Not happy about flight schedule changes

[Mum from oz]

VA have changed their flight schedule and now we will miss our connecting flight to MCO. This is what it looks like now:

12 MAY
VA Depart SYD 1:40pm
VA Arrive LAX 10:30am

UA Departs LAX 8:55am
UA Arrive MCO 4:40pm

Yeah so my flight to MCO will be halfway across the country by the time I get to LAX. These are the options I have been given.

1. Take the Delta flight from Sydney to arriving at 7:00am. Umm not going to happen, we don't fly Delta.
2. Take the 10:35pm flight out of LAX arriving at MCO at 6:18am the next day. NO WAY. I am not sitting around for 12 hours with a 4 and 5 year old after a 14 hour flight, then write off the whole next day.
3. Fly out of LAX at 11:43am to Houston landing at 5:00pm, then flying out of Houston at 6:55pm arriving at MCO at 10:10pm. Umm no. 70 mins to tow the kiddos through customs and immigration to get onto the next flight, I don't think so.

Thats the options I was given. I am so not happy with any of them. I am going to push for us to leave SYD a day earlier. Overnight it in LA and jump on the original flight to Orlando. I feel if we take any of the late connections we will pretty much write off a day and I am not willing to do that as we only have 7 precious days in Orlando.

 

[Happy 2 B Me]

Maybe that 12 hour layover is not bad. Your 4 year old could play then rest in a bed for the flight the next day. Just an idea.

 

[australiankaren]

hey

feel your pain...

if it was me I would get a hotel for the 12hrs layover....you can get a good one with airport shuttle 3.5 star for around $80 on priceline/ hotwire etc.
I have a room booked for a 8 hr layover, $80 4 star with hotwire in sept.

I fly delta both internationally and domestically and they are quite good, maybe catch delta syd-lax and then V home.....
Delta are a lot more relaxed re luggage allowance, etc.

just my 2 cents...hope it all works out, as this is always my greatest fear, schedule changes....

 

[Mum from oz]

I just spoke to my TA and she is going to see if she can get us out the day before. I am more than happy to stay in an airport hotel. We did it last time and it was perfect. I can get the same place for $100 and it will make getting over jet lag even quicker. Fingers crossed she can swing it for us.

 

[Toy Story]

This is what happened to our VAustralia flights, moved from leaving at 10am to leaving at 1pm, hence we now have 1hour and 40 minutes for our transfer.

I will be interested to know if you are able to change your flights.

 

[alicia1506]

wow that sucks... what about flying from syd-bne then catching the bne flight... they seem to all leave around 11am, arrive lax around 6am, which would still give you heaps of time for security/customs/immigration etc.

... just a thought ...

now i'm starting to worry about our flights in nov/dec .. we have already booked the cruise leaving port canaveral on nov 24, and our flights are supposed to be bne-lax, depart 11am, arrive 6am, then delta depart 10.30, arrrive mco 6pm the night before the cruise. we get really narky and kinda ill-tempered without sleep. i really, really do not want a 10pm or 12pm flight and then getting on board the cruise with no sleep, or worse trying to fly from lax - mco on the same day the cruise debarks.

 

[Aust]

That's really annoying for you! If it were me I'd be going a day earlier and staying overnight too.

And I just checked our September flight, it has changed too, departing Sydney at 1.40pm instead of 10.30am. We are going straight to DLR so not a big deal luckily, but if you hadn't of mentioned it I wouldn't have noticed (although I assume they would have notified me).

Will probably work out a bit better for us as it gives the kids 3 more hours sleep on the plane (I'm hoping anyway!), and 3 less hours for us to stay awake the day we arrive.

 

[alicia1506]

hrmm. i really, really hope that they keep the brisbane flights as a 10.30/11am departure, with 5.30/6am arrival in lax!!! those hours are the only ones that work for us... it seems they're changing the sydney times but not the brisbane times at this stage

*fingers crossed*

has your TA managed to find you a better arrangement with flights? or are you still looking at flying out a day earlier?

 

[Mum from oz]

I am still waiting on my TA to call me back. She is trying to organise us to leave a day earlier. That would be my preference.

I think you'll be right Alicia. What time is your transfer to the port? I'd assume your first day on the cruise would be a sea day anyway. We found the cruise is such a relaxing atmosphere. We chilled a in our room a lot, even on our 3 night. It is pretty laid back, if you miss dinner there are heaps of other options. A Disney ship is my happy place.

 

[alicia1506]

I am still waiting on my TA to call me back. She is trying to organise us to leave a day earlier. That would be my preference.

I think you'll be right Alicia. What time is your transfer to the port? I'd assume your first day on the cruise would be a sea day anyway. We found the cruise is such a relaxing atmosphere. We chilled a in our room a lot, even on our 3 night. It is pretty laid back, if you miss dinner there are heaps of other options. A Disney ship is my happy place.

our cruise is sat 24 nov - sat 1 dec. we're on the fantasy, doing the western caribbean itinerary. i'm sure i'll love it (even though i hate boats/being above water) and i'm sure we'll have a fabulous time -- it's just the 2 of us -- but i am concerned about missing our boat with one of the port adventures. whole reason we booked the cruise in the first place, and despite reassurances disney doesn't leave people behind if the adventure is through disney... i'm still stressed but i have 9 more months to come up with contingency plans and obsessively plan the whole thing.

lol.

hope your TA comes through for you and sorts out the scheduling nightmare

 

[Mum from oz]

I'm a happy camper now. They are letting us fly out the day before.
That gives us an extra day away and an extra day to adjust and hit the ground running at WDW. The only thing they wouldn't do if pay for the hotel as I got the internal flights on a separate ticket. I'm not worried as I didn't expect them to pay, I just wanted the flight changed with no penalty. So now there's only 84 days to go!

 

[ExcitedSam]

Oh wow that is so good mum from Oz! What a relief!

 

[Aust]

Glad things have worked out, and for the better! Happened to us last January with a Qantas stuff-up - instead of flying via Brisbane as they wanted us to, we went a day earlier and had an extra day in DL.

 

[Andona]

That's great news Mum from Oz Happy it worked out well for you!