Us Air cancelled our flight! Do I have any recourse?

[roliepolieoliefan]

We were scheduled to leave from Pittsburgh PA in Oct. at 8am and arrive at MCO at 10am. I just happen to check the website and our flight is totally cancelled and we have been put on the 9:20 flight now to arrive at 11:30. This ticks me off! I know its only 1 1/2 hours later but if I wanted that flight I would have chose it in the first place. Oh, and we had seat assignments obviously for our cancelled flight. Now it just says check in at airport. We are traveling with a 4yo. We NEED seats together. The flight is totally sold out, so it says on the web site. Now what? Do I have any recourse or I just have to suck it up and hope for the best. US AIRWAYS SUCKS!!!!!!

 

[jel0511]

You should call US Air to find out what your seat assignments are. Don't wait until you check in, if you do, nothing can be done at that time, at least according to my experience with US Air. I've had this problem with them before. I booked seat assignments with them, and they were reassigned, and we were all over the plane!!! I was traveling with a 4 month old and a 3 year old at the time. Imagine my reaction Anyone, everyone kept telling me that next person down the line could help me, first check-in, then the gate. Well, no one would help, and I help up boarding until they would accomadate us. This was before 9/11 though, if I had done that now, I'd probably be in jail So the moral of my story is call now, the only recourse you have is to try to change to another flight, if there is availability, or get full refund. Since you're so close to leaving and the flights are full, probably not much of an option. If you call, they can look you up and let you know what your seat assignments are. If they are unacceptable, tell thema nd tell them why. They can only probably guarantee you two together with one floater, but at least the 4 year old won't be sitting alone. That's what we have due to US Air's flight reductions. We're flying to MCO on 11/3 and we're seated 2 and 2. Not my favorite combination, but at least each of my kids has a parent with them!!

 

[CarolA]

In the past airlines would give you a refund if you requested it for flight changes that were unacceptable to you. Since USAir is in bankruptcy, I don't know if they will do that. However, that makes you responsible for finding a new flight at a good rate and I am not sure if that is possible now.

I agree with the prior poster. Call USAir or your travel agent (if you used one) NOW and start working on the seat assignements. The website often shows seats booked that are blocked for lots of reasons and are not really assigned.

 

[A kid at heart]

When they make a drastic change like this they do put you on the next closest available flight. Have you called them to check? If worst comes to worst I suggest you call consumer affairs.
Check your pm's.

 

[Bill From PA]

In March 2001, a USAir flight of ours from PHL to MCO was changed and I called to get an earlier flight rather than a later one. The response was that as long as the change was less than a certain amount of time, 2 hrs. I think, their policy was to offer another flight instead of a refund. My efforts to get on an earlier flight failed because those were filled. This Nov. we're booked a little earlier than we'd like just to anticipate this.


Bill From PA

 

[momofbrian]

I just checked the website and BOTH, yes both, of our flights have been cancelled. I'm going to wait until I get home to call USAir since I really do need to do some work at work and this may be a rather long, sad call to the airline. This is too much. I was also booked at the CBR which will be closed for our trip. I seem to have the magic touch this trip.

 

[judi]

Our December flights were changed, I talked to expedia on Sunday morning and we are on flights that are close to what we had. They got rid of our 7:20 flight and now have to go on a 5:10PM flight but it's better than even earlier. We even kept our original seats. I'd call US air and talk to them about your seating.

 

[southern-minnie]

Our flights for November have been changed. I did not like one of the flight times USAIR had changed, so I called them and they put me on another flight that I requested. I kept my same seat assignments. I also noticed that when I check my itinerary on their website that I only have seat assignments for 1 flight. I questioned this and the USAIR representative stated that I had assigned seats in their computer and read them off to me. They are mailing me an updated itinerary with my seat assignments.

 

[treloarf]

You need to contact USAir - they changed our flight from 4:08 pm to 6:25 pm (later of course) & form 7:20 pm departure to 5:10 pm (earlier of course). The said I could get my money back!

 

[A kid at heart]

If you don't like an answer that you get either ask to speak to a team lead or a sup, or simply call back, or just call consumer affairs.

 

[Luv2Roam]

I flew four different legs over the weekend holiday. On one flight, it was overbooked and couples were not assigned together. They just sat where assigned and negotiated with other passengers to be rearranged.
I switched seats with a woman and her child so they could sit with the father. It really didn't seem to be a problem. Everyone was pretty nice and accomodating.

 

[tlens]

Get to the airport early. This has happened to us in the past (we had a 20 month old) and they were able to accomodate us with seats together even though the plane was sold out. They keep seats for this purpose. They will not separate you from a small child although if there are 3 of you, one parent may be in a different row.

Relax. Everything will work out.

 

[CRB#33]

Hang on. Calm down. If you go into it angry, you won't get anywhere.

This has happened to me three years in a row (seat problem). The first year I flipped and they did nothing, cut me right off. My SO called a few hours later, very calmly stressed that our children had never flown before and were already frightened of flying, we had SIX SEATS together in a row in 2 minutes.

They constantly move my seats around and I always call the 800 non automated number and go to reservations within the US. I wait for a customer service rep., stress my young children, and the fears since 9/11 and they are wonderful about doing everything they can to get us seats together. I always start a little chit chat to with the rep. Now it's easy, you can tell them how sorry that this bankruptcy thing is happening. And it is the truth for me anyway.

As far as the times go, I would call a service rep just like above and be sweet and beg to see if there is anything they can do. Stress Disneyitis and family time.

You never know.

 

[jwill]

After looking at their website today as I do every so often I didn't see my return flight on Dec 20 listed as one of the choices. At first I thought it may have been sold out but then I figured it was probably cancelled. The next step was to call them and I found out that my flight was changed and instead of going from Orlando to Avp(Scranton,Wilkes-barre) via Pittsburgh, I am now going through Philadelphia. I got off really lucky because my flight time was only bumped up about a half hour. Other people will most likely not be so lucky.

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