's customer service.

 

[poohs4me]

I found Delta had changed my flight as well this morning for a flight in March, but I called them and explained that we cannot leave at 7:00AM from DW like they wanted and mentioned that it looked like another flight was leaving at the same time mine was scheduled.

At first, they told me that my flight (we booked separately) could be changed for no cost, but the other people in my flight would have to pay the change fee and difference in ticket. I asked why because all I wanted was the times I originally booked. I was on hold for about 20 minutes, but they came back and it was all taken care of.

Delta could not have been nicer. They were also considered about our seat placement and made sure we were all together.

 

[Luv2Travel]

Well, I got an email telling us our flight had changed this morning too. We're flying the beginning of March. But the only thing that changed is that we are flying out a whopping 12 minutes later. What is the point of that? This is not a flight coming from somewhere else, this is a flight on one of Delta's commuter planes that does nothing but go from my home airport to Orlando twice daily. No biggie, it just seems odd.

 

[kaytieeldr]

YES...this did happen to me and my two sons about 4 years ago and it was my last Delta flight. Our flight time changed on our outgoing flight from Orlando (even though I called at 9pm the night before to confirm and all was well...grrrr). When we arrived EARLY the next day to check in for our 11am flight...was informed it was now a 4pm flight and we would have to hold onto our luggage....great...NOT! I immediately got on my cell phone...called Delta's 800 number and told them this was not acceptable as I had two young boys with me ages 5 and 8 at the time. I did get a sooner flight out...only to find at the next stop it was WAAAY overbooked (by at least 20 people...grrrrrrr) We got bumped involuntarily because we were just put on that flight 3 hours back in Orlando. When we finally did get on a plane...we were all separated. It was an L1011 (huge plane) and I was in the center and my two boys were somewhere up on the left side. NO ONE would switch seats with me and the flight attendants just shrugged their shoulders...as in..."oh well..sorry about your luck lady".....grrrrrrr

This was my LAST Delta flight ever......we have since flown USAir...AAA...and Southwest..and Airtran with no similar issues...and we have always sat together. (yes, even on Southwest...we sat TOGETHER...

off her soapbox now and still continues to fly....
Esmerelda

Well, naturally I'm not going to try to convince anyone to use an airline they're unhappy with... but think about it. Yes, Delta changed your flight at the last minute. This was probably due to equipment problems, which they CAN'T predict ahead of times, even as close as 9 PM for a flight a mere fourteen hours later.
That was unacceptable to you. Fine. But most likely the three of you were seated together on the rescheduled flight, although we'll never know.
Your insisentence that the 4 PM flight was unacceptable caused/forced Delta to reassign you to the itinerary from which you were subequently bumped. It appears that Delta tried to work with you.
By the way - how much earlier or later did you end up getting to your destination than you would have if you'd taken the 4 PM flight?

 

[kaytieeldr]

Well, I got an email telling us our flight had changed this morning too. We're flying the beginning of March. But the only thing that changed is that we are flying out a whopping 12 minutes later. What is the point of that? This is not a flight coming from somewhere else, this is a flight on one of Delta's commuter planes that does nothing but go from my home airport to Orlando twice daily. No biggie, it just seems odd.

First flight or second flight? Chances are the schedule change is due to OTHER departure scheduling changes, nothing to do with your flight.

 

[TDC Nala]

I will exchange seats for minor children to sit with parents.. I can't think of a really good reason for anyone to refuse to let a child sit with a parent. I will not change for adult couples to sit together...certainly not on a short flight...unless maybe I can get a comparable seat (window) elsewhere on the plane.

 

[deltachi8]

Well, since Delta had now made 12 changes to our intinerary for April and all of our seating assignments had been lost, even the bad ones, I decided to give them a call last night.

The man I spoke to was the absolute best customer service rep ever! He looked at the changes and said, "What have we done to you?" Then he changed all of my flight times to meet whatever I needed! We are getting to Orlando 5 hours earlier on much better flights! We now have very short layovers (just about an hour) on both the departing and returning flights. He changed our return flights so we don't get in at 1:00 AM. He was awesome. And......he assigned us good seats.

Totally restored my faith in Delta!

I recently had a schedule change on Delta leaving me less than 20 mins to connect in Atlanta ... I called and was blown away by the terrific customer service. They appologized and helped me pick alternate flights.

Delta won many points with me that day.