So stressed...airline changed flights.

[JustAGirl79]

We're on the January 30 Summit sailing out of San Juan, travelling from Calgary the day before. Booked great flights through Choice Air on American Airlines, happy with the connections, timing, price, etc....not sure why I did it, but just decided to go to the AA website and check my booking. The itinerary has totally changed; our second flight each direction now leaves before our first flight! And Choice Air hasn't sent me anything (or my travel agent) about the change. Just 'luck' that I saw it.

 

I've immediately called my travel agent who is looking into it - but in the meantime, the other flights I see on AA/Choice Air look horrid...somebody please tell me this is going to work out somehow????

 

My revised itinerary is...

 

 

Carrier Flight

Number Departing Arriving Booking

Code Meals

City Date & Time City Time

 

AMERICAN AIRLINES 1166 YYC Calgary Jan 29, 2016

02:25 PM DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth Jan 29, 2016

07:09 PM

 

AMERICAN AIRLINES 2481 DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth Jan 29, 2016

02:05 PM SJU San Juan Jan 29, 2016

08:30 PM

 

AMERICAN AIRLINES 1341 SJU San Juan Feb 06, 2016

11:25 AM MIA Miami Feb 06, 2016

01:17 PM

 

AMERICAN AIRLINES 281 MIA Miami Feb 06, 2016

07:00 AM DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth Feb 06, 2016

09:15 AM

 

AMERICAN AIRLINES 221 DFW Dallas/ Fort Worth Feb 06, 2016

10:25 AM YYC Calgary Feb 06, 2016

01:32 PM

[chrismakris]

Don't worry about it. AA should be able to switch your flights because of the itinerary change. There is a good chance there will be a re-routing. Fortunately you have given yourself an extra day to get there.

 

Either that or you will have to re-book.

 

Choice Air is supposed to get you there on time, so I wouldn't worry too much about it until you hear back from your TA.

[TMLAalum]

May I suggest you find flights that DO work for you not only on American but other carriers as well and tell the ChoiceAir representative your preferred options. Typically, a change like this made by the airline allows for rebooking without penalty on the same airline. But if AA can't accommodate you will need to be armed with other choices when you speak to the rep.

[JustAGirl79]

Thanks so much for the advice! I'm looking at options now, both on AA and other airlines. We were so pleased with our original selection; this sucks as the other options are mostly 3+ stops, 13+ hours with redeye flights. We may miss the little time we had planned for in San Juan.

[chrismakris]

Thanks so much for the advice! I'm looking at options now, both on AA and other airlines. We were so pleased with our original selection; this sucks as the other options are mostly 3+ stops, 13+ hours with redeye flights. We may miss the little time we had planned for in San Juan.

 

If you're going to red-eye it then I would try to leave Jan 28th and get into SJU on the 29th. Get to your hotel, grab a nap and take a walk around at night.

 

The nice thing about the Summit is that it does not leave until 8:30 pm but you can drop your bags off at around 11:00 am. That gives you all day to explore old San Juan before having to get back to the ship by 6:30 pm for muster drill.

[JustAGirl79]

That's exactly what I've just suggested to my travel agent. It won't be any additional San Juan hotel costs and we'll have one day to get a bit rested before boarding.

 

 

If you're going to red-eye it then I would try to leave Jan 28th and get into SJU on the 29th. Get to your hotel, grab a nap and take a walk around at night.

 

The nice thing about the Summit is that it does not leave until 8:30 pm but you can drop your bags off at around 11:00 am. That gives you all day to explore old San Juan before having to get back to the ship by 6:30 pm for muster drill.

[foxjim1]

Did same to us AA on flights from Yyz I just called as directly and got them to change times closer to the original! We booked flight through Expedia.ca but it was a 45 minute wait so I went direct and ended up very satisfied. They said if AA

made changes then Expedia would no longer control reservation and I agreed to that! Do your homework first and make sure you know what flights are available that suit you!

[peteukmcr]

First option is to see if AA can rebook you on AA flights (or their codeshare partners) that are convenient for your itinerary.

 

If that is not possible then you should be able to obtain a full refund (even if the original fare conditions stated there were no refunds for cancellation) as this is an 'involuntary schedule change' caused by the airline and your tickets can be endorsed as such by your travel agent or by AA to ensure you obtain a full refund.

 

However, if AA cannot provide a suitable alternative, and you need to cancel for no penalty (please note any refund monies can take 6-8 weeks to be credited to the form of payment used to pay for the original flights), it would be helpful if you have already seen an alternative itinerary to suggest to your travel agent.

 

Please remember AA are not obliged to provide an alternative itinerary on other airlines other than those who they code share with.

[DZalumni]

Choice Air will tell you to work with the airlines first.

I would have by passed my TA.

Log on to your AA account, there should be an alert at the top of the screen where you can "change" your trip. New trips should not have any additional fees associated with it. TA may charge you a change fee.

 

The air changes can be handled by you by login in to your AA account and then you'll have complete control over the changes, vs leaving the new flight selection to you TA.

[JustAGirl79]

So our travel agent has been great at looking after everything for us BUT the results certainly weren't what we would have hoped....

 

AA has changed their schedule so dramatically that there were no "replacement" flights that made sense. We would have had 15+ hour trips, with redeyes landing the morning of the cruise, etc., etc.

 

So, we cancelled with AA and booked United flights to San Juan. Calgary to Houston to San Juan. Because the Houston-San Juan leg is a redeye landing at 6 a.m., we're flying the night of the 28th rather than the 29th during the day so we can have the one day to rest a bit and there's no extra night in a hotel (already have a hotel booked for the night of the 29th).

 

Our return flight is on WestJet, with just one stop in Toronto, but now we don't leave San Juan until 4 p.m. as opposed to 11:30 a.m....means we're getting back to Calgary very late, but at least only one connection.

 

Still a little bummed, though, as this ended up costing us an additional $200/each. If we had booked these flights back in March when we booked the AA flights, I doubt we would have paid this...

 

Thanks for the advice everyone! Very helpful!

[chrismakris]

So our travel agent has been great at looking after everything for us BUT the results certainly weren't what we would have hoped....

 

 

 

AA has changed their schedule so dramatically that there were no "replacement" flights that made sense. We would have had 15+ hour trips, with redeyes landing the morning of the cruise, etc., etc.

 

 

 

So, we cancelled with AA and booked United flights to San Juan. Calgary to Houston to San Juan. Because the Houston-San Juan leg is a redeye landing at 6 a.m., we're flying the night of the 28th rather than the 29th during the day so we can have the one day to rest a bit and there's no extra night in a hotel (already have a hotel booked for the night of the 29th).

 

 

 

Our return flight is on WestJet, with just one stop in Toronto, but now we don't leave San Juan until 4 p.m. as opposed to 11:30 a.m....means we're getting back to Calgary very late, but at least only one connection.

 

 

 

Still a little bummed, though, as this ended up costing us an additional $200/each. If we had booked these flights back in March when we booked the AA flights, I doubt we would have paid this...

 

 

 

Thanks for the advice everyone! Very helpful!

 

 

Helpful hint with the Westjet flight to Toronto. We just took that flight back from San Juan and the agents didn't get there until 12:00 to start the check in process.

 

1) If you can check in to your flight before you get to the airport, do so. There is a separate line for those who just have to drop off bags.

 

2). If you can't, get there as soon as you can. The lineup stretches for quite a while.

 

3). You'll see a long lineup where everyone is lining up to get through security in the middle of the terminal. There are actually 2 checkpoints. Try the second one if the lineup is crazy long. Took us almost an hour to get through the first one.

[Moonlitherial]

Helpful hint with the Westjet flight to Toronto. We just took that flight back from San Juan and the agents didn't get there until 12:00 to start the check in process.

 

1) If you can check in to your flight before you get to the airport, do so. There is a separate line for those who just have to drop off bags.

 

2). If you can't, get there as soon as you can. The lineup stretches for quite a while.

 

3). You'll see a long lineup where everyone is lining up to get through security in the middle of the terminal. There are actually 2 checkpoints. Try the second one if the lineup is crazy long. Took us almost an hour to get through the first one.

 

Good advice on the Westjet checkin. The lineup was so long for us leaving San Juan that we interfered with 3 other airline checkin counters. They rearranged the line at least 4 or 5 times in an attempt to fix it but it was horrible overall, and we had pre checked in. The other line was worse.

 

Don't forget to do the Ag screening and get stickers for your bags before getting in line, and make sure they stick. One member of our group had to go back and rescan because their sticker fell off. From the number we saw stuck to the floor this was not unusual.

[cb at sea]

The last 4 flights we've book have drastically changed the flight times/planes, etc.....I HATE that! But, it happens all the time. If they change you by 90 mins. there is no fee to change or cancel.

[clmom]

The last 4 flights we've book have drastically changed the flight times/planes, etc.....I HATE that! But, it happens all the time. If they change you by 90 mins. there is no fee to change or cancel.

The airlines change their flight schedules twice a year...spring and fall. They have done this for years. This allows them to delete flight segments that are not making money or add flights for high volume summer/holiday travel, etc. If you have made your air reservations far in advance of your scheduled travel it is crucial that you check every now and then to make sure changes have not been made that you might have not been notified on.

[hcat]

To OP

what was the benefit of using Choice Air? Did they help with the new flights?

are you still on Choice air program?

 

Glad you found something that works ok..

[BEAV]

The airlines change their flight schedules twice a year...spring and fall. They have done this for years. This allows them to delete flight segments that are not making money or add flights for high volume summer/holiday travel, etc. If you have made your air reservations far in advance of your scheduled travel it is crucial that you check every now and then to make sure changes have not been made that you might have not been notified on.

 

They can change them more than Spring and Fall. I booked an award ticket on Delta in January for December travel (11 months in advance) and have gone through 5 schedule changes so far!

[Redtravel]

For my upcoming cruises b2b in January, we booked on choice air on American flights. We got emails last week with time changes. I was okay with the time changes. I wasn't okay with them changing equipment and reassigning seats. My spouse and I are in seats 4 rows apart. When I called American I was told that I could not move the seats. I booked the planes months ago. My only response was that when we boarded perhaps they did the same thing to other people. On the plane we might change seats with other people.

[JustAGirl79]

To OP

what was the benefit of using Choice Air? Did they help with the new flights?

are you still on Choice air program?

 

Glad you found something that works ok..

 

My only complaint about Choice Air is the fact we hadn't received notification of the flight changes. I "found" them myself on the American Airlines website. The Choice Air rep told my travel agent that their system hadn't caught up to the changes in the AA system, whatever that means! Anyway, When we became aware of the new itinerary, my travel agent called Choice Air immediately and was on the phone with them for upwards of an hour getting new flight options for us. She gave us some options, we talked for a few minutes and then called her back to confirm our new (non-AA) flights. And yes, we are still on the Choice Air program.

[JustAGirl79]

For my upcoming cruises b2b in January, we booked on choice air on American flights. We got emails last week with time changes. I was okay with the time changes. I wasn't okay with them changing equipment and reassigning seats. My spouse and I are in seats 4 rows apart. When I called American I was told that I could not move the seats. I booked the planes months ago. My only response was that when we boarded perhaps they did the same thing to other people. On the plane we might change seats with other people.

 

You booked through Choice Air for American Airlines flights and you received an email with the flight changes? No one contacted us, not the airline or Choice Air. For our cruise in January 2015, we also booked through Choice Air and we received emails when our flight times changed (just slightly). That is my biggest complaint. Not sure how long ago the flight times changed, but I would have liked to have known about the changes right away in hopes to get a replacement flight that wouldn't break the bank. Instead I "found" the changes myself and they left us on the same flights/flight numbers, but all the times had changed such that our connecting flights were all overlapping!