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Why so many flight time changes on LAX- SEA route in Jan?

Why so many flight time changes on LAX- SEA route in Jan?

Old Sep 6, 2019, 4:52 pm
  #1  
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Angry Why so many flight time changes on LAX- SEA route in Jan?

I was booked on a flight scheduled to depart LAX at 9 and arrive in SEA at 1140. This is in Jan . I then have a connecting flight on Icelandair to KEF at 1430. I figured I would have no problem with the connection. Then Alaska changed the departure to 945 with an arrival of 1245 making me very anxious about that connection. My feeling that less than 2 hours for an international flight is cutting it to close. When I called Alaska to change to an earlier flight...730(ouch) they wanted me to pay both the fare difference and a change fee. I complained enough that she waived the change fee. Does anyone have any information why all these flights are being changed and about having to pay the change fee because of their changes? Now that I have 4 hours what lounges are available to me. I have a Priority pass available to me.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 5:01 pm
  #2  
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Schedule changes many months in advance are nothing new, and common with just about every airline. What is unusual is when an agent does not provide flexibility for rebooking if the new flight time is not satisfactory.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 5:13 pm
  #3  
 
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Originally Posted by Srklaw7
Now that I have 4 hours what lounges are available to me. I have a Priority pass available to me.
Assuming you're not flying in F. You have the Club at SEA and a new priority pass restaurant in the N terminal.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 5:16 pm
  #4  
 
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If flying paid F, you have access to the Alaska lounge(s) in LAX and SEA. If you have the Alaska Visa Card, $25 will get you into both LAX and SEA.
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Old Sep 6, 2019, 5:22 pm
  #5  
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Originally Posted by safari ari
Assuming you're not flying in F. You have the Club at SEA and a new priority pass restaurant in the N terminal.
There are 2 "The Club" - one way down A, and one in S. They are placing a three hour prior to flight departure restriction on entry.
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Old Sep 9, 2019, 12:19 am
  #6  
 
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Did you pay the fare difference? Call back and reference Rule 8, and ask for a refund. If the rep refuses, request an escalation to a supervisor. A delay of more than 60 minutes on arrival, among other conditions, constitutes a schedule change.

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/le...arriage/rule-8

When a ticketed, confirmed Passenger will be delayed because of a change in Alaska's schedule as defined in Rule 1 (Schedule Change), Alaska will arrange to:
  1. Transport the Passenger to his/her destination or next ticketed Stopover point on another Alaska flight on which space is available in the same or higher class of service than reflected on the Passenger's Ticket at no additional charge;
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Old Sep 9, 2019, 2:58 pm
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Sounds like OP was able to get them to waive the demand to pay the fee but I'm surprised he had to complain at all. Even if the full flight with the FI segment is not on a single itinerary, the change was created by AS. I always thought it was the policy that if they change your flight which results in a delayed arrival time, you could either get a full refund or a "free" change to an earlier flight - even if you don't have status.
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Old Sep 9, 2019, 5:37 pm
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I had to threaten to go to a supervisor to get AS to waive the change fee but the fare difference was only $10 and I was to worn out to fight over the $10. My error.
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Old Sep 9, 2019, 9:35 pm
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Originally Posted by nearlysober
Sounds like OP was able to get them to waive the demand to pay the fee but I'm surprised he had to complain at all. Even if the full flight with the FI segment is not on a single itinerary, the change was created by AS. I always thought it was the policy that if they change your flight which results in a delayed arrival time, you could either get a full refund or a "free" change to an earlier flight - even if you don't have status.
Schedule change for those options on AS per their CoC is

Schedule Change means:

The cancellation of a scheduled flight where no Alaska flight of comparable routing is available within sixty (60) minutes of the original time of departure; or
A change in the scheduled departure time of an Alaska flight which exceeds sixty (60) minutes; or
A change in the routing of a scheduled Alaska flight which adds one (1) or more stops to the original itinerary; or
A change in the routing of an Alaska scheduled flight that results in a scheduled arrival time more than sixty (60) minutes later than the original scheduled arrival time; or
Any change in the arrival time of an Alaska flight that results in a misconnection to any flight shown in the same reservation and Ticket.
Beyond those, a rep may waive the change fee & fare difference based on status or other factors, but it's not required. If it does fall under any of those though like the OP's case, AS' CoC for schedule change absolutely applies.

Originally Posted by Srklaw7
I had to threaten to go to a supervisor to get AS to waive the change fee but the fare difference was only $10 and I was to worn out to fight over the $10. My error.
I totally understand the weariness of dealing with those situations, but if you feel up for it later, please do send a quick note to Customer Care va the Contact Us page and ask them to follow up with the rep. You shouldn't have to do that to get them to follow their own rules.
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Old Sep 9, 2019, 10:02 pm
  #10  
 
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I understand that with an international connection it's tough to take chances and wait, but I bet that's not the last change taking place with flight times this far out. I can easily see your original flight going back to its original time or something close to it and you'll be stuck with the 7:30 AM departure and a long connection. It's happened to me with flights moving up in time with AS, I change to the late flight as the only feasible option and then a couple of months later my original departure comes back and I'm stuck with the late flight, paying the fare difference or waiting for an SDC and praying I don't get stuck in a middle seat...
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Old Sep 10, 2019, 11:23 am
  #11  
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Originally Posted by halamadrid
I understand that with an international connection it's tough to take chances and wait, but I bet that's not the last change taking place with flight times this far out. I can easily see your original flight going back to its original time or something close to it and you'll be stuck with the 7:30 AM departure and a long connection. It's happened to me with flights moving up in time with AS, I change to the late flight as the only feasible option and then a couple of months later my original departure comes back and I'm stuck with the late flight, paying the fare difference or waiting for an SDC and praying I don't get stuck in a middle seat...
if AS changes the schedule again (by more than 60/90 min) you would presumably get another free change ...
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Old Sep 10, 2019, 12:25 pm
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Originally Posted by jrl767
if AS changes the schedule again (by more than 60/90 min) you would presumably get another free change ...
And even if the new flight didn't reschedule but the old one did (and is again a legal connect and a schedule you're comfortable with), you could still ask if they would put you back on your originally purchased flight. After all, the reason for the first flight change was due to AS' schedule change not a customer driven request.
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Old Sep 11, 2019, 11:54 am
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Originally Posted by jrl767
if AS changes the schedule again (by more than 60/90 min) you would presumably get another free change ...
I understand that, but what I meant was changing from original flight which started at 6PM but is now at 5PM to a different flight at 9PM. Two months later the 5PM flight now becomes a 5:50PM flight, but now I'm in the 9PM flight and that flight hasn't had any schedule change.

Originally Posted by rustykettel
And even if the new flight didn't reschedule but the old one did (and is again a legal connect and a schedule you're comfortable with), you could still ask if they would put you back on your originally purchased flight. After all, the reason for the first flight change was due to AS' schedule change not a customer driven request.
I've done this in the past, but the problem is that unless you are constantly watching at this point since you are now in a new flight you're not notified of the schedule change. With the amount of flights on my schedule it's difficult to continue to keep track on flights I'm no longer on. What happens is that I normally change my schedule to find ways to use the extra time (add extra meeting that's perhaps not needed) and resign to just leave later in the day and only notice the change I describe above when doing a SDC and see the changes to the original flight.

What I do now is that when I get a schedule change alert is I just wait it out since I can always change to the late flight for free, and those flights do not fill up as quickly. If it seems like the schedule is going to stick to the earlier departure about a month out I call and make the change to the late flight.
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