Et tu Delta?

[maxiesmom]

I'm now at the point of laughing. After Southwest changed our return non stop flight to one with a 4 hour layover, we booked a non stop on Delta. Good news is that it is still non stop. But now it leaves Florida an hour later. Not the end of the world, but good grief with all these airlines.

I truly feel for the people who have had their flights cancelled at the last minute, so I do know how lucky I still am. Is this all because a lack of employees?

 

[sam_gordon]

I'm now at the point of laughing. After Southwest changed our return non stop flight to one with a 4 hour layover, we booked a non stop on Delta. Good news is that it is still non stop. But now it leaves Florida an hour later. Not the end of the world, but good grief with all these airlines.

I truly feel for the people who have had their flights cancelled at the last minute, so I do know how lucky I still am. Is this all because a lack of employees?

I think there's a lot going into it...
* Lack of employees
* More people travelling than what the airlines expected after last year
* Possible issues with airframes

I don't think airlines change flight times/cancel simply to annoy passengers. They've been doing that for YEARS. It's just the amount of changes (seems to) have drastically increased recently.

 

[SirDuff]

I think there's a lot going into it...
* Lack of employees
* More people travelling than what the airlines expected after last year
* Possible issues with airframes

I don't think airlines change flight times/cancel simply to annoy passengers. They've been doing that for YEARS. It's just the amount of changes (seems to) have drastically increased recently.

I find it amazing how many people think it is some sort of conspiracy issue (not the OP - just in general/in other threads).

OP - sorry for your run of bad luck.

 

[maxiesmom]

I think there's a lot going into it...
* Lack of employees
* More people travelling than what the airlines expected after last year
* Possible issues with airframes

I don't think airlines change flight times/cancel simply to annoy passengers. They've been doing that for YEARS. It's just the amount of changes (seems to) have drastically increased recently.

What do you mean by airframes? Is it a timeframe?

 

[MarcIsMe]

An airframe is the mechanical structure of a plane, so poster maybe referring to issues of putting aircraft back in service after sitting idle or increased demands on maintenance without adequate staff.

 

[FCDub]

An hour flight change isn't that bad.

 

[maxiesmom]

An hour flight change isn't that bad.

Definitely not. We are just trying to get back in the early evening as my nephew wants to work the next day.

 

[joelkfla]

I don't think airlines change flight times/cancel simply to annoy passengers. They've been doing that for YEARS. It's just the amount of changes (seems to) have drastically increased recently.

They don't do it to intentionally annoy passengers, but it seems that they have little regard for the affect on their customers.

 

[Heather07438]

I really feel for everybody having issues recently. We've been there and it was horrid. Best of luck!

So far our JetBlue has only changed once. Leaving changed to an hour earlier and returning an hour later (not bad, rather get a little more time than have it cut into our plans). We have a month to go still *fingers crossed*

 

[EACarlson]

Many airlines, Delta included, retired many planes that were nearing end of their service life. It wouldn't be financially prudent to bring them back into service just to have to retire them again in a few months. The bigger issue is pilots, most didn't maintain currency while laid off. They have to be re-certified before they can fly. And how many other airline workers took other jobs while laid off?

But none of that really matters in your case, this is just another example of Delta's infamous Schedule Change Saturday. I got hit with it today as well. My MSP-MCO leg in Oct got bumped up by a half hour and a new flight number. Same thing would happen in Pre-pandemic times. In 2019 they changed my inbound flight in June and my outbound flight in August for a Dec trip.

 

[kdonnel]

Well before COVID Delta was known for micro managing their schedule. You should always check any Delta reservations you have every Sunday because of the infamous schedule change Saturday.

 

[Donna M]

I'm now at the point of laughing. After Southwest changed our return non stop flight to one with a 4 hour layover, we booked a non stop on Delta. Good news is that it is still non stop. But now it leaves Florida an hour later. Not the end of the world, but good grief with all these airlines.

I truly feel for the people who have had their flights cancelled at the last minute, so I do know how lucky I still am. Is this all because a lack of employees?

Sure sounds like us. We had flights down from MHT on SW but they cancelled the n/s flight so we changed to Delta out of BOS. Today I was notified that the n/s was cancelled and we were put on a flight with a layover too. I was able to get onto an earlier n/s. They also changed our return to an hour later and changed the seats. We have 2 carseats and they took away a window seat. There was a 2 hour phone wait to change it too since they wouldn´t let me do it online.

I wish planning wasn´t so stressful, this is supposed to be a vacation.

 

[KPeterso]

I got hit by the Delta schedule change this weekend too. Flight out is the same. But coming home, it is pushed back about 50 minutes with a new flight number. It was totally fine. I did have to call Disability services to ensure the fact that we will have a wheelchair with us is still noted with the reservation. Had to go through all the measurements again to ensure it will fit through the compartment door. Oh and to ask if they could move our seats further forward so my Mom does not have to walk as far back on the plane. Thankfully, the Disability Services wait time is very short, so I got right through.

 

[Wmuflyguy]

I'm now at the point of laughing. After Southwest changed our return non stop flight to one with a 4 hour layover, we booked a non stop on Delta. Good news is that it is still non stop. But now it leaves Florida an hour later. Not the end of the world, but good grief with all these airlines.

I truly feel for the people who have had their flights cancelled at the last minute, so I do know how lucky I still am. Is this all because a lack of employees?

It’s happening a lot now as airlines are optimizing their flight schedule to utilize their resources (Planes, Pilots, flight attendants) as efficiently and profitably as possible.

It happened before the pandemic too. Generally the further out you book you run the risk of some kind of schedule change. Happens to me constantly for our vacations, as I book 3-6 months out and as I’m traveling between big cities it is usually only a difference of hours. Smaller cities with more limited service see larger changes.

It rarely happens for work travel as I only book 2-4 weeks out. As at that time the schedule is pretty much set. I fly usually 4-6 times a month.

As planes fill our or don’t fill up the airline looks and says is this the best use of our resources or do we need to make connections to accommodate our schedule. and with how fast travel ramped backed up they are scrambling.

 

[SL6827]

So with Delta, are they bad to change, reschedule very often? The Saturday thing?

 

[bookgirl]

I might not love the changes but I wish they had a better algorithm. It never fails that mine gets changed to a flight that is in a different section of the day (1pm flight becomes a 6am flight), connects in an airport that makes my home airport a flyover (always wants to route me through Denver instead of HOU/STL/ATL) and adds 3-5 hours to my travel time (worst was a direct flight to one with two stops and a 5 hour layover YIKES).

I learned the hardway to always look at every part of the changed flight.

 

[EACarlson]

So with Delta, are they bad to change, reschedule very often? The Saturday thing?

In the before times it was usually one change, on a Saturday, two to three months out. I booked my tickets in March and I've had changes on three of four legs, one being changed twice. Never anything bad but a lot of little changes. In 2019 I booked 10 months out and had two changes, both of which made my connections impossible, Delta changed me to non-stops with no issue.

 

[FCDub]

So with Delta, are they bad to change, reschedule very often? The Saturday thing?

Every airline is dealing with an unprecedented time still. The key to traveling is always be flexible!

 

[kanerf]

Yes, my American flights for October have changed a lot. I was arriving around 2:00PM and now it is after 5. On the return, I was leaving at around 11PM and now it is an early evening flight. These still work, but now I get in to late to do much and now need to plan for extra time in the park on the return (maybe).

 

[Shannon G]

The most recent round of Delta changes actually works to our advantage & I’m hoping they stick. DD is flying from Burlington, VT to MCO in October, to meet up with us for a couple of days of our WDW trip & to attend my niece’s wedding. Plan in for her to fly late Wednesday so that she only misses 2 days of classes (she’s a student at UVM). Delta made changes that resulted in the latest flight she could get being too early, given her Wednesday class schedule. I thought about booking her on a United flight, but decided to wait a bit (I had already transferred points to Delta miles, and I didn’t want them to go to waste only to have to also transfer points to United miles). With this recent round of changes a later flight is again available, and I was able to switch her to that. Keeping my fingers crossed they don’t drop it again!