Does anyone else have this much trouble with airlines?

[Lewisc]

A few airlines define a significant change as one which changes the date of the flight Some airlines use a number such as 4 hours. Others don't provide a number in the CoC. I think airlines should be required to define "significant change" in their CoC.

The OP in this thread has a legit complaint. He was entitled to a refund. I don't know if that would have done him much good.

Most of the posters in DIS don't have a legit complaint. They're trying to get change fees and fare differences waived over a schedule change of literally minutes. Another poster wouldn't accept a connecting flight, which would have changed their time by a couple of hours. Instead she complained about her vacation being ruined because she accepted a 7:30a N/S flight. Other posters complain about a schedule difference of 1-3 hours.

In general DIS get far more from airlines then required as per the CoC.

No, but the family does have the right to pick different flights that are more accommodating to their schedule. Instead of posting how XXX airline ruined your trip, find alternate flights, call the agent and ask to be put on the flights that work best for you.

When you buy an airline ticket you are essentially entering into a contract with the airline to transport you from point A to point B on a particular date. There are provisions in that contract that allow the airline to make changes. Yes, it is inconvenient when a change disrupts travel plans but it is written into the contract.

It seems a lot of people posting complaints about schedule changes don't know the rules and their rights. A little reading and research can go a long way when dealing with airlines these days. Even as a frequent flyer I have to argue with agents to get them to follow a rule. I can't count the number of times an agent told me one thing, I knew she was wrong, and it took a supervisor to agree with me.

 

[delilah]

The schedule changes for our last trip to Orlando were just ridiculous. I fully comprehend the logic of airlines consolidating flights to save money, etc, but, I can't for the life of me understand the economy in the specific changes that they made to our intinery.

Specifically, my original flight was one that left Indianapolis at about 8 am and arrived in Orlando at about 10 am. The return flight left about 8 pm and arrived in Indianapolis about 10pm. NWA changed the times incrementally until we were leaving Indianapolis about 8 am and arriving in Orlando about 5 pm. Furthermore, there was a connection and plane change in Minneapolis (!).

Now, check out your map. The distance from Indianapolis to Minneapolis is roughly 600 miles. The distance from Indianapolis to Orlando is roughly 970 miles. So, we flew more than twice the distance. So, what's the economy in hauling a planeful of people from Indianapolis to Minneapolis, and then back down to Orlando?

The flight back, we went through Detroit. Detroit is about 300 miles from Indianapolis. So, altogether, we flew way to many miles on our last trip. The return trip left early in the morning, about 9 am, and got to Indianapolis about 5 pm. So, not only did we fly about twice as far as we needed to, we wasted two days of our vacation time.

Then, the phone agent, when I discussed the changes, told us that despite the fact the Nwa and Delta had merged, and in fact, are the same airline, we couldn't switch our flights to take a nonstop Delta flight from Cincinnati. Now, I might mention that we live in Southern Indiana, and it would only take about 90 minutes to get to the Cincinnati airport, compared to 60 minutes to get to the Indianapolis airport.

Airline logic. Gotta love it.