Cancellation of flights to Athens

[Livestotravel]

By sheer luck, I checked on our October 21 flight to Athens to find that Continental is "withdrawing" their direct flight from Newark to Athens between the dates of Oct. 1st and sometime in May I think. We were not notified, although we had booked the flights in January. We had enough time, thank goodness, to change our trip to September, and change our flights, all without penalty. Just a heads up.

[seapenarth]

By sheer luck, I checked on our October 21 flight to Athens to find that Continental is "withdrawing" their direct flight from Newark to Athens between the dates of Oct. 1st and sometime in May I think. We were not notified, although we had booked the flights in January. We had enough time, thank goodness, to change our trip to September, and change our flights, all without penalty. Just a heads up.

 

Continental are not renowned for their Customer Services or much else. :p

[JonconOH]

Dear Livestotravel,

Thanks for the article about Continental's suspension of flights EWR-ATH. I called them and learned our flight was one that was suspended. I told them that I was displeased that they had not informed me, and when were they going to let me know. After about 2 hours, we were finally rescheduled to fly to Rome then on to Athens, however we have to leave a day earlier. The other couple traveling with us will be on another flight into Athens from Rome. Customer Service?

[Livestotravel]

So we weren't the only ones who weren't notified! I've always been impressed at Continental notifying me by phone AND email when a flight time changed by even 5 minutes! And now they really drop the ball on this one! In fact, three weeks after all was resolved, and we had the new flights, I received an email that they were rerouting my return flight (the original one in October) and would be in touch - some more panic set in when I thought the team assigned to notify everyone (who apparently haven't) had somehow messed up my new return flight in September, and I would be stuck in Greece until the end of October - now what a minute - let me rethink this! The way the email read, their "contract" with the European Union only obligates them to inform you two weeks ahead when they cancel a flight, and to try to re-route you on other airlines. If that is really the case, it leaves people no time to reschedule their vacations, etc.

 

I wish I knew where else to post this warning for others from the NJ area expecting to fly direct to Athens between October and May.

[gordiej]

Folks - keep in mind that you have a contract with CO (your ticket) which obligates them to get you to Athens. Generally when they withdraw from a market (or "temporarily"/seasonally suspend service) they will have a contract with another airline to accomodate you. Alternatively, if you don't like the new itinerary (e.g., a connection in Rome) you can request a total refund and then re-book on your own (e.g., Delta on JFK-ATH).

 

Certainly the lack of prompt notification does seem to be an issue these days (not just CO), sometimes it's because they don't have good contact info for you, and other times it's, well, I don't know. I agree the airlines could do better in these situations. But we can't rely on them, so it's a good practice to check ALL your future reservations online at least every week or two, to be ahead of the game.

[Livestotravel]

You can bet I'm checking every few days at this point!