Schedule change - options?
 

I'm organizing a family trip to Bozeman in January.

Back in September I booked 12 of us on various airlines from a variety of locations around the country to all arrive between 12pm and 130pm.

I booked two of us on Alaska after transferring points from SPG; one itinerary is ATL-SEA-BZN on Jan 11 (flights AS 85 and AS 3442). It appears that flight 85 is no longer scheduled to operate on that day. When I try to access the reservation the AS website advises me to call in for manual assistance -- which I plan on doing.

Before I do so I wanted to check with the wisdom of this crowd: I anticipate that what I will be offered is either a change to a flight that departs ATL in the afternoon on the same day with arrival in Bozeman after midnight, or a refund of the miles that I used.

Is that correct? Is there anything else at all that I could expect to receive -- it would be nice if they could rebook my family member onto another airline with a similar arrival time to what I initially booked, but I seriously doubt this is anything Alaska would entertain.

Further, I expect that if I do take a refund with miles, that it is highly unlikely if not impossible that I will be able to transfer the miles back to SPG -- but if anyone could give me advice on how I could try to get this to happen, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

-z

This is one case where the loss of DL as a partner really hurts. While AA is still a partner, they do have one flight a day through Dallas in the morning which arrives at 115PM. You can see if that has award space or if they could confirm on that. Otherwise as Virgin America has no flights to ATL, your only option is to take an AS flight or get the points refunded.

There is no chance that AS will return the points to SPG. Just keep in mind for the future if you transfer points to a carrier that has very limited service at the departure or arrival airport for a booking several months in advance, you may be in trouble.

The problem is broader than that: AS has no morning flight ATL-SEA after Jan. 8 that week. If it were just a problem on Jan. 11, travel on Jan. 10 or 12th might be offered.

Probably the best you can do is fly to SEA on the 10th and overnight, then take the morning flight to BZN. There is also a morning AA flight to LAX, then up to SEA and over to BZN on AS gets you in at 6:15pm without an overnight.

and if you do this, ask AS agent on the phone about a hotel benefit @ SEA. in the past with schedule changes like this AS has comped me a hotel. of course i have always been MVPG so not sure if that is due to status or if they do it for everyone.

Oh boy. So the only AS flight to ATL departs SEA at 6:55am. That's too early to connect from just about anywhere south of PDX.

So unless you live in Washington or Portland, AS can't get you to ATL in a single day.

Bingo. By killing the redeye, they've made ATL inaccessible for anyone other than PNW locals.

I know the redeye comes back in March (in theory) but this is very disappointing for people who actually need to get to ATL.

OP: See if they will re-accommodate you on AA. Probably not, but maybe worth a try.

Or as long as the OP is asking, ask for DL ATL-SEA. AS still has an interline agreement even if they're not partners.

AS service to ATL is a not surprising victim of the collapse of the DL partnership. Pretty much O&D traffic only on that end now versus feeding to DL connections at ATL plus DL's ramp up of their own frequency.

Thanks everyone. I plan to call today or tomorrow -- I'll try to get them to rebook my fam member on AA. The low-mileage cost ticket (when looking on AA.com) is NOT available, so I think chances are low that Alaska will book that. If they won't book AA, then I'll try DL. The worst they can do is say no.

I'll keep y'all posted about what happens.

This is the kind of crap that has been happening, and I have been vocal about. Alaska simply does NOT have the resources to cover the routes it has effectively - and the addition of Virgin America and new routes out of SFO has made things even worse.

You can thank CEO Brad Tilden for his misguided and ineffective management of the airline. CEO Tilden simply has simply overcommitted Alaska Airlines.

I feel for the original poster. In short, he's screwed.

+1. I live in FCA and now I can't catch the morning flight from SEA to ATL. FCA flight lands at SEA at 6:43am. SEA -> ATL takes off at 6:59am. Have been forced to move to UA to get from FCA to ATL (through DEN). Definitely a bummer.

I'm sure Brad Tilden is going to be very relieved to know you blame Dan!

Yep John, he's going to be relieved I typed in the wrong name. Oh well.

Yep John, he's going to be relieved I typed in the wrong name. Oh well.

If ATL doesn't support two flights a day, year round, why should AS commit to two flights a day? Seems like this is good aircraft utilization to me, exactly what we expect AS to do. As far as I can see the acquisition of VX has exactly nothing to do with it. I used to fly this route a lot and back then it was only one a day to ATL.