What rights do I have if flights changed ?

dh-york

I booked a holiday in November which included certain flights & times from the UK MAN to JFK & JFK to Orlando (& same for the return) and these were stated on the invoice and when holiday paid in full they were still stated as they were in November 2011

I now have today used the on-line checkin facility to find 1 of the flights has significantly changed (new flight number) and we are now scheduled to complete our return flight from Orlando to JFK 5 hours earlier than booked and this gives us a 6 hour gap from JFK to MAN.

What are my rights here ...can I force the agent to find a more suitable flight ? Incidentally the flight they quoted in the booking AA1470 doesnt actually seem to exist and we are now on AA630

whatusername

You will have to speak to the agent to find out why the change, it could be for a number of reasons.

whatusername

A quick look on AA website would suggest only 1 am and 1 pm flight therefore I would be certain the PM flight would have you miss your connection home hence the change.

As for your rights, you will have to look at T&C of sale but airlines can and do change flights.

dh-york

Waiting for agent to call me back and I have found an afternoon flight from Orlando to Chicago then onto Manchester at similar times .. so will see what the agent says

whatusername

dh-york wrote: »

Waiting for agent to call me back and I have found an afternoon flight from Orlando to Chicago then onto Manchester at similar times .. so will see what the agent says

Good luck, that is sometimes the bonus of dealing with an agent rather than the airline, they can sometimes find other options.

luci

Flights booked months in advance are subject to change, but you should have been advised of the change when it happened.

I disagree that it is better to deal with an agent. We booked United flights with Netflights and were notified of a time change which wasn't suitable. I found flights which were suitable, but Netflights weren't willing to change them to the ones I wanted as they said it was a minor change. United were willing to change them, but it had to be done through the agent they were booked with.

I had a stressful couple of days and many phone calls before I found someone at NF who was willing to make the change.

We also had a flight change with American Airlines, but as I had booked direct with them, I just called and told them the alternative flights I wanted and it was done.

jpsartre

luci wrote: »

I disagree that it is better to deal with an agent.

I'm with you. These sorts of things are usually much more straightforward to work out with the airline and most of them are happy to change your itinerary free of charge of there's been a schedule change.

claire16c

whatusername wrote: »

Good luck, that is sometimes the bonus of dealing with an agent rather than the airline, they can sometimes find other options.

So can the airline?

AA once changed me to a different flight because something happened to the first one (cant remember now) anyway I wasnt happy with it as it had me connecting through JFK to get the 2nd one with a ridiculously short amount of time, so I rang them, and they found one going through Boston - only with a 45 min gap, but I figured less British people on the plane, a smaller plane and therefore a hopefully shorter queue at customs. So I asked to be moved to that.

I dont see what an agent would have done differently.

dh-york

So my agent says deal with AA as otherwise they would have to pay a charge and AA say has to be done by agent as a special discounted fare

Again waiting on agents reponse

There is an alternative flight via Chicago at similar times and no 6 hour wait between flights but to be honest I'm not sure who is responsible to sort this.

jpsartre

If you booked through an agent the standard procedure is that the agent will have to make any changes.

Alan_Bowen

Airlines make schedule changes all the time and 2012 is looking to be one of the worst. The problem you will have is that you have booked a special discount fare and the airline will not allow you or the agent to change to a routing where that fare is not available. If you are travelling in the immediate future, which if you were checking in I presume you are, fares are extremely high and although AA may relent, I wouldn't count on it