Need help-Midwest changed our ressies (again)

[yooperfan]

We were supposed to fly out of our hometown 6:15am, have a 1/2 hour layover and arrive Orlando 11:05am. Now we have a 3 hour layover and won't arrive until 1:20pm. That means we have to get to the airport (half hour drive) by 5am and have to sit for a 3 hour layover? We also will miss ressies we made at Disney. They already cancelled our return flight earlier so we won't get home until midnight. To add insult to injury, they have one of our party of 4 seated way away from the rest. My question- They say when a flight is changed they are locked out and cannot change our seats, the airport has to
do it. They have open seats on the flight but did not seat us together. This stinks! We have had these ressies since beginning of March. Is there anyone I can contact about this? Will my local small airport be able to fix the seating at
least? I'm having second thoughts about this airline for the future. We are getting nothing close to the times we signed on for coming or going. Very disillusioned.

 

[momto2inKC]

When Midwest changed our flights they were actually really good about the whole re-booking thing. They let us choose our new flight, and even let us change the day to the next one. We also were able to choose our seats. If you log into your account on thier website you can change your seating assignment from there.

 

[NancyIL]

Your 30-minute layover wasn't a good thing. Assuming you were changing planes, your luggage might not have made it to Orlando the same time as you. While a 3-hour layover isn't fun, I'd rather have that than worry about whether my luggage and I will make the connecting flight.

 

[bicker]

What you experienced is very common. I wouldn't think badly of Midwest -- they're a great airline, and the other airlines do the same or similar things. A few days ago, there was a message about this happening for someone flying Delta. This morning there is a message about this happening for someone flying Northwest. It is stardard practice.

Remember, when you book airline tickets, you're just purchasing transportation between two specific cities on a specific day. Other aspects of the reservation are explicitly not promised (including times, number of stops, aircraft, seats, etc.)

Just call the reservations office and see if there is any other flights they're willing to switch you to. They're not obligated to do so, but they're often very accommodating. If they cannot offer you something attractive to you, then you may have the option to simply get a full refund (and start over looking for flights for your trip). It depends on the airline -- some require a two hour difference (in which case you'd qualify) while others require a four hour difference (in which case you wouldn't).

 

[cbjl]

I've been a big fan of Midwest for a long time, but lately I agree that their customer service is declining.
We have tickets for a flight in Jan that they cancelled last week. They put us on a different flight & moved our seats so that one of our 5 year olds would be sitting alone.
They didn't have any pairs of seats together on the new flight, so we asked to be changed to any other flight that day into MCO or even TPA that would allow 2 pairs of seats together. We didn't need all 4 seats together, just 2 pairs of seats.
The reservations center said they should charge us the change fee to do this ($100/ticket).
That's when I got annoyed.
My dh got a manager on the phone, and he finally agreed to change our flight to a later one that would allow us to get seat assignments with our kids without a fee.
I can live with flight cancellations, changes in flight times and plane configurations, getting seat assignments shifted, etc. But, if they cancel a flight, I think they should try to work with passengers a little more cooperatively to find an alternate flight that works - attempting to charge change fees to do this is not "the best care in the air."

 

[Nicoal13]

Midwest also changed my flights for our January trip. I only encountered very helpful customer service people. They allowed us to fly out the night before, pick our seats and did not try to charge the change fee because they are the ones who changed it on us in the first place. I'm happier now actually because now I don't have to get up early on Saturday morning for a 7:30am flight, instead I'm flying out early Friday evening.