terrible airline schedule

[pvoris01]

just got our air schedule from ta : we fly from jfk 7am to salt lake city arrive 952 am, leave salt lake at 1100 am and arrive in seattle at 1200. this is all on delta air then switch to alaska air and leave seattle at 230pm and arrive in fairbanks at 656 p. Talked to the travel agent and she said theres not much we can do unless we pay 50.00 for a change and thats not a gaurentee because we could get our flight home changed which has one stop and the flight going could stay the same. Anyone have any advice?

[stephenandrew]

Hi-
Are you calling this a terrible schedule becasue you have to change planes twice? The time in between flights isn't bad (not long delays). For what its worth, we were able to get a flight to Fairbanks with only one change of planes (via Minneapolis) but most of the flights I saw from the eastern US had two stops an/or changes. Anyway, I assume you purchased the air from the cruiseline---don't most of the lines allow some kind of deviation for a fee plus any increased cost in airfare? Are there just no seats available on the day you want to travel? If so, maybe you could go in a day earlier--have an extra day in Fairbanks to look around. Good luck and enjoy yor trip.

[Gardyloo]

The only nonstop from the lower 48 to Fairbanks is on Northwest via Minneapolis. Otherwise you need to go via Anchorage (and usually also Seattle.)

Your total en-route time is around 15:56 hours. The fastest time from JFK using the NW nonstop from MPS is 15:10. So I'm not sure what the issue is.

[NEW YORK LADY]

American Airlines out of JFK has direct flights to Seattle. From there you can get a flight to Fairbanks. Wouldn't that be better or aren't the connecting times good. You could always do an overnight in Seattle then leave for Fairbanks the next day too. Just some food for thought.

Jackie

[greatam]

I fly a lot (AA EXP-over 100,000 miles per year) so I really have a lot of experience in this area.

If you booked your air through the cruiseline, you pretty much have to take what you get. Deviation (for a fee) usually only means a different day, different time, etc. It does NOT mean the most convenient nonstop to where you are going and usually does not mean you can pick your choice of carriers. And a lot of times, you get no airline miles on cruise fares-they are booked as consolidator fares at the least expensive rate. This is especially true on international flights. I sure wouldn't sit in a coach seat for 6-18 hours and acquire NO miles, but I am spoiled by AA, even if I have have to pay a few dollars more (NEVER more than 10%).

If you did not book this through the cruiseline, you TA is doing you a real disservice on your air booking. As previously mentioned, there are plenty of non-stops from NY/NJ to Seattle. Then on to Alaska.

You may have to spend the night in Seattle to make this work. Non-stops to Fairbanks are not frequent; most go through ANC, which are frequent out of Seattle. But the Anchorage airport is pretty neat-small, security sucks bigtime if you have to change carriers, but once you get past security, the displays alone are worth looking at. I love the polar bear in the AA gate area.

If this is not cruiseline air, and if I can help, feel free to [email]email-greatam@earthlink.net[/email]. I am a whiz at good airfares with good connections. I am one of the ones leaving from JFK to Iceland on Sat. June 19, for $61.00. Maybe you read about it or saw it on CNN.

Gina

[Casey12]

I would pay the $50 fee and change that schedule.

[Giantfan13]

Delta has a non stop flight out of JFK, leaving at 7:05 to Seattle. What happens after that, I haven't checked, but I'm booking that particular flight.

[pvoris01]

I talked to the ta today we can pay the 50.00 and ask for a change. We would end up getting to fairbanks two and a half hours earlier going from jfk to seattle and then stopping in anchorage ( not getting off ) and on to fairbanks. We are probably going to see if we can get this. Thanks for all the input.

[Budget Queen]

Be aware your fees may NOT end with just the deviation- you may have additional airline costs?? Cruise air is something I never consider- it is always the left overs and usually more costly. You can consider booking independent with the "multi city" option available on flight booking sites. Be certain to factor in transfers- which are included with cruise air.

[Krazy Kruizers]

[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] air lines

Whenever we are not able to book our own air line tickets (not round trip flights) we pay HAL the deviation fees and tell HAL what airlines, times, and dates we want. Only once we were not able to get what we wanted. AND it was not HAL's fault. US Airways would not agree to fly us back from Montreal to Pittsburgh on their direct flight. We had to connect through Newark on Continental. But guess this - US Airways did accommodate us to fly to Ft Lauderdale - GO FIGURE!

This just happened this past May. And US Airways keeps complaining about having to cut flights because people are not flying with them. Oh yes, we checked, there were seats available on the flight that we wanted to come home on. HAL fought with them up to the last week before we left for Florida.

[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[superbonnie]

We are captain club members and assumed we could pick our flights using their custom air with no additional fee. Never again. I found an ideal flight from Hartford to Minn and then on to Fairbanks that would put us in by 4:30. What do we get leave Hartford at 1:30 go to Minn and arrive in Fairbanks at 8:30 p.m. Next time I will be booking my own airfare and for this we paid $150 more than if I had booked my own. I still have no docs and we leave JUly 3. I just hope when I get the docs they have the same flights that we were told we would have.

[Genessa]

we were scheduled last year with a flight out of JFK with a stop in Minneapolis, then direct to Fairbanks which would have taken over 18 hours. Switched to flights (on line travel agent called Princess and got it done) that left NY later, made a stop, but supposedly no plane change in Detroit, ended up being a plane change, then on to Minneapolis, then to Fairbanks - so left 3 hours later and got on same flight into Fairbanks, was worth the plane change.
We had looked into flying directly to Seattle, then to Fairbanks, but most of the flights got into Seattle too late to fly direct to Fairbanks that night, required an overnight stay, so there went all the savings. Since we were flying multi-city, the Princess air was about $25 cheaper than what we could book on our own, and my dh did hours of research, checking flights out of JFK, Newark, and LaGuardia, into many, many cities.

We did have a direct, non-stop flight back from Vancouver to NY on Cathay Pacific - one of our best flights ever.

[pvoris01]

we put in for the change today with our travel agent, so we will know in 24-48 hrs is we got the change. We also asked to see if we could get a direct flight home and its a choice between United and Cathay pacific which I never heard of until today. I'm glad your flight was good with them just in case we get the change.

[Gardyloo]

Cathay Pacific?? They go to Toronto from Hong Kong via Anchorage (for fuel). Generally highly rated - I'd give it a try for the novelty if nothing else. Are you going to Toronto or JFK? If JFK, ask your TA to double-check; I think they now fly HKG-JFK nonstop.

[greatam]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gardyloo:
Cathay Pacific?? They go to Toronto from Hong Kong via Anchorage (for fuel). Generally highly rated - I'd give it a try for the novelty if nothing else. Are you going to Toronto or JFK? If JFK, ask your TA to double-check; I think they now fly HKG-JFK nonstop.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Cathay is one GREAT airline. If I have my choice between flying AA to Asia (Japan) or Cathay to Hong Kong, I would definitely take Cathay and make whatever connections I need to make. This is coming from a true AA lover. They have a daily nonstop from Vancouver to JFK. Leaves shortly after lunch.

[Genessa]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by greatam:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gardyloo:
Cathay Pacific?? They go to Toronto from Hong Kong via Anchorage (for fuel). Generally highly rated - I'd give it a try for the novelty if nothing else. Are you going to Toronto or JFK? If JFK, ask your TA to double-check; I think they now fly HKG-JFK nonstop.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Cathay is one GREAT airline. If I have my choice between flying AA to Asia (Japan) or Cathay to Hong Kong, I would definitely take Cathay and make whatever connections I need to make. This is coming from a true AA lover. They have a daily nonstop from Vancouver to JFK. Leaves shortly after lunch.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

this is the flight we were on last year. Went from Hong Kong to Vancouver, passengers on the plane from Hong Kong had to disembark and stay in a locked gate area - and after we checked in we joined them in this gate area, once in, you couldn't leave. The flight was then non-stop to JFK. As I wrote before, it was a terrific flight. The attendants were excellent and we were even served food. You also had a choice of coffee, tea, or Chinese tea.

[pvoris01]

well we got our air changed: so we now get to fairbanks at 430pm instead of 7pm with one less plane change, weren't able to get a non stop home though but were happy with the new flight. thanks for all your info.

[kruise54aol.com]

i am so glad hearig about cathay pac- i am flying them on sept 18 to vancouver for my yearly alaska cruise and had never flown with them before in reading these posts i feel so much better about cathay pacific i leave from jfk at 11:30pm on 9-18-04 and cn hardly wait.thanks for the info