My flight got cancelled!

[Jennasis]

So WHY the smiley face on the post? Lemme splain...

Flying from Greensboro, NC (GSO) on Delta, October 1st. The only flight that had a decent departure and arrival time and was within budget was a 6:00am flight that had a layover in Atlanta and arrived at 9:44am in Orlando. Not bad. It was $220 per person for Dfi and I. We were willing to layover for a bit...not the end of the world.

TODAY, travelocity e-mails Dfi to say that the departing flight from Greensboro was cancelled for God-knows-why. He calls them and they mention that the next available flight from GSO MISSES the connection in Atlanta so we'd have to be BUMPED to the next departing flight from Atlanta to Orlando (which apparently arrived at around 10:45 or 11am.

Dfi (bless him) sees the panic and horror in my eyes at the very thought of haing a precious hour or two of our WDW honeymoon siphoned off and quickly asks them to connect him to Delta to inquire about other flights. The lovely lady from Delta listens to his sob story and offers to bump us UP to the 5:45am DIRECT, NON-STOP flight from Greensboro to Orlando (arrives at 7:05am!). I know full well that this particular flight is hovering a bit over the $300 per person mark...I actually checked it yesterday. So I make Dfi ask about the price difference. Lovely Delta lady says "Oh no, it'll be the same price as the cancelled flight." !!!!!!!!!!!

Can you imagine? I get to arrive two hours earlier than planned AND not get charged a dime extra! The pixie dust is starting early....

 

[Rex Rules]

Glad it worked out for the best - lucks like Lady Luck is going to be with you! Congrats and happy honeymood!

 

[wdwstar]

I love when that happens That makes up for all the delay flights that we all have encountered

 

[cruise-o-matic]

We live in GSO and booked Delta to fly out of RDU b/c tix were $60 cheaper (each).

Delta cancelled our return flight and tried to put us on a flight that leaves 2 hours earlier. I called and they switched it to R/T out of GSO, plus our departure time went from 8:35PM to 6:25PM and return trip went from 4:25PM to 6:30PM. Extra hours with & plus saving an hours worth of driving to RDU.

Checked prices today and the R/T fares from GSO are now $84 more than what we paid!

We've always enjoyed flying Delta. They have direct flights with convenient departure times. Plus the small planes are quickly loaded and unloaded.

 

[Donalds_best_pal]

Glad it works out for ya. Delta is often pretty good about giving what flight you want when they cancel a flight. Enjoy your honey moon.

Matt

 

[Jennasis]

Cruise-o-matic: Great to hear from another NC'er! I love GSO. It's such a nice convenient, easy-to-navigate airport. It's only 45 minutes from my front door (Mocksville). I check flights out of Charlotte as well and it's WAY more expensive (even US Air and that's theri HUB!). GSO is the way to go!

 

[Bev J]

We had a similar deal with Delta, our original flight was to arive at 12:45AM, delta cancelled the connecting flight and booked us on another flight that left before we even arived at our connection (ATlanta) our TA called and got us a flight that now gets us into Orlando at 9:15pm, much better than the original one and no fee. I am sure Delta would have loved for us to cancel, since the original tickets were $141 and the new flight was $400! WE are happy campers!
Our TA told us that as long as Delta had flights to the destination available and they were the ones making the changes it opened up our flight choices and no extra charge could be made.
Bev

 

[ncbyrne]

We used our Delta Skymiles to purchase free seats on Song Airlines flying nonstop Newark (EWR) to MCO, Oct 15-23. I did this exactly 331 days out and still had to use 100,000 miles for two coach tickets. We were ok with it, free is free. Last week we got the notice that Song was discontinuing ALL flights out of EWR! I started to panic. After two days of many, many phone calls and DIS posts about what to do, here's our new itinerary:
Oct 13-24, Continental direct nonstop. The times of our new flights are even better than the first, giving us more evening hours in WDW. And using the points on Continental we are only using 90,000 miles for First Class! All good news, but the best part is that we originally booked an 8 day vacation and now we'll be there for 11 days. So it looks like many of us who have had flights cancelled are actually happy about it!

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

I live in G-boro and our flight time was cancelled. I called and requested an earlier flight, free of charge. We are going on a cruise the next evening and I want to be in Fla. the night before. I don't want to take a chance with the later flights being cancelled.

It wasn't a problem for Delta. Our rate is $180 on a non stop flight. I wouldn't have known about the time change if I hadn't been looking at our itinerary online. I much prefer to fly out of G-boro than RDU.

I'm glad it worked out for you.


Lori

 

[Pixie]

Here's proof that all that pixie dust we send does work!! Glad to hear the great news.

 

[K&K]

Im also flying from GSO. Im booking a direct flight for Nov 1st with a direct flight back on the 6th. I hope there are no cancellations, this will be my first time flying

 

[holcomb-mania]

Just moved from Mocksville to Advance last August! Lifelong DC!

I'm starting to look into flights for our cruise next January (we usually drive). PTI only offers something like 4 flights to MCO, so I'm checking RDU and Charlotte.

I got a quote from Southwest (RDU-MCO) for $795 for the four of us. Should I do this on my own, or see what AAA or Dreamsunlimited can do for me?

 

[ncbyrne]

Just moved from Mocksville to Advance last August! Lifelong DC!

I'm starting to look into flights for our cruise next January (we usually drive). PTI only offers something like 4 flights to MCO, so I'm checking RDU and Charlotte.

I got a quote from Southwest (RDU-MCO) for $795 for the four of us. Should I do this on my own, or see what AAA or Dreamsunlimited can do for me?

So far, I have always gotten the best rates by booking my own airfare.

 

[holcomb-mania]

Thanks. I thought that would be the case.

For you North Cackalackians, I'm finding flights from RDU are 30-40% cheaper than GSO and CLT. I can get there in an hour and a half and spend the night and still save about $200 (for 4 people). That savings would cover my transfer to port and back (FLTours says $170 roundtrip).

What motivates you guys to fly from GSO? Proximity?

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

We normally fly SWA out of RDU for around $169 and it takes us an hour to drive plus pay parking for 9 days.

I got Delta in GSO for $180 by booking early and my ILs can take us to the airport so we don't have to park. It only takes us 30 minutes to get to the airport. I think GSO is easier to get in and out of because it is smaller than RDU.

Lori

ETA: I've been called many things but never a North Cackalackian.

 

[Chicago526]

FYI: If the airline changes a schedule by a signifigant amount of time, they have to change you to a differant time of your choosing. Sometimes you can even change days if the other flights still won't work for you.

 

[cruise-o-matic]

Thanks. I thought that would be the case.

For you North Cackalackians, I'm finding flights from RDU are 30-40% cheaper than GSO and CLT. I can get there in an hour and a half and spend the night and still save about $200 (for 4 people). That savings would cover my transfer to port and back (FLTours says $170 roundtrip).

What motivates you guys to fly from GSO? Proximity?

I would say proximity in our case. Just like POC, our inlaws can drive us to the airport and pick us up. Plus traffic around RTP can be horrible.

If the price difference was closer, I would have originally bought our tix out of GSO, but saving $200 for 3 people, RDU just made sense. I'm so glad they dropped our flight and allowed us to change to GSO w/o charge. Now we have better flight times too.

I also prefer Delta b/c we get to fly direct from GSO and they use the small jets which load/unload quickly. Plus if you don't check your luggage. Just roll it out to the tarmac and they'll "pink tag" it and you get it when you land. No baggage claim hassle.

Last year when Independence Air announced direct flights from GSO to MCO, Delta's prices dropped dramatically. Now IA flights to MCO connect thru Dulles and so the prices are higher again. RDU has SW to keep the prices in check.

 

[Miss Kelly]

We fly out of GSO too(although we live in Virginia). I jumped on the lower fares when Independence Air caused some competition with Delta last year. I got an awesome deal of approximately $121 round trip from GSO to MCO. We really want to go back but fares are just too high right down out of GSO. I don't know if I ever will find that good of a rate again. Here's to hoping for some pixie dust!