Delta changed out flights

[vincev33]

We booked our flights several months before our August trip and I received an email last week saying that Delta changed our schedule.. We shopped around to get the earliest departure time from our home airport and the latest departure time from MCO to get more vacation time. They changed it and cut several hours off of each end. That and we are meeting my DMIL coming froma different airprot so we arranged her flight times to match ours. Now she will be waiting. Is this one of those "oh well, the airlines do what they want" or should I call and complain? Has this happened to anyone on here?

 

[pooch]

happens all the time. You can check their flight schedule for your travel dates. If there's a flight you like better, call Delta & see if they'll move you to that flight. People have reported success doing this. Otherwise, the airline has the right to change schedules as they see fit.

 

[k386trl]

Delta did the same thing to me my last trip. They changed me from a morning nonstop flight to an afternoon flight with 2 30 minute layovers. I wasn't happy, called customer service and complained where I was told I should have purchased refundable tickets. I then asked for a supervisor who immediately switched me to a flight of my choosing for free.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

Will they most likely change your flights to one that you are happy with, yes. Are they required to, no. The contract you agreed to when you purchased your tickets basically requires Delta to provide flight(s) from your departure point to your arrival point on a given day. There are no guarantees to what times, connections, aircraft or seats.

You say a few hours, but how long is a few hours? If you're saying that your departure and/or arrival is different by more then 90 minutes, they probably will consider that a significant change and be willing to put you on another flight (if there is room - which can even mean room within your fare class booked). If it's less, it is doubtful they will change your flight times, but there is no harm in asking.

 

[bicker]

As others have alluded to - if you've got time to kill, then sure give 'em a call - it can't hurt to ask. Just don't expect to be accommodated, because the terms and conditions are very clear that you're booking passage on a specific date, not at a specific time, or in specific seats, or via a specific routing, or using a specific type of aircraft, etc. The precise number of hours that a schedule change must be, to trigger the airline's commitment to give you a refund (if you can't come to some other mutually-acceptable arrangement) varies by airline.

Generally, if the flights you'd prefer to be switched onto have seats available in the exact same fare class as the ticket you have (I don't mean "coach" versus "first class" but rather "N" versus "M" versus "K" versus "V", etc.), then they'll often be happy to switch you.

 

[maxiesmom]

I agree with those who said Delta will most likely change you to a different flight for free. That is what they usually do.

But before you call look and see what flights are available that will work for your family. The same thing happened to me with Delta a few months ago. Before I called I had a list of flights that I was willing to be switched to, and they switched me to one of them with no hassle at all.

 

[DebbieB]

I had a schedule change on Delta over the weekend. I have frequent flyer tickets and when I got them in February for October, the latest return flight was at 12:35. We like to leave early evening. But for free, what can you do? A couple of months ago, it was changed to 12:10. I called and they said it has to be at least a 90 minute change to get a different flight. I have seen posts where people got changed for less than that. This weekend I looked and we were moved to 11:55. We have a breakfast planned at Cape May, we would really be cutting it close. So I looked online at flights available with miles and there was now a flight at 6:25pm for the same # of miles. So I called and said our flight has been moved to earlier twice and now it really doesn't work for us. The rep was really nice and said let me see what I can do. So I mentioned that I saw a flight at 6:25 for the same # of miles. She looked and said yes, I can switch you to that! Yea!