Flight Change....grrrrr

[Disney_Princess83]

Delta did this to us two years ago, however they changed us to leave 4 hours later and an additional spot over. They were very accommodating and changed us to an earlier flight. However it is incredible frustrating and Delta is always doing this.

I would try visiting EPCOT or HS instead of AK

 

[Mommy2Corinne]

Legacy carriers are the original airlines - American, United, Delta, USAirways. They all release their schedules about 11 months in advance day by day. They do frequent schedule adjustments.

Southwest is different, they release their schedules in blocks, usually closer to the travel date. Southwest typically does not change schedules but there is a post right now on the transportation board where they did and messed someone up.

We had our Southwest return flight from Puerto Rico changed by over 2 hours a few weeks ago. They gave us about a month notice (and called me repeatedly to inform me of the change until I called them back). So maybe Southwest is doing this more often now?

 

[jcemom]

We covered AK in an afternoon in June. Scheduled FPs for the headliners and just went with the flow on the rest. A big rain shower helped clear the park some in the late day. We were in FOLK during the storm, so it really worked out great for us. EE was down for a little while during our FP window, but when it came back up we were able to get right on.

Seems like a lot of people leave AK early. We decided to do a few hours in the afternoon once and lines were pretty non-existant. If you keep to your plan,and you don't want to do everything, you might be OK. Sorry that happened. (I'd also do what was suggested and see if there is an early flight and change to that...since they changed our flight to more than 2 hours from your original time, I think they are supposed to do it for free).

While AK can be done in an afternoon, depending on what's on your to do list, when the OP is going AK closes at 5:00. They probably wouldn't get there until 3:00. That doesn't leave time for much. IF AK was open until 7:00 they might be able to accomplish a good bit, but two hours just isn't going to cut it unless they have a really short list.

 

[ariane37]

Glad you decided to do AK on a different day. Not arriving at MCO until 12:45 really wouldn't give you enough time at the park, once you got to your resort, checked in, and hopped a bus there. And I've always found the safari better early in the morning

JetBlue actually did this to us in Feb. but to a lesser extent. Our original flight home was at 7:50 p.m. so we planned a park that day, as we wouldn't need to catch ME until about 4:50. First couple changes were only by minutes - 7:41, 7:33. Then all of a sudden 3 weeks before our trip the flight changes to 5:30! So it didn't cause us to cancel anything, just meant a few hours less at the park which is always a bummer

 

[kitkat4622]

again many thanks. I think we are going to do Epcot on arrival day. We have Fantasmic on October 10th and MNSSHP on the 9th....AK will probably be either Saturday or Sunday ...

 

[Priory]

So funny to see this thread, I almost started one myself. Delta must have recently had a huge schedule change. 2 days ago I discovered that Delta changed my flight so that my "connecting" flight LEAVES 4 hours before I reach the connecting city. For those playing along at home - that's not possible. They also did not alert me to this change whatsoever. I only discovered it because I was booking travel from the airport to Universal. There are no longer any options that get me to Orlando before midnight. I was supposed to arrive at 5. I got a refund, but I'll probably never mess with delta again.

 

[agavegirl1]

No notification from Delta? Better check my itinerary right now.

 

[Priory]

No notification from Delta? Better check my itinerary right now.

NONE. And when it comes to airlines, I opt in for every sort of communication - text, email, phone. No notifications on the app either.

 

[DebbieB]

We had our Southwest return flight from Puerto Rico changed by over 2 hours a few weeks ago. They gave us about a month notice (and called me repeatedly to inform me of the change until I called them back). So maybe Southwest is doing this more often now?

They are in the final stages of the AirTran merger. They are subleasing some of AirTran's planes to Delta. So it's possible that's why they have had to move schedules around.

 

[Mommy2Corinne]

They are in the final stages of the AirTran merger. They are subleasing some of AirTran's planes to Delta. So it's possible that's why they have had to move schedules around.

Ahhhh...makes sense.

 

[ZoZo]

again many thanks. I think we are going to do Epcot on arrival day. We have Fantasmic on October 10th and MNSSHP on the 9th....AK will probably be either Saturday or Sunday ...

That sounds like a really good plan, since Epcot is usually open until 9:00 pm or so. You wouldn't arrive at AK until around 3:00 if your flight doesn't even land until 12:45. With AK closing at 5:00, that doesn't make sense. Hopefully you can get a good six hours in at Epcot.

How frustrating for you! I'm so sorry you have to deal with this hassle - I know how a monkey wrench like this can cause a lot of shuffling around of plans.

I hope you have a wonderful trip!

 

[jdrais]

So funny to see this thread, I almost started one myself. Delta must have recently had a huge schedule change. 2 days ago I discovered that Delta changed my flight so that my "connecting" flight LEAVES 4 hours before I reach the connecting city. For those playing along at home - that's not possible. They also did not alert me to this change whatsoever. I only discovered it because I was booking travel from the airport to Universal. There are no longer any options that get me to Orlando before midnight. I was supposed to arrive at 5. I got a refund, but I'll probably never mess with delta again.

We had something similar where our connecting flight home left before we arrived. We got lucky that there was another flight (non-stop too) later in the day. One of the advantages of flying out of a Delta hub is there are more flight. The disadvantage is you end up flying Delta a lot.

Seems like the Op has the same problem of no other flights that day.

 

[phoebusII]

How frustrating. The airlines offer a certain service at a certain price, then once you have bought their product, they switch it on you. In any other business, it is called bait and switch and highly frowned upon. I'm not sure why airlines are the exception.

This happened to me a few years ago, when Midwest Express was experiencing a transition/selling their airline. They switched my flight from a morning flight to an afternoon, with arrival at night. I found a flight with a different carrier that had even better times than the original flight. Then I told them I had plans that evening which absolutely could not be changed (dinner at Cindrella's Royal Table) and they agreed to give me a refund. A couple months later, still no refund on my credit card statement. So I called them and they had forgotten. Ugh! The refund was on the next statement.

 

[Priory]

How frustrating. The airlines offer a certain service at a certain price, then once you have bought their product, they switch it on you. In any other business, it is called bait and switch and highly frowned upon. I'm not sure why airlines are the exception.

This happened to me a few years ago, when Midwest Express was experiencing a transition/selling their airline. They switched my flight from a morning flight to an afternoon, with arrival at night. I found a flight with a different carrier that had even better times than the original flight. Then I told them I had plans that evening which absolutely could not be changed (dinner at Cindrella's Royal Table) and they agreed to give me a refund. A couple months later, still no refund on my credit card statement. So I called them and they had forgotten. Ugh! The refund was on the next statement.

That's a good reminder for me. When I say that I got the refund, an agent had told me I would. It's only been 2 days so it hasn't posted yet. I need to stay on top of that.

 

[goofy4tink]

How frustrating. The airlines offer a certain service at a certain price, then once you have bought their product, they switch it on you. In any other business, it is called bait and switch and highly frowned upon. I'm not sure why airlines are the exception.

This happened to me a few years ago, when Midwest Express was experiencing a transition/selling their airline. They switched my flight from a morning flight to an afternoon, with arrival at night. I found a flight with a different carrier that had even better times than the original flight. Then I told them I had plans that evening which absolutely could not be changed (dinner at Cindrella's Royal Table) and they agreed to give me a refund. A couple months later, still no refund on my credit card statement. So I called them and they had forgotten. Ugh! The refund was on the next statement.

It's really not bait and switch. Every airline has a 'contract of carriage'.....and the vast majority state that flights are subject to change, that you have, basically, booked transportation on a specific day. Most will allow you to change to another flight, with no change fee. If the change is big enough, and there are no appropriate flights for you, you may possibly get a full refund.

It's always a good idea to not make plans, that you don't want to miss, on either your arrival or departure days.

 

[ktlm]

Thanks to Delta, we wound up having to pay double luggage fees on our last trip. We were flying American and were at the gate ready to board and the plane had a problem. To make a long story short, they wound up rebooking us on a Delta flight that left 3 1/2 hours later. We had already checked our bags and paid $75 (3 people at $25 per bag). Because the flight was still over 2 hours away by the time they got us re-booked, they said instead of transferring our bags over to the next flight, we would have to go down to baggage and pick them up and then physically transfer them to Delta. Others who got on a Delta flight which was less than 2 hours away (don't get me started because we were supposed to have been put on that flight- but the rep screwed up and lost us those seats) had their bags automatically transferred over. Imagine our surprise when Delta charged us another $75 to re-check the bags. Delta told us that we would have to go down to the American counter and take it up with them, so we did and they told us that it was wrong for Delta to charge us and that we needed to go back to their counter and tell them to refund it- and so began the vicious circle. It wound up with both counters telling us to call a number for their airline and each telling us the other is the one that owned the refund. We never got our $75 back. At least American did get us on another flight, becuase our other option was that the plane we had been booked on might get to leave 7 hours later (they had a crew coming from 3 hours away to fix it), or we would have to wait until the next day. As it was we wound up getting to WDW 6 hours after we were supposed to and missing our first night ADR-but at least we got there.

The last time we flew Delta before that was a few years back, they changed our flights twice and if I remember right by a couple of hours which didn't make us too happy. Also, they did something that prevented us from checking our bags at the resort, so we wound up having to drag them to the airport on ME with us. The CM told us that it happened all the time with Delta and tons of people flying Delta had trouble checking bags at the resort or getting checked into their flight and getting boarding passes from the resort. That was the last time we intentionally flew Delta to WDW because that was the deal breaker for us.

Hope your flights get straightened out and you have a good experience with Delta.

 

[bumbershoot]

OP, if you haven't (and I can't tell if you have), first check all the flights that morning. If you find one that works better for you, call Delta and request it. You don't have to leave a different day, IF there's another flight.

 

[Casemily]

Thanks to Delta, we wound up having to pay double luggage fees on our last trip. We were flying American and were at the gate ready to board and the plane had a problem. To make a long story short, they wound up rebooking us on a Delta flight that left 3 1/2 hours later. We had already checked our bags and paid $75 (3 people at $25 per bag). Because the flight was still over 2 hours away by the time they got us re-booked, they said instead of transferring our bags over to the next flight, we would have to go down to baggage and pick them up and then physically transfer them to Delta. Others who got on a Delta flight which was less than 2 hours away (don't get me started because we were supposed to have been put on that flight- but the rep screwed up and lost us those seats) had their bags automatically transferred over. Imagine our surprise when Delta charged us another $75 to re-check the bags. Delta told us that we would have to go down to the American counter and take it up with them, so we did and they told us that it was wrong for Delta to charge us and that we needed to go back to their counter and tell them to refund it- and so began the vicious circle. It wound up with both counters telling us to call a number for their airline and each telling us the other is the one that owned the refund. We never got our $75 back. At least American did get us on another flight, becuase our other option was that the plane we had been booked on might get to leave 7 hours later (they had a crew coming from 3 hours away to fix it), or we would have to wait until the next day. As it was we wound up getting to WDW 6 hours after we were supposed to and missing our first night ADR-but at least we got there. The last time we flew Delta before that was a few years back, they changed our flights twice and if I remember right by a couple of hours which didn't make us too happy. Also, they did something that prevented us from checking our bags at the resort, so we wound up having to drag them to the airport on ME with us. The CM told us that it happened all the time with Delta and tons of people flying Delta had trouble checking bags at the resort or getting checked into their flight and getting boarding passes from the resort. That was the last time we intentionally flew Delta to WDW because that was the deal breaker for us. Hope your flights get straightened out and you have a good experience with Delta.

For American to keep your baggage fee they should have ramp transferred your bags to delta with what is called a reroute tag.

Since American required you to claim your bags and recheck them with delta, then american was responsible for refunding you their bag fees. Delta was your beginning carrier, after being rebooked, so they get the bag money. And no, I don't work for Delta.

 

[ElizabethG]

This happend to our Delta flight too. I got an email about a week ago. I checked online and there were no other non-stop flights. A couple of days ago, they left a message at home. I went and checked online again and there was a new flight. The new time was even better than my original time. I called and they changed me to the new flight without any problems. So, it worked out for me.

My change was to my flight out of MCO after our vacation. Originally I planned on breakfast before ME. They changed the flight 2 hours earlier, so no time for breakfast. The new flight will allow us a half-day at the parks before departing.

Keep looking for an alternate flight from Delta. It only took one call to switch them and the change appeared in my online itinerary immediately. I hope you will be able to find something to your benefit.

 

[Priory]

That's actually a good idea to check for added flights, but they seem to be in too much flux right now and I don't know that I could feel comfortable booking another one. I usually fly Southwest (not possible for this trip) and while they are never ever ever ever ever on time - they've never done anything close to this.