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Airline Reservation Changes
We're going on the Alps and Dolomites trip in August. We booked our airfare in November (United). So far, we've received 10 notices of flight changes, most of them trivial. At least once they changed the flight number without a schedule change and later changed it back. This is way more changes than I've ever experienced. Is anyone else seeing this? Is it just United, or this this an industry wide phenomenon? Our other trip, on British AIrlines, has had three changes, which seems more typical.
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Ken I believe everyone is making changes all the time, the worst one for me was when Qantas canceled my LA to Melbourne flight the night before I was to travel and I ended up with 4 flights instead of 2. We need a lot of patience these days,
Delta has done the same, especially in the early stages of the pandemic, but not so much this past year. They kept changing flights and carriers, one of which was a totally-unknown-to-us small subsidiary of Air France. In the end, they couldn't get us to Jordan at all. Of course, the tour was eventually cancelled, the first of two.
We booked last July and have only had two minor changes (one in Sept one in November), both of less than an hour each, to our flight to CDG this June.
Remember, airports, both in the US and Europe have requested Airlines reduce their number of flights this summer. Some are doing that more than others. Also, all airlines are scrambling to find flight crews to fill their needs and they schedule future flights assuming a certain pilot hiring rate which they don't always reach. I think this is all part of the two year + COVID recovery one pundit forecast.
Yes, we've had several for our flights this year. So far all so minor they didn't make much difference. The emails Tauck sends - which are generated by the airlines - don't highlight the difference. Frustrating since you don't dare totally ignore them. I usually check the airlines websites or apps.
We are booked on Delta for our upcoming Scottish Isles trip in May. Our outbound flight is through Amsterdam to Edinburgh with KLM on the last leg. Unbeknownst to us the KLM flight from AMS to EDI was cancelled. About a month or so ago I checked the Delta web site and discovered that we had no flight booked into Edinburgh. Delta never sent any notification to us.
We did book this through a travel agent (who has since left the agency) so that may have contributed to the mix up. We almost always book our own air but the travel agent was able to get us business class with hotel in London for 3 nights for less than we could have booked air alone if we did it on our own. (We are doing a 3 day London stopover on our way home).
I think the airline cancellations and schedule changes are now the new norm.
Hmm, interesting about the London stopover. My booking for May with JohnS shows that I get to have 4 nights in London.
Not sure if I'm reading the above two posts correctly.
1) Does the S of JohnS stand for the same thing as the second S in SueMS?
2) If so, then I get the winking eye emoji since you're spending 4 nights and he said he's only spending 3 nights
or
they don't stand for the same thing but you're traveling together, then I still get the emoji
or
I'm totally confused.
Smiling Sam
My bad. We are spending 4 nights and yes the S is the same. Maybe we are all confused. I know I am.
I like Sue’s sense of humor!!!
Delta is lousy at knowing what their partner airlines are doing. Per them we are flying Delta to Atlanta, on to Amsterdam then KLM to Glasgow. For the return we're magically teleporting to Amsterdam then KLM to LAX and I assume hitchhiking home. If I go over to KLMs site I can see all the flights. This has happened before and thankfully when it gets close to departure Delta manages to figure it all out but it means I have to check different websites to track everything.
I check my reservations frequently … now less than thirty days out, I check them every day. The airlines often do not tell you about changes that are important. At least three times on our next trip they have made changes that took away our carefully planned connection time. I called quickly and got them put back to our original schedule. It is not people, it is computers and their programing doing the dirty work. I frequently get an audible eye-roll when the agents see what the computer has done. It is a check and crosscheck thing. If interrupted … start over; That’s a pilot thing.
We’ve had to cancel three vacation in the past because of flight changes and cancellations, it’s more common now but not a new phenomenon, it’s always happened. Oh for the days when getting to the airport and being on a plane was just as much fun as the vacation.
What is new, is now if you fly business class, the flights cost more than the trip. Before we book a trip now, we look at the price of the flights to get there and that is becoming the deciding factor.
Yep, definitely not new. Coming home from the U.K. after ESW tour the Skywest flight from SLC was cancelled 2 weeks prior to our tour start. The options were reroute thru Atlanta in crappy economy seats ( not even sitting together) or go ahead and fly to SLC in our Economy Comfort seats and stay overnight near the hotel for a flight home the next day. We went with option 2.
On that occasion Delta hadn't even told us about the cancellation but Tauck air did call. Thank God they did.