United/US Air questions

[WhitGB]

Looking at flights for our October DCL trip. The rates on US Air/United are around $150 less per person so this seems to be the best option.

The current time table works for our trip but due to it being a cruise the flight home does not have a ton of play if they decide to change it. We usually fly Delta and if they change the flight time they allow you to call and choose another more time appropriate flight (if one is available).

So, the question is, has anyone flown and had changes with US Air or United? Are they easy to make changes to other flights if THEIR time table changes? I understand if I want to make changes I need to pay a fee.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

The "US Airways" connecting flights from Green Bay to Orlando are actually operated by United Airlines and Expressjet Airlines (doing business as United Express).

US Airways has northing to do with scheduling or operating these flights. US Airways markets them under a codeshare agreement with United. It's odd when US Airways has lower prices than United for exactly the same United/United Express flights, but that's sometimes the case.

The legacy airlines (United, American, Delta, US Airways) release their flight schedule 11 months in advance. If you book flights now for the end for 2013 on any of them, you're almost guaranteed that there will be a schedule change of some sort. It could be just a few minutes. It could be just an aircraft change or a flight number change. Or it could be something substantial involving completely different flight times. The airline will work with you if there's a substantial change.

By the time you get to around two months before the flight, schedules are pretty much frozen (although Delta once made a schedule change one week before my departure).

Delta has a reputation of being the worst. Delta's schedule changes were particularly frequent and annoying when Delta combined with Northwest a few years ago. United had significant changes around a year ago in the process of combining with Continental. Those mergers are now past us, so schedules should be more stable and changes should usually be more subtle now.

 

[WhitGB]

Thanks for the information. I know we are booking early and will have some sort of change before the trip, just wanted to make sure they can work with us to make sure we don't miss a flight due to a timetable change.

Right now they are substantially cheaper, so we may have to go that way. Prices just keep rising and this is the best I have seen in awhile. Right now my "one way" price for our trip in February is the same as the round trip in Oct.

Once again, thanks!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I have flown many, many times on United. Yes, they occasionally have schedule changes, usually only by a few minutes. You need to check your reservation once in a while as they usually don't notify you. If the schedule changes by more than a certain amount of time (forget how much; maybe 30 minutes), you can change to another flight for free. I do not agree that you are guaranteed that your flight time will change if you book early.

If you make a change 24 hours after buying a non-refundable ticket, it will cost you $150 per domestic ticket plus any additional cost if the new flight is more expensive than your old flight.

Either way, it's easy to change flights if there is availability on the new flight.