I'm Mad At ATA

[danny1649]

ATA called and my flight times had changed,depart 7:05am instead of 8:10am,return flight depart 1:35 pm instead of 11:35 am.I bought these RT tickets Indy to Orlando 4 months ago.The time change is not what I'm mad about.I went to ATA site to print new itinerary,thats when I saw my seats had been changed from row 3 on both flight's to row 19 on way down to Orlando and row 29 on flight back to Indy.I pay for my tickets early so I can get seats near front and when I called to see why my seats had been changed I got a great answer"I DON'T KNOW WHY".Is this the end of the world,no, but I'm still upset.Thank you for letting me vent.

 

[inkkognito]

I think I know why...ATA is converting the first 3 or 4 rows to Business Class and holds the rest of the front seats for their Elite Class flyers. And it's not surprising that they weren't able to give you an answer, as they tend to be clueless about that sort of thing. We have Elite status, and I called to ask some questions about the program. Their answer was pretty much, "We don't know." Then, on the 20th of August, I asked about how they would be handling the pre-boarding and was told, "That program hasn't started yet." Good think I had my email printed out showing that it started on the 18th.
I recommend that you use online checkin...you should be able to grab better seats with that.
Barb

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Musical chairs on ATA --

I also noticed yesterday that ATA changed my seating for November.

Tink

 

[manning]

Write upper management and remind them this may be one of the reasons they are heading for bankruptcy.

 

[kathylovesdisneyworl]

Sorry to the OP about the seat changes. We don't usually use assigned seating when we fly with them, so it doesn't affect us, but I know many times with US air we found our seats and times changed around. It is a real bumer when you purchase you seats well in advance only to have everything change closer to your flight.

 

[CarolA]

Airline tickets only sell you a seat, not always the seat you want. There is very little you can do about it, but call ask to change. (I would bet that the front rows were given to frequent flyers)

 

[DebbieB]

On our reservation system at work (american express I think), they refer to the seats you picked as "requested seats" not "assigned seats".

 

[bubba's mom]

if you are totally unhappy with ATA, fly someone else. maybe they will give you what you want. nobody should be "stuck" to only fly one airline.....that's what i did. as soon as SW became available here, i booked it. will NEVER fly USAir again.........also, on the brighter side..... .....you are at least ON the plane there. whichever seat you sit in, it will still take you to the land of magic

 

[Lewisc]

Booking early doesn't really do anything more than INCREASE the chances that a schedule change or equipment change will CHANGE YOUR ASSIGNED seats.

SW doesn't have this problem because they wait to release their schedule and they don't bother assigning seats.

 

[kinggoofy]

This has happened to us more than once....

ATA changes your iternary....BUT you have an option that ATA really does not want you to know about.

If your flight is changed by more than 59 minutes EITHER way...
you have the option of selecting a different flight....same day or one day before or one day after...AT NO CHARGE.

I would call ATA @ the schedule change department.
1-800-807-2814

In fact, for our August trip just concluded...we were scheduled to leave Wednesday 8-11 @ 6:40PM....ATA changed our flight by more than 59 minutes and we were able to change it to the same day but leaving at 9:43AM. NO CHANGE FEE.

You may want to give it a try.
Good Lcuk
KG

 

[danny1649]

Update on seating,I called ATA Customer Relations and asked them and they had combined flights and set so many seats aside like inkkognito posted.Well a nice lady Donna listened to my story and that I was diabetic and my insulin needs to be in fridge and I like to be close to it.She said she didn't have power to switch my seats but her supervisor could.She put me on hold a minute and came back on and told me I was back in row 4 on both flights instead of row 3,wow I thanked her for her help.Thank you all for your information and help you put in your replys,I appreciate it.No where else I know of can you get this kind of support from some great folks. Danny

 

[beebumble]

Here's some pixie dust to brighten your day

 

[beebumble]

LOoks like that pixie dust helped quickly LOL