Not!
 

It is their JOB. Extra work has nothing to do with it, but the lazy idiots don't get that. :td:

Sounds like CO is turning into DL with regard to schedule changes.

Well with Carriers last week annoucing that they are sending some of their Birds out to the desert and reducing capacity due to Fuel Costs. I think we are gonna be seeing alot more in the way of schedule changes and aircraft changes.

Thats besides Carriers announcing they no longer will be serving XYZ. Its gonna get alot uglier before it gets any better.

RULE 24 FLIGHT DELAYS/CANCELLATIONS/AIRCRAFT CHANGES (revised December 7, 2007)

C) Change in Schedule - When a Passenger’s Ticketed flight is affected because of a Change in Schedule, CO will, at its
election arrange one of the following:

1) Transport the Passenger on its own flights, subject to availability, to the Destination, next Stopover point, or transfer point shown on its portion of the Ticket, without Stopover in the same class of service, at no additional
cost to the Passenger, provided that a Passenger who paid a Coach fare will only be transported on a flight in First Class or Business First Class Service subject to seat availability and if such flight will provide an earlier arrival
than CO’s next flight on which coach space is available;

2) Reroute Passengers over the lines of one or more carriers when a Change in Schedule results in the cancellation of all CO service between two cities;

3) Advise the Passenger that the value of his or her Ticket may be applied toward future travel on Continental within one year from the date of issue without a change or reissue fee; or

4) Provide a refund in accordance with Rule 27 A) if the Passenger is not transported as provided in C) 1) or 2) above and does not choose to apply the value of his or her Ticket toward future travel as provided in C) 3) above.

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...2008031001.pdf

"2) Reroute Passengers over the lines of one or more carriers when a Change in Schedule results in the cancellation of all CO service between two cities"

According to the Supervisor I just spoke with, the interpretation is that this DOES NOT mean there is no cost difference. In my case, Change in Schedule where CO does not have another flight within 24hrs of when I need to fly, they want to charge me 3 times the roundtrip rate to book the departure leg w/ DL.

You know, this is really getting out of control. Perhaps we ought to start filling in a DOT complaint form every time CO tires to jerk us around like this with a schedule change.

Looks like CO is now getting a bit ballsy with changes.

I had a 12 noon flight departing SFO with a connection in IAH. My connecting flight is now running much earlier.

What does CO do? Rebooks me to an 8:00 a.m. departure to meet my newly scheduled connection, reissues the ticket, and shoots me an email. No call, nothing. That's right, four (4) hours earlier, and they don't even call to ask if that's ok?

A similar thing happened to me with DL (but only 1:40 change), and they called to check.

I have a schedule change on my HNL-IAH flt. It is about 45 min earlier, not too much, but I have a connection to HNL that I purchased separately from HA, which I am now going to have to pay a change fee to change to an earlier time in order to make the HNL-IAH flt. Wouldnt have known either, but since I check my res. and seats often I saw the schedule change.

All Airlines Are Getting Nasty
 

DL, US and CO never call me to check. I check my reservations once a week for changes. DL changes schedules as much as I change my socks, but the DL times for me are always within 30 minutes. US was bad but I no longer fly them. I had two problems with CO this year. On one change they gave me just about 1 hour to connect to an AF flight in EWR, when as a matter of policy I won’t connect international in EWR without at least 2 hours. They did not want to put me on the earlier flight because the same fare class was not available. I sent in a letter and got the earlier flight.

This week, on a CO Business award to CAI, Air France canceled a segment. I called CO. They wanted to put me in coach to EWR on an 8AM flight to connect to the AF 7:10 PM from EWR-CDG. I use KVS to find seats. NW had 9 first class award seats on the FLL-DTW nonstop leaving at 11:03 AM, and AF had the two available business seats from DTW-CDG leaving at 6:50 pm. I only needed two seats. The 5 hour layover in DTW is better than the 8 hour layover in EWR. If I was not able to find available business seats with KVS, would I have been forced to fly in coach?

In the old days CO would have opened up the inventory on the 1:41 PM FLL-EWR, giving a 2:10 layover in EWR to connect to the AF flight to CDG which had two award business seats.

AF having canceled the segment that caused the problem, should have opened the award inventory on the MIA-CDG nonstop leaving at 5:40 PM. AF generally opens up the award business inventory on that MIA-CDG nonstop flight about 7-10 days before the flight. I think now I will have to pay $150 a ticket if I want to change to the nonstop if the business class award inventory opens up in November. If you are going from 2 flights to one flight you would think the change fee would be less, because it would seem that CO would be charged less for 1 AF flight than it would for 1 AF TATL flight plus 1 NW domestic flight?

On the DL board there is that post about the honeymoon situation.

Delta Cancels Flight for Honeymoon

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...589&highlight=

We need a general definitive thread on re-routing rights to cope with the massive flight cuts coming in the fall and the re-routing that will result. This is not just a CO issue and in the end CO has generally been better to me than the others.

Over the past few years the airlines have suggested to me when using awards, that I buy a domestic ticket to an international gateway.

As part of the "fall schedule massacre" I had a Saturday morning CO STL-CLE flight changed to Sunday evening.
No call or email.

Called CO and was re-routed STL-IAH-CLE on Saturday.

I'm not sure what your problem is. If you don't like the alternative they pre-chose for you, then call them and they'll be more than happy to accommodate you on alternative flights. Honestly, I'm impressed you actually got an email. That hasn't always happened with me.

There are two CO-operated HNL-IAH flights. Are you already on the second one? If not, having CO switch you to the second one may solve your problem.

Alternatively, HA may be willing to switch you to an earlier flight at no charge given that you will otherwise misconnect due to circumstances beyond your control. In my experience, in situations such as this, where one airline's schedule change impacts a separately purchased connecting flight on another airline, usually one or both airlines are very cooperative in rendering assistance if you get the right agent and explain the dilemma.

I regularly review my reservations on-line so I don't need a phone call or e-mail. But what I don't like is the battle when I call in. If the same booking class is not available, I generally get from all airlines -

Do you want a refund?

You will make your connection. (even if it is in a different terminal with separate security)

If it is a business award - Well we have coach seats at 8AM, that will only give you an 8 hour layover. Or - you may want to buy a ticket to the international gateway.

If the ticket is booked or purchased, the airlines should go out of their way to accommodate you.

I have been able to resolve my issues, but it should not be a battle.

I always liked US Airways, they would re-schedule you to a flight that arrives 2 hours after their connecting flight departed.

With all the schedule reductions, maybe CO is getting friendlier.

I had two recent experiences with CO that went well:

1. SJC/OAK reductions, managed to get any comparable flights into/out of SFO without hassle or any "booking class" or "refare" nonsense.

2. Had a 12 noon flight that got pushed to 8am, which I couldn't make. Problem was the return was on a separate PNR. Only option was fly NWA around the original time. Supervisor was able to invol refund both records, but first apologized for not being able to find a suitable CO flight for me.


So I'm not sure if they're consciously being nicer, or they're just too tired to fight with all the schedule changes that have been happening, but in the end it's a net better customer experience. ^

I had a similar situation on Air France in June, but using Delta miles to book J award ticket. Air France initially rebooked me on the prior day's JNB-CDG flight (which had saver availability), but they agreed to "open up" an alternate JNB-CDG flight at the urging of the Delta platinum desk. So it can be done, if the ticketing carrier makes an effort.