Delta flight time change ?

[bicker]

That's a good question, expecially if you paid more to get a non-stop, which I just did. I don't think they can re-route you without your permission.

Indeed they can, though still subject to their self-imposed two hour or four hour time change refund policy (allowing you to get a full refund if you don't accept the change -- subject to change of course). Of course, with a connection, it is far harder for the time change to be less than two hours (but not hard for it to be less than four hours).

The fundamental take-away from reading the contracts of carriage, for every US domestic airline, is that the only thing you're being promised is transportation from City A to City B on a specific date, in a specific cabin. All other aspects of the reservation -- the flight time, the connections, the seat assignment, the type of aircraft, the amenities, etc. -- are all just requests on your part, just like with a Disney resort reservation when you request a room on a "high floor".

Most of the airlines will work with you to satisfy you, but their obligations are pretty minimal, except for the core aspect of the service, providing you transport on a certain day between two specific cities.

 

[bicker]

If, like most of us DISers, you’re checking your flights several times a week and contacting the airline whenever there’s a change – it’s likely they’re aware of this and don’t see the need to notify you of changes. Especially if your flight information changes six times, it’s likely – as bicker states – that the airline wouldn’t notify ANY of those passengers until close to flight time, e.g. three or so weeks before departure.

Yes, I'm sorry if my earlier message didn't make this clear. If you do anything (even just looking at your itinerary online on the airline's website) you could be communicating to them that you don't need to be notified, and so you won't be, and Delta never notifies passengers earlier than three weeks prior to the flight. They only have that one notification time, three weeks prior.

 

[klmall]

We were very surprised that on our last trip to Orlando in October '06 with United we received multiple e-mails and voice-mail messages notifying us of a 2 minute change in our departure time. My husband had requested e-mail notification of flight changes and he definitely received them!

Also, we've flown Delta many times in the past three years since we have our frequent flyer miles with them and yes, I constantly read that they are notorius for changing flight times. When we flew to Asheville, NC in November '06 with stops along the way, we actually had no changes in our flights though I checked daily for problems and expected them since we were basically flying for free. We also flew Delta to MCO at spring break '05 and also had no flight changes. I guess it's getting worse!

I do hate that Delta seems to have dropped most of their non-stops!

Right now United has the cheapest non-stop tickets from Dulles (IAD) to MCO for winter '07 ($169 including taxes/fees). DH hates Southwest so we'll probably buy those.