I've been waiting for this!!!

[zurgswife]

I'm flying to DIS CON in december and have been waiting for the airline to change my flights....well today in the mail I got my changed itenerary......

My question is would it be to difficult to use common sense when re assigning flights....My original return flight left orlando at 10:20 and with connections/layover arrived at 4:00pm

The new flight had me leaving orlando at 2:38 and with connection/layover arriving in Philly at 11:15.....

Called today and had it changed to a 9:00am departure with arrival at 4pm.....why couldn't they have picked that flight when they switched things...

OH WELL!!!!I'm still going...

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Because the computer did it and computers do not have common sense.

 

[zurgswife]

Ya...but don't people program the computers???? Couldn't the program be written to pick the flight closets in departure/arrival of the original flights....

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Couldn't the program be written to pick the flight closets in departure/arrival of the original flights....

One would think so, but, it is random. You know what they say, "Garbage in, garbage out, stupid in, stupid out". Regardless of what you do, you have to remember, it can only think about what it has been taught. No one can cover all contingencies.
That is why they call it artificial intellegence ( I often think it is what they call it to cover for the AI programming it. LOL)

 

[zurgswife]

LOL

 

[CarolMN]

When this has happened to me, the agent explained that the computer selects the closest flight that leaves after the original flight. (In my case, I was switched to a one stop from a non-stop and non stop was more important to me than departure or arrival time). The airline has always accomodated me if I didn't like the flight they chose as a replacement.

I suppose that the airline/programmer has to make some assumptions when the original flight changes or becomes unavailable. You'd like "closest to original departure". Others would like "closest to original arrival". People like me want "non-stop". My guess is that most prefer "closest to original departure, but after that time, not before". It would be ideal if they would just call and ask, but I suppose the time associated with that is just too much.

Glad you ended up with something that will work for you.

 

[sgtdisney]

They tend to move you to the next available flight after the original time your flight was scheduled. There is a reason behing this. If for some reason the airline cannot contact you and you never recheck your flight status, if you were supposed to be at the airport for an 11:00 AM flight and now your flight leaves at 2:30, at least you will have been at the airport and not missed your flight. However if you were originally supposed to be on an 11:00 AM flight and they moved you to a 9:30AM flight and you were never informed, well then you would have missed that flight and the airline would have angry people on their hands.

 

[XStAnt]

SgtDisney's explanation actually makes a lot of sense to me. Knowing the airlines, I'd be surprised if this is actually their logic ;-)

Frankly, I'd be happier with a later departure from Disney--more time in the parks. I always try to get the last flight out.

 

[sgtdisney]

Originally posted by XStAnt
SgtDisney's explanation actually makes a lot of sense to me. Knowing the airlines, I'd be surprised if this is actually their logic ;-)

As an applications developer myself, this is how I would code the program to handle this kind of reschedule when there is a situation where you would need to default to a new flight..

 

[zurgswife]

It does make sense....but they mailed me another copy of my itinerary, so I had a good chance of finding out the change....