Todos
← Back to Squawk list
What to Do if an Airline Changes Your Flight Plan
NEW YORK (AP) — It's the ultimate travel bait and switch. You book a ticket on a non-stop flight but the airline cancels it a few weeks later, leaving a computer to automatically rebook you. Your new itinerary includes a layover, turning a five-hour trip into an eight-hour journey. (www.nytimes.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
My similar experiance was on a trip to Virginia for a high school reunion. Frontier airline cancelled the return flight months prior but did not notify us. We showed up at the ticket counter for the return trip and it was empty. Empty except for the dozen or so stranded passengers who were not informed of the change. WITHOUT informing anyone there they secretly changed our flight from Sunday to Monday. Costing us a nights hotel and a days lost wages. USAir got us a morning flight Frontier would have held us hostage on a standby basis 24 hours. Frontier could have notified us as we left Denver. With 3 days notice we still could have gotten out on time. The "screw you" attitude displayed by Frontier has kept me safely off their planes ever since.
I found it interesting that the article had a quote "If the economy becomes markedly worse, fuel costs remain high and business travel demand slackens". I wonder if the airlines realize that the days of flying from everywhere to everwhere every hour is a thing of the past. Business is realizing that airlne travel is no longer in thier best interest.
The ability do business while in flight, travel at the most convient time and often able to land at airports much closer to the job site (especially if you are flying in a King Air) make non-airlne flying much more attractive.
We will know when the airlines figure this out when the airlnes "attack" General Aviation in an attempt to bring back the corporate travel.
The ability do business while in flight, travel at the most convient time and often able to land at airports much closer to the job site (especially if you are flying in a King Air) make non-airlne flying much more attractive.
We will know when the airlines figure this out when the airlnes "attack" General Aviation in an attempt to bring back the corporate travel.
It's the usual hypocritical behavior of business in this country, and the airlines are among the worst. If you don't show up for one leg, they have the right to cancel your entire trip, since the remaining leg is not "the product" they sold you. But then they can turn around and unilaterally provide your with "a product" that you didn't buy. I know some of you will whine about "job killing regulation" when I say this, but wouldn't be reasonable to have government impose some equality between business and individual here? For example, if an airline provides you with "a product" other than the one you bought at a specific price, due to their own fault or choice, they should have to provide you with substantial compensation for the difference.
Folks, airlines are not service oriented anymore. It about how much money they can suck out of you. Profits
We saved up our Aeroplan points and splurged on our first time travelling first class on Air Canada from Toronto to Ireland. A few months after receiving our e-mail flight confirmation, we received what appeared to be a duplicate version which had one minor change in the seat allocation. A phone call confirmed that the airline had decided to switch planes and the replacement was an unconverted version with no first class suites, just business class seats. We were now seated across an aisle , not side by side and I had no adjoining seat. After boarding, the adjoining seat (which was not on the manifest) surfaced beside me. Neither seat would fully recline, the sound system was either full blast or mute, the video was a bulkhead screen seven rows ahead and displayed a washed out B-movie. Service and food were superb and my wife's fully reclining single window seat was the most comfortable she has ever had; mine was miserable!!! Six months and numerous phone calls and e-mails later, we received a token 20% discount code for our next Air Canada flight. when we tried to use it on line for another flight to Europe, it was not recognised by the system!!! At least my wife enoyed her only flight in business class...
I booked my wife and me, and another couple on a Continental flight from EWR to Athens and using our FF mileage to upgrad to Business Class about 6 months prior to the scheduled flight. Continental suspended their Non-Stop to Athens and confirmed the four us only to Rome, with connecting flights out of Rome.
We had a change of planes and airlines. My wife and I were on Alitalia and our friends on Olympus. All of us were now in coach! My wife's leg was in a brace and in a wheelchair. We recieved no assistance down the 2 ramps to the aircraft, (I was told that I would have to go back to the main ticket counter to make wheelchair assist arrangments and go through security again). Alitalia booked her a middle seat, whereas I got the window seat. She could not bend her leg, and the F/A could care less.
We finally got a young American student who offered to give up her aisle seat for my wife. No one, and I mean NO ONE offered any assistance. Customer Service? An oxymoron! No longer a fan of Continental, or of Alitalia, their gate personnel and F/A's.
We had a change of planes and airlines. My wife and I were on Alitalia and our friends on Olympus. All of us were now in coach! My wife's leg was in a brace and in a wheelchair. We recieved no assistance down the 2 ramps to the aircraft, (I was told that I would have to go back to the main ticket counter to make wheelchair assist arrangments and go through security again). Alitalia booked her a middle seat, whereas I got the window seat. She could not bend her leg, and the F/A could care less.
We finally got a young American student who offered to give up her aisle seat for my wife. No one, and I mean NO ONE offered any assistance. Customer Service? An oxymoron! No longer a fan of Continental, or of Alitalia, their gate personnel and F/A's.