Warning about Expedia & cancelled flights

[pas2]

Leaving Sat and just found out USAir cancelled our flight to Orlando! Contacted Expedia as to why we were not notified of a change and they said "when an airline has a mass cancellation our computer system won't process it". Well after 6 hours of scrambling to make new arrangements we managed to secure a flight for the same morning from a different airport but just barely. So a friendly warning to fellow flyers, please check with the airline directly concerning cancellations if you originally used Expedia to purchase tickets. Also we had e-tickets and had to go directly to the airport to pick up the new tickets in advance.

 

[akasleepingbeauty]

Yesterday, I just happened to check on my flights to Greensboro next month on American's website and saw that my return flight had been cancelled. I had to call American directly (took me more than an hour just to get the opportunity to hold for the next salesperson) and got it changed to my satisfaction. I booked this flight with American on their website and did not receive any kind of notice from them. Therefore, I would suggest checking your flights regardless of how you booked them and continue checking as your departure date approaches.

 

[adamak]

USAir is notorious with their changes. I had mulitple problems with them. Make sure you call at least a week ahead (and maybe everyday thereafter) to check your flight time. They constantly consolidate flights if they're not booked full.

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

Everytime I've had a flight cancellation with Expedia, I did find out about it, but only when checking my itinerary on Expedia. So while they aren't pro-active in notifying you, you can find out if there's a problem by checking your itinerary - if it says "status of flight has changed, contact expedia" there's a good chance that you've had a cancellation.

 

[pas2]

But that was my point, Expedia DIDN'T show the flight had been cancelled! I wouldnt have known if I hadn't also checked the USAir website. I understand consolidating flights that aren't booked but this flight had been sold out a long time ago. They must have had alot of cancellations!

 

[Beverly Lynn]

no usair is not notorious for consolidating flights. its called a schedule change and as I have posted on her many many times they go thru them quarterly and during that quarter your flight could and will change many many times. and it has always been suggested here on this forum that you checkand recheck your flights to make sure they are running as scheduled and booked. now in liu of what has happened there has been a drastic change to schedules and its possible that this is what happened to yours. they have thousands of thousands of pnrs to go thru. now if you made your ressie thru expedia then yes expedia sicne its like a Tavel agency si the one notified of the change and then its up to them to contact you. the same if you make your ressie thru a travel agent then its up to that agent to notify you of that change. not one time in being a queue coordinator did I ever consolidate flights because they weren't full.

 

[ducklite]

I've flown over 300 flights with US Airways, and almost always they have contacted me when something has changed. If it's been a schedule change of ~10 minutes, then no, they haven't contacted me. You should be at the airport early enough that that wouldn't matter anyhow!

Airlines don't just cancel flights because they aren't full. They can't. That plane needs to be in place for it's next scheduled flight, even if it means flying it empty I've been on a 757 with two other passengers on Sunday night of Labor Day weekend. Maybe Sunday night at 9:15 isn't a big time to fly, but Monday of Labor Day weekend is. That plane needs to be in place for Monday's flights. Otherwise it causes a ripple through the entire system.

I book all my air travel direct with the carriers. Continental is much more guilty of not notifying pax of changes, than US Airways. Untied is the absolute worst. Also, if you look at the DOT web site, you can see the statistics for complaints. US Airways is always statisticly one of the least complained major crriers. Untied is almost always dead top with a high ratio of unhappy pax. BTW-- it goes by percentage based on the number of flights, so it's not just because they are a larger carrier.

Anne

 

[DebbieB]

Beverly Lynn,

Do you know when the December changes will come out?

Regarding flight cancellations - I noticed that last Saturday USAir cancelled all 3 early morning flights from PIT to MCO - 8:00, 9:00, 9:30. The 11:30 went out. The 9:30 (the one I'm scheduled for Dec 1) was cancelled all last week and all this week.

 

[Beverly Lynn]

oct is the last sched change for dec. it shoudl be finished by oct 5th.