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Has anyone missed embarkation & had to get on at first port?


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Long story, short, I booked afternoon flights the day before our cruise & now the airline has changed the flights & the connecting flight is now 34 min! I stupidly booked with a third party, whom I called this morning & they agreed it was too short of time, but the airline is saying it is "do-able" & won't allow a change without a change fee & difference in ticket! The cost to change the flights is more than I originally paid for the 2 tickets. Hubby is willing to take a chance on what we have booked & if we miss the connection, they will supposedly get us on the next available flight, which could be the next day. My question...IF they next flight is the next day & we can't get to the port in time(Vancouver), can we get on at the first port, which in this case, will be day 2 in Seattle? We're doing the Sept sailing of the Ovation Vancouver to Hawaii. This is all just stressing me out so much & we've still got 2 months to go!! Any help or thoughts are appreciated!

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7 minutes ago, JHawk63 said:

Long story, short, I booked afternoon flights the day before our cruise & now the airline has changed the flights & the connecting flight is now 34 min! I stupidly booked with a third party, whom I called this morning & they agreed it was too short of time, but the airline is saying it is "do-able" & won't allow a change without a change fee & difference in ticket! The cost to change the flights is more than I originally paid for the 2 tickets. Hubby is willing to take a chance on what we have booked & if we miss the connection, they will supposedly get us on the next available flight, which could be the next day. My question...IF they next flight is the next day & we can't get to the port in time(Vancouver), can we get on at the first port, which in this case, will be day 2 in Seattle? We're doing the Sept sailing of the Ovation Vancouver to Hawaii. This is all just stressing me out so much & we've still got 2 months to go!! Any help or thoughts are appreciated!

You won’t be permitted to board in Seattle as that would then make your cruise from Seattle to Hawaii which is in violation of the PVSA.

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No, its leaving Vancouver, first port is Seattle, then a bunch of sea days before the first Hawaiian island. We're flying OKC-PHX-YVR. I've checked flights out of PHX if we miss this connection & there are several,  just 1 later on AA, but several on other airlines. There is an early flight out the next morning, which would get us into YVR around 11 am & another at 1pm, but that one makes me nervous, too. My husband thinks I'm worrying about nothing, but I'm the planner & he is the "adventurous" one. UGH! I thought we had this all planned out & perfect, now I don't know what to do.

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Rebook and just pay the money. It will probably be close to what you will miss out on for the cruise. You've already spent the money on the cruise...why not enjoy it. Stuff happens. I've done worse...booked a flight 2 hours BEFORE the ship docked.

 

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5 minutes ago, ldubs said:

I'm kind of amazed that the airline is saying this is a legitimate connection.  I think I would push that a little.  

 

I hope it all works out for you.  

The kind lady I spoke with this evening with Hopper said that same thing. She advised to keep watching it & push the airline directly a little closer to the flight date.

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3 minutes ago, JHawk63 said:

The kind lady I spoke with this evening with Hopper said that same thing. She advised to keep watching it & push the airline directly a little closer to the flight date.

 

I don't think I would wait.  I would push the airline now about the short connection.  It just seems to me you should be getting a refund.  Frankly, I would not rely on the wholesaler in this case, except to get your money back if the airline says it is not a valid connection.  

 

These kinds of things will happen but it is never fun.  I hope a good solution happens and that it is relatively painless.   

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No, I didn't get insurance. It's American Airlines. When I called first thing this morning, the lady said, "no, that's too close, but call the company you booked with & have them change it". Which I did, & Hopper said no problem, we'll get it taken care of. THEN, I get a call in the afternoon that the airline says its a legit connection, blah, blah, blah. I think I'll call American again in the morning & see if I can get them to budge.

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I'd push the airline to play it safe - but if it's a very small airport you're connecting at a 34min connection could be perfectly viable (e.g. we've gone through Salt Lake City on a 36min connection, which we were definitely somewhat on edge about - but it landed on time and we took just a couple of minutes to walk to the gate for our next flight... then we had to wait another 10 minutes before they started boarding!) The real issue is whether there is another later flight with available seats that can get you to Vancouver - since as noted already, you will NOT be allowed to board at any other port with an independent flight thanks to the PVSA.

 

Sounds like you did book the flight a day before, but without knowing the intermediate airport there's no way to assess the number of flights that potentially get you to the port in time for your cruise. If you decide to risk it I'd definitely be traveling with the airline call centre number programmed in my cell, so that as soon as you know you have missed the connection you can be calling to ask for another flight while you join others folks in a queue on-site - you may get it done by phone before you reach the front of the queue...

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The connecting airport is Phoenix. We've never been thru there so I'm not sure how big it is. I do know that all American flights are out of Terminal 4. I do see other flights later in the evening on other airlines that they could put us on, but don't really have any experience in that sort of thing since we don't fly that often & thankfully never missed a connection before. 

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Here's a real life story from November-

 

my  in-laws were flying from Albuquerque to NJ to board Anthem for the thanksgiving week cruise to join us for the 8 night sailing departing on Saturday to celebrate Fil's 70th birthday, and they were flying in on Friday with a connection in Denver. Their initial flight had a mechanical issue so it was delayed and caused them to miss their connection, but then due to a huge storm that had hit on Thursday, all the flights to the upper East coast on Friday and Saturday were full as the airlines were recovering from the storm.

 

Then due PSVA, even though the ship stopped in Port Canaveral on Day 3, they could not board there, and had to fly to our first international port which was Nassau on Day 4 to join the cruise (which they did and were able to enjoy the 2nd half of the cruise).

 

I'd definitely continue to work with both the airlines and the booking agency to find a resolution you're comfortable with on this.

 

good luck!

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6 hours ago, JHawk63 said:

"no, that's too close, but call the company you booked with & have them change it"

Something doesn't seem right there.  Once your booking is made with the airline and they then change the flights it should be THEIR problem to fix.  If you were en-route and a flight got canceled, the agent at the gate wouldn't say "I'm sorry, you booked through a 3rd-party, I can't help you and you'll need to call them", nope, they would re-book you...

 

5 hours ago, JHawk63 said:

I do know that all American flights are out of Terminal 4

It may not be as easy as you think.  Terminal 4 looks pretty big on Google Maps, and AA has planes parked at gates on every "peninsula" on the North side of the terminal.

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15 minutes ago, MiniChunks said:

 

This has happened to me more than once...

 

MIKE MIKE MIKE!!!!

Hey it’s been a long time! How you folks been doing? Hope all is well with you! 

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1 hour ago, hallux said:

Something doesn't seem right there.  Once your booking is made with the airline and they then change the flights it should be THEIR problem to fix.  If you were en-route and a flight got canceled, the agent at the gate wouldn't say "I'm sorry, you booked through a 3rd-party, I can't help you and you'll need to call them", nope, they would re-book you...

 

It may not be as easy as you think.  Terminal 4 looks pretty big on Google Maps, and AA has planes parked at gates on every "peninsula" on the North side of the terminal.

 

Incorrect. Hopper is their travel agent and therefore owns the ticket. Much like if you book a cruise with a TA and royal tells you you have to deal with the TA. The problem is a lot of these OTAs don't do much more than book travel, their customer service isn't that great. And depending on the site some book fares with greater restrictions on them which also makes things a mess if things change or go wrong.

 

The connection time was limited, but how much did the flight times move? If it was more than an hour or so you can call and ask for a full refund if they won't change flights to a better connection time. 

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No way would I be satisfied with a thirty four minute connection. Call American Airlines again and plead your case. If they say they can’t or won’t help you make a flight change ask to speak with a supervisor. Drip honey when you call and tastefully explain that you are so upset over the situation and hopefully they will accommodate you and make a more reasonable flight connection. I wish you luck. Let us know how you make out.

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8 hours ago, ldubs said:

I'm kind of amazed that the airline is saying this is a legitimate connection.  I think I would push that a little.  

 

I hope it all works out for you.  

Try to book "transport"  (golf cart ) from first flight to second.  Both of of those airports require a lot of walking. 

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Something similar happened to us and Delta changed flights and when I called they said we needed 35 minutes to change planes and we got our flights changed. We did have to go thru the Cruise company's air service but no problem.

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9 hours ago, ldubs said:

I'm kind of amazed that the airline is saying this is a legitimate connection.  I think I would push that a little.  

 

I hope it all works out for you.  

 

Indeed, if you miss the flight it doesn't affect them.

 

8 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

I don't think I would wait.  I would push the airline now about the short connection.  It just seems to me you should be getting a refund.  

 

Agreed.

 

2 hours ago, cruisinfanatic said:

Never heard of an airline refusing to do it when they made the change in schedule. Keep calling them. You shouldn't have to deal through the 3rd party

 

We have had the airline change a flight on disembarking day to be earlier than we feel comfortable with.  We called them and they put on us the flight that worked better for us at no extra charge.

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I fly though PHX frequently enough to know that 34 min *is* enough time... provided the stars all align and everything goes perfectly. And we all know how often that happens in the world of aviation. You’d also need to be sitting towards the front of the plane on your flight from OKC - behind the wing and you’re screwed. 

 

I’ve never used 3rd party sites so, admittedly, I have no idea how changes through those works. But airlines will not book you on another airline. If you can’t get the connection booked to a later one, I’d probably cancel and rebook on another airline. Remember to cancel your original flight... you can’t just book on another airline and not get on the AA flight out of PHX as if you do this, they will cancel your return trip. 

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