Be on the alert for flight changes!

[wrp96]

7) If you were waiting on hold for a long time, blame the people who just jumped to #6 jamming up the phone lines. If you don't like long waits, call either early in the morning or late in the evening. Call volumes are down then. Note that Alaska closes their reservation phone lines at midnight Pacific time.

 

I wanted to say something about this. This is great advice. But you also need to look at what else is happening in the country.

Before you make that call about your flight that is a month, 3 months, 6 months from now etc, look at the weather. Is there a major event that would be causing flight cancellations that day? If so, wait a day or two before calling. Otherwise you will have long hold times and you will get a CSR that is very frustrated and probably not very willing to cooperate because I can guarantee they've been dealing with upset people who were trying to get to a business meeting or see their kids the next day and were just told their flight was cancelled or changed

 

I called American one night at 11:30pm about changing flights, I waited on hold for almost an hour. This was due to very bad weather across the south that day cancelling tons of flights. In fact, the reason I was on hold is an AA rep had called me to tell me my flight the early the next morning was cancelled and then we got disconnected while he was trying to reroute me.

[FlyerTalker]

Thanks for mentioning the "state of the system" -- I was focusing on the calls made to airlines for information that could have been found online. It's always good to be aware of stresses that businesses, and their call centers, are under. For a cruise example, if a cruise line has a ship that is suffering mechanical problems (or the more recent Princess fire as a more extreme case), they are going to be very busy handling people with cruises in the next day and week - you can hold off on your question about your cruise 6 months from now.

 

Oh, and program the airline phone number into your cell phone, so that you if you need do to call while on your trip, you have it on speed dial. No sense wasting time with directory assistance and the like.

[hoppelk]

I booked our flights on Wednesday 5/10 on Northwest. On Sunday, 5/14 I received an e-mail telling us that our return flight was canceled and changed us to an 8:35 AM flight. They refunded our fare and I am now looking for another flight.

[SeattleJ]

If you fly at all on a regular basis, try to stay with one airline and gain elite status. While I only fly around 30,000 miles a year, I try to always fly AA or one of its partner airlines. Elite status doesn't give you lower fares, but it does help on seats and keeps you from getting bumped. In addition, airlines will be more helpful to their elite status customers.

[gohoos1]

I booked our flights from Richmond to Vancouver on United through Orbitz a few months ago. They have changed the flight times a couple of times during those months, about 10 or 15 minutes each time.

 

Orbitz has a feature called OrbitzTLC. They will email you (or send a message to your phone, or even call you with a voice call) any time your flights change and also on a schedule, say, 3 hours before your flight.

 

I think you can even sign up if you didn't book through orbitz, but I'm not sure.

[Thanksforyourinfo]

.THEY couldn't get me home the same day, PLUS I now had the added expense of a hotel, AND losing a day's pay. The young man made the changes I requested and I thanked him for helping. I plan to keep tabs on the situation, though.

 

 

Robin

 

 

Yours is a typical story of how important it is to check for yourself. The airlines should have notified you in a way that would allow for cancellation, changes without fees. Instead, you had to do all the work. Fortunately, you did, and the airline accomodated you to their best ability. This is also an example of why independent bookings are best the day before and after a cruise if not longer.