nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Alaska Airlines

Smiling Sam

FYI - If any of you have Alaska Airlines flights in the near future beware. We've just had relatives in Seattle have two different trips flights changed significantly. Alaska appears to be changing flights to different locations fly from Seattle late at night to its destination, have the planes spend the night, and then fly the plane back to Seattle early the next morning. This was the case for a Seattle/Las Vegas trip in July and a Seattle/Tucson trip in August. If you try to change from these non-stop options that are late at night and early in the morning to one-stop options that occur during the middle of the day there is an exorbitant price increase delta that you must pay. For the Seattle/Tucson flight to change from the non-stop flight to a one-stop flight that stopped in LAX there would be an additional $1000 cost per person.

Comments

Smiling Sam

Seems like these flight changes never (or at best rarely) work in your favor.

Claudia Sails

Same here with Delta. I'm supposed to be signed up to get notices and do get generic Delta emails but wasn't told that the first leg of our Sep flights to Geneva have been moved up from mid-day to 6 :30 am departure. Assuming the trips happens (not) it will mean a 8 hr plus layover in Atlanta with a marginally opened Sky Lounge. I had specifically booked the flights I had because for once I didn't need to get up for a dawn departure. Hoping for better on the most likely rebooked trip next year.

Smiling Sam

I wonder if people ever luck out and get a notice like your flights have changed - You no longer have to get up 3 hours before the rooster crows because your 6:00am departure has switched to noon and as a result your lay over in city x has been reduced from 9 hours to 3 hours. If that ever happens to me I think I will buy a lottery ticket.

AlanS

We are in the twilight zone with Delta. Our flights to J&E for the end of Jan show everything is ok on MyDelta, but if I do a simulated booking on the same dates, the AF leg from CDG to Amman, Jordan no longer exists. Searches using other days show AF/KLM will now be using Transavia, a low budget subsidiary, on the leg to AMM. That leg originates at AMS, not CDG, but unfortunately not on our travel day- Transavia makes that run only 3 days a week. MyDelta doesn't reflect any of this.

I've spoken to Delta twice- at first the agents didn't see the problem, but when they finally did, their response was that it will work itself out. I found a much better alternate. I am ready to cancel our Delta flights and switch right now. For our alternative, we can use miles for local Delta flights between RDU and JFK. At JFK we will switch to Turkish AL for the flight to AMM (via Istanbul) and Cairo to JFK (also via IST.) The timing works out well- we will have over 3 hours to switch carriers at JFK. It is a great route that uses 787-9s on both long haul legs and a great price (quite a bit cheaper than what we have), and the Turkish AL lounge and airport at Istanbul are top notch.

I am concerned about a refund from Turkish AL if Tauck cancels but Turkish does not. On the other hand, if Delta doesn't fix or takes too long to fix the problem, it could be too late and difficult to book an alternate.

British

Just for fun the other day, my husband looked at flights for our supposed Israel and Jordan tour next April. He looked at American Airlines only because that is who we try to travel with in general and who we have points with. Going two flights via Rome to Tel Aviv, returning two flights Amman to London and then Philly. Business class was $4000 Each. We intend to book our flights with Tauck this time and will look more seriously for all the options but not yet, too soon these days. If there is a demand for flights, I am sure there will suddenly be more available.
Regarding flight time changes, it’s happened to us for years. So has the type of plane you thought you would be flying in too. Seat assignments get changed.
After experiencing near being stranded in a far off country at the start of Covid lockdown, I was just so glad to see a seat anywhere and on a plane as long as it got me home!

BKMD

** Smiling Sam** I wonder if people ever luck out and get a notice like your flights have changed - You no longer have to get up 3 hours before the rooster crows because your 6:00am departure has switched to noon and as a result your lay over in city x has been reduced from 9 hours to 3 hours. If that ever happens to me I think I will buy a lottery ticket.

The answer is YES. However, statistically speaking, it is fairly unlikely, at least for me. When I book flights, the primary parameters I use (without creating a spreadsheet) are overall flight time and price, and balance the two. For example, on my April trip to Japan that never happened, I could have gone nonstop from DEN to TYO on United. However that was $10K RT biz and flights with one stop were in the $4K range. The longest layover I can recall is 5 hours and that was the return from AMM to DEN via FRA. I would never book a flight with a 9 hour layover, unless there was an EXTREMELY good reason to do so. And I can only recall one flight in the last 5 years with more than one stop, and that was price motivated. I suspect I have more flexibility than you Sam, as I live near the 5th busiest airport in the US.

I have had an occasional flight that was scheduled to leave at 6 AM changed to 7 AM, or similar. However, it couldn't be moved too much later, such as noon as in your example because, using my layover criteria, there wouldn't be enough room to move it much forward beyond that.

Smiling Sam

BKMD - I did have a 9 hour layover In Istanbul just last fall on my return from Ammon. I could have booked a flight with only a 3 hour layover for an additional cost of over $1500 for the two of us. The lounge in Istanbul is spectacular ( pre Covid ). No brainer for us to save the money.