What can you do when your airline changes your flight?

[Starwater]

Please feel free to refer me to another thread/post as I'm sure I'm not the first to ask about a situation like this!


We booked our tickets through NW a few weeks ago. We were set to fly on Saturday, May 5 from Winnipeg to Minneapolis to Indianapolis to Orlando (yeah, a lot of transfers but it makes the flight cheaper, you know how it goes). Anyways, we chose that particular flight schedule so that we'd arrive in Orlando by 6pm in the evening - no point arriving later even if the flight would be cheaper because then we'd be wiped for the next day, right?

Today I get an email from NW saying that they've changed our flights. We're now flying from Winnipeg to Indianapolis to Memphis to Orlando. With this new flight schedule, we now only have a 30 minute window to arrive in Memphis and catch our flight to Orlando! Also, we are now going to be arriving in Orlando at 11pm at night.

Of course, I think this sucks and I want to complain (in a calm, collected, polite way - don't worry, I work in customer service in a glorified call center, I know better then to get on the phone and scream at the first rep I get on the line ). However, it seems like every time I read a story about an airline - ANY AIRLINE - the story is always BAD. There are a very limited number of airlines out there and they seem to have a monopoly which they very much abuse. I mean, in what other situation would a company be able to keep you locked up on their premises for over 11 hours? (I'm referring to the JetBlue story that Gary M posted about recently.) Airlines are generally not famous for their customer service.

And so, I want to call NW and ask them to change our flights - as per their website there are multiple ways they could do this so that we would have more time between flights AND get to Orlando earlier; however, I already feel like its a lost battle because since airfare is automatically nonrefundable (well, isn't it?) I have no way of bartering with or threatening them. All I can do is ask nicely and hope the random representative I get is having a good day and feels like doing me a favor.

Or, I could have this all wrong (*crosses fingers*) which brings me to the reason I'm posting this...

O ye DIS Veterans...

DO I have any leg to stand on when I call to plea my case?

DOES the customer have any rights in a situation like this?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[CarolA]

Actually this is not as hard as you might imagine. The change is substantail enough that you can tell NW it's not acceptable. As a general rule they will then work with you to find something that is acceptable. Just give them a call and see what they offer. (Tell them you have to be in MCO near your orignal time....they don't need to know why!)

 

[Starwater]

Thanks so much, Carol! That's a good point which I hadn't even thought of - for all they know, I'm catching another flight to South America when I get to Orlando or have some life-or-death appointment to get to that evening...

Hmm.

Now I've just got to get into a negotiating mood...

 

[MinnieNurse]

I have no advice I just want to say good luck.

We were 34 hours late for our New Years trip this year and lost basically 2 whole days of our trip all compliments of American Airlines. First they cancelled our flight then delayed the flight they did give us.

 

[Starwater]

I have no advice I just want to say good luck.

We were 34 hours late for our New Years trip this year and lost basically 2 whole days of our trip all compliments of American Airlines. First they cancelled our flight then delayed the flight they did give us.

OUCH!

Did they do all of that right at the last minute???

 

[Starwater]

Do you guys think this is where having full trip insurance (e.g. through CAA/AAA) would come in handy? Would it save you in a situation like Minnie's? Would it get you any compensation for the lost trip time?

 

[bavaria]

Personally, I think that trip insurance provides false hope, as there are so many restrictions.

An airline ticket simply gives one an assurance of being transported from point A to point B. In this case, the OP is still getting from point A to point B, albeit in a round about manner. I doubt that trip insurance would help.

Better to call the airline and try for a more realistic flight. Before calling, check online for acceptable flights/routings.

 

[seashoreCM]

Does that airline have any other flights that you would like better and are not sold out? Hand pick them out yourself by looking at schedules on line. If so, telephone and come right out and ask to be put on them. Don't mention cost but if they do, tell them that they made the original schedule change so they should not charge you to choose something that works better for you.

If there are no other suitable flights and the arrival time is significantly different, such as more than 3 hours, you can ask for a full refund.

>>> catching another flight to South America
Do not book a continuous trip (without a day or so stopover at the connection point) using two or more separately booked tickets or itineraries even on the same airline. Otherwise missing the connection is a missed appointment, not a missed connection. Whereas for a single itinerary, they have to get you to the ultimate destination without charging you more money. In a few cases, if the delay is great enough at the connection point, they have to refund your fare if you decide to abort the whole trip (and they have to return you home).


Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[Starwater]

Does that airline have any other flights that you would like better and are not sold out? Hand pick them out yourself by looking at schedules on line. If so, telephone and come right out and ask to be put on them. Don't mention cost but if they do, tell them that they made the original schedule change so they should not charge you to choose something that works better for you.

If there are no other suitable flights and the arrival time is significantly different, such as more than 3 hours, you can ask for a full refund.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

Thanks, SeashoreCM!

They have at least 2-3 different flight plans that be much closer to what we'd originally picked. Good advice.

The flight time has changed by over 4 hours now.

I think I'm going to work up my nerve and call them right now...

Ugh, I'm just really not in the mood for confrontation.



(Which is unusual for me! )

 

[DisMN]

Hi there. I just went through this in January with our Delta flight. They moved our flight so we'd be getting to Orlando 3 hours later than originally planned. We had made plans for an event held right about the time we were now scheduled to land so I called Delta and explained the situation. Basically just told them the new time wasn't going to work for us.
The woman I talked to was wonderful and she found a flight that would get us there closer to our original time. No extra charges either!

Don't be afraid to call. I'm sure this happens more often than you realize........they're probably quite used to customers calling to re-arrange their flight times.

Good luck!

 

[bicker]

Their aim is to satisfy customers if they can, without intefering with their ability to make money. While they always have the option to refuse your request (and therefore just give you your money back), the airline are often very accommodating to small changes, if there is lots of availability left on the flight you're trying to get switched on to.

 

[MinnieNurse]

OUCH!

Did they do all of that right at the last minute???

Yes they did and the worst part was how rude they were about it. Once we got to WDW I was emotionally drained-its the first trip where I was ready to come home days before we were suppose to. Then to top it off they lost 2 of our luggage on the flight home.

 

[Starwater]

Alright, so it actually took me 24+ hours to call NorthWest...

I just got off the phone with them and am very happy!

I called and told the rep (Katie) how our flight change had affected our arrival time by 4+ hours and that one of our connections now only had a 30 minute window in which to catch the next flight.

Right away, she said "Hmm..." (in a concerned sounding voice!) and started looking things up.

Of course, I had four Firefox tabs open so I was able to read off our original itinerary, our confirmation number, etc. and when she asked if I could see something on their website that would work out better I had all of the other NW options right in front of me and very hesitantly asked about a flight plan that would only have 1 connection and would get us to Orlando at 4:30pm (remember our original was to be 6:40pm and then the change moved it to 10:50pm which = yuck).

Since I wanted to be a Nice Customer and not a rude, pushy one I used my "I realize I am completely in your power" sweetest voice and hoped for the best.

I also told her that I didn't mind changes to our original flight choices or how many connections it took, as long as we got to Orlando early in the evening and had at least an hour between connections.

She said she'd check out the flights I'd mentioned and see if she could change things for us.

YES!

So I waited on hold for around 5 minutes - very patiently as I didn't care how long it took; I was just slightly paranoid that I might get disconnected from Katie and have to call back and get some not-as-nice CSR...

She came back on the phone and asked if we would mind a new itinerary which would only have 1 connection and would get us to Orlando by...

... 2:20pm! <shriek of glee>

Of course I said that would be "awesome" and she finished up the changes.

Then after thanking her profusely I stayed on the line and did the little NorthWest Customer Satisfaction Survey in which I gave Katie's customer service a score of 5/5 or "I am extremely satisfied."

Wow! 2:20pm and only 1 connection! And she said it was very unlikely that they'd change our flights again but if they did to call them and they'd help us out again with it.

Now the question is... Should we go to Disney that evening? Or make an ADR? Or just hang out around Pop and unpack and go to bed early?

Don't worry, I don't expect you to answer that for me!

And I don't suppose you really needed to hear all of the details about this either but I figured for other readers/newbies it might be nice to read about a happy outcome to a situation like this.

Thank you very much for all of the good advice! Thanks Bicker, DisMN, seashoreCM, CarolA, and bavaria!

 

[Starwater]

Yes they did and the worst part was how rude they were about it. Once we got to WDW I was emotionally drained-its the first trip where I was ready to come home days before we were suppose to. Then to top it off they lost 2 of our luggage on the flight home.

Having my luggage lost is one of my nightmares!

Considering all that happened did they give you any sort of compensation???

 

[bavaria]

see, it was pretty pain free, wasn't it? I find that if I ask nicely, I get more than I wanted from my airline of choice. So long as you go into it with a little knowledge (like your knowledge of better connections/flights) you usually come out ok in the end.....

 

[Disney Hot Mama]

Congratulations - what a great outcome for your flights. Luckily for us we only fly non-stop to Orlando from LAX but I can't even imagine making all the connections and then having to arrive more than 4 hours later. If I were you I would just relax at your resort or hit DTD for some window shopping. Enjoy your day and get some sleep for the next day!

Have fun!

 

[CarolA]

Good for you! I thought it would work out. Generally the airlines are pretty good about this.