What would you do - Delta Song

[LuckySadie]

My family's flights for Jan 13-22 are on Delta Song, non-stop both ways. They changed the times on my flight out only, no changes so far on the flight home. I know they are supposed to give you a refund if they make flight changes without your approval, but is that only for the flight changed or for the entire round trip ticket? If I can get flights on another carrier I think I'd rather do that, however I could only do it if Delta Song refunded my money. Would you go for a refund and switch? Does anyone know if they are obligated to refund the entire ticket or only the flight that was changed?

 

[huskies90]

Only on the segment they changed.

 

[bicker]

It also depends on the size of the change. Depending on the airline, the change would have to result in leaving earlier than two or four hours prior to the original schedule or arriving at the destination later than two or four hours after the original schedule, before any of the refund conditions come into play.

 

[seashoreCM]

If you purchased a round trip, or purchased both outgoing and return as one transaction, you can (only?) get a refund for the entire trip.

You can reasonably expect the following: In case of cancellation or schedule change it is your choice whether a replacement flight is before or after the original flight but it is the airline's choice how far before or how far after, ignoring capacity controls.

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

 

[CarolA]

Make sure you can get something you like for a price you like before you cancel. Also, the schedule change has to be substantail, a five minute change won't get it.

There was a post on here a few months ago where a guy got mad at his airline and got a refund... only to discover that all the other flights were several hundred more....

 

[huskies90]

It also depends on the size of the change. Depending on the airline, the change would have to result in leaving earlier than two or four hours prior to the original schedule or arriving at the destination later than two or four hours after the original schedule, before any of the refund conditions come into play.

That may be true but with Song specifically, I know they have been very accomodating with changes. I have read on this board that folks with 15 minute changes were given refunds or changes with no fee. Personally, my afternoon return flight changed 50 minutes and they switched me to an evening flight without any hesitation or fee. But I also know Song books roundtrips as two one way segments and will only refund the segment that changes so both would have to change to get a full round trip refund. Again, I personally tried and was not able to move my afternoon to morning on the departure flight since that segment did not change.

 

[andriade]

We had a major schedule change done yesterday. I was on the phone for 3 hours dealing with the problem. The cancelled our homebound flight and put us on a flight with a layover, about the same time of day though. Our only other direct flight choice was leaving 11 hours earlier at 7:00 a.m. For goodness sake, we picked the direct flight on purpose! We are traveling with 5 kids! I was able to cancel my flight because I booked one way. My Mom,sister and neices and nephews are stuck. They would have got a $77 refund for only the return portion. Since they would have to rebook the outbound flight at the current price. We paid $339. We would have had to canel the whole thing to get all of our money back.

Needless to say this whole, "We are merging Song with Delta to make things even better." song and dance(No pun intedended.) isn't making anything better for me. I am soooo bummed about our change. The four of us are flying United now. I have no idea what to expect with them but at least it is direct. I have a 2 year old and 8 month old. A layover is killer with those 2 kids. I have tried.


Good luck to all!

 

[dcgrumpy]

We had a major schedule change done yesterday. I was on the phone for 3 hours dealing with the problem. The cancelled our homebound flight and put us on a flight with a layover, about the same time of day though. Our only other direct flight choice was leaving 11 hours earlier at 7:00 a.m. For goodness sake, we picked the direct flight on purpose! We are traveling with 5 kids! I was able to cancel my flight because I booked one way. My Mom,sister and neices and nephews are stuck. They would have got a $77 refund for only the return portion. Since they would have to rebook the outbound flight at the current price. We paid $339. We would have had to canel the whole thing to get all of our money back.

The same thing happened to my sister. She called back and asked for a supervisor and was able to cancel just one way, get a full refund and didn't have to pay any fees or price increase.

 

[dvc guy]

They have been pretty good about changes. When they changed all the flights in the NY area my LGA/MCO flight went from 3 PM to 6:30 PM. When I called they were happy to move me to JFK at Noon. I ended up with 3 hours more in disney .
I do agree that if you get someone in India they are cluleless. When I called about the shuttle they asked me if I wanted JFK or Newark, and I had to tell him they the shuttle only flys out of LGA

 

[andriade]

It's funny that you mention getting someone from India. I spoke with Delta CSR and United CSR yesterday. Both had Indian accents. But whenever either company transferred me,to someone in re-ticketing or cancellations, I got someone sounding American. It just shows how long it has been since I called an airline. I didn't know about all of the outsourcing airlines did. Interesting. Neither bad nor good to me just interesting. I have booked on-line forever now, maybe that's why I didn't know.

 

[CarolA]

Well, I called the other day and got the dumbest reservation agent in the world and she lives in ATLANTA!!! LOL! (She appears to live near me, but based on her skill set I am not sure how she actually knows. She had trouble with airport names!)

 

[LuckySadie]

Thank you to everyone who responded with advice and info! I discovered that BOTH my flights have been changed to an hour earlier, and one changed a second time by 10 mins so I was glad I checked twice. So I doubt it is enough but I could still call and try for a refund. However when I looked up flights for those days, couldn't find anything less than $400 each, over $130 more per person which really stinks. However I didn't think to try and book single flights with two different airlines, might try that. I also wanted non-stop since I too have kids....I REALLY don't want a layover, what a huge pain!!!

 

[BonnieBell]

My family's flights for Jan 13-22 are on Delta Song, non-stop both ways. They changed the times on my flight out only, no changes so far on the flight home. I know they are supposed to give you a refund if they make flight changes without your approval, but is that only for the flight changed or for the entire round trip ticket? If I can get flights on another carrier I think I'd rather do that, however I could only do it if Delta Song refunded my money. Would you go for a refund and switch? Does anyone know if they are obligated to refund the entire ticket or only the flight that was changed?

This happened to me, and the change made it so I would not arrive at my resort until about 1:00am, I called disney and they spoke to Delta and got me a earlier flight. They were very good about it. But, every experience is different, but could try.

 

[bicker]

That may be true but with Song specifically, I know they have been very accomodating with changes.

Practically every airline is consistently more accommodating than the terms and conditions require them to be. However, keep in mind that that tends to become less reliable as the airline gets deeper into financial trouble.

 

[seashoreCM]

(copied from another post)
If the first person you talk to can't or won't do exactly what you want, always ask to speak to someone higher up.

Ask specifically for what you want, for example want to cancel just the return portion...

With all the outsourcing (call centers in India or wherever) chances are great the first person you talk to doesn't know all the ins and outs.

 

[goofyfordisney]

We had a major schedule change done yesterday. I was on the phone for 3 hours dealing with the problem. The cancelled our homebound flight and put us on a flight with a layover, about the same time of day though. Our only other direct flight choice was leaving 11 hours earlier at 7:00 a.m. For goodness sake, we picked the direct flight on purpose! We are traveling with 5 kids! I was able to cancel my flight because I booked one way. My Mom,sister and neices and nephews are stuck. They would have got a $77 refund for only the return portion. Since they would have to rebook the outbound flight at the current price. We paid $339. We would have had to canel the whole thing to get all of our money back.

Needless to say this whole, "We are merging Song with Delta to make things even better." song and dance(No pun intedended.) isn't making anything better for me. I am soooo bummed about our change. The four of us are flying United now. I have no idea what to expect with them but at least it is direct. I have a 2 year old and 8 month old. A layover is killer with those 2 kids. I have tried.


Good luck to all!

Just wondering...what is your flight number--are you flying non-stop into SFO? We have a flight scheduled for our February trip (non-stop) to SFO from MCO--I don't want this to happen to us! How far in advance do you know when they change your flight?

We purchased our tickets via Orbitz...what happens when they change flight times--are we out of luck?


Thanks in advance.