My flight was changed and one canceled!

[englishteacha]

So I called Airtran to reserve our seats today, and to try to get them to fix my account online, as I can't see my itinerary. I get my confirmation for my seats and my outgoing flight has changed to 3 hours later. It's the only nonstop flight. Blech.

I then go online, still can't access my itinerary. I checked our flights because we might have friends come with us, and our return flight doesn't show at all. I call back. In the hour that had passed between my reserving seats and my second call, our return flight was canceled. Again, the only nonstop flight.

I'm a bit peeved. The good news is, I guess, that they said I could choose new flights, including on another day. We purchased in December for June at a really good rate, so I'm not really upset, just annoyed that within an hour of my first call things had changed. Grr.

If you're flying Airtran PWM (Portland, ME) to MCO, you might want to check your itinerary.

 

[dacky041208]

Airtran is a great airline except they seem to change flights more often than any other. I don't love SW, but I always look there first because of situations like yours. I hope it all works out though.

 

[ancestry]

Air Tran does this every single year out of Portland. I learned several years ago to NOT book their direct flights more than 90 days out -- usually by 90 days out they don't make too many cancellations. They are constantly changing and cancelling their direct flights out of Portland, especially to Orlando.

Last year (2009 Summer) they only did a direct flight to and from Orlando on Saturdays. Although when I booked in January they were doing direct flights on Sundays as well.

I now stick with Jet Blue when flying direct from Portland. Plus Jet Blue has better flight times for us on their direct flight -- i.e. you leave Portland early in the morning but the return flight doesn't leave Orlando until 6:00 PM. Air Tran normally does it backwards -- i.e. leaves Portland late in the day but leave Orlando early in the morning which really shortens a vacation trip.

 

[rjvose17]

It looks like they are doing the same thing this year, because our Sunday nonstops were cancelled also but the Saturday nonstops are still available. It's kind of a pain because we decided to go out of PWM instead of Bangor(Which is closer for us) just for the nonstop.

 

[ancestry]

It looks like they are doing the same thing this year, because our Sunday nonstops were cancelled also but the Saturday nonstops are still available. It's kind of a pain because we decided to go out of PWM instead of Bangor(Which is closer for us) just for the nonstop.

When this happened to us last year, I called Disney and was able to shift our entire trip by one day. We were originally scheduled to go from Sunday to Sunday but when Air Tran dropped the direct Sunday flight I was able to adjust everything to be from Saturday to Saturday. Air Tran moved us free of charge since the cancellation was their problem and Disney had availability and was able to shift everything by the one day as well.

 

[rjvose17]

Thanks for the info. I think that is what we might end up doing. The only downside is that the rental car rate has gone up $30 since I reserved it, but hopefully it will go back down.

 

[englishteacha]

Jet blue doesn't have direct flights for the day we want to travel. It's just frustrating to have things change so much. I'm still glad I purchased when I did because flights have gone up considerably, but it's annoying all the same.

And I still can't access my itinerary.