CO Getting Nasty with Schedule Changes
 

In years of flying CO, CO has always been reasonable in handling schedule changes. Too short a connect, too long a connect, a delay in arrival time, and we always find a way to work something out.

Today I contact the Electronic Support Desk regarding a change -- they pushed my arrival time later, and downgraded a segment from mainline to an RJ. The agent saw my original schedule, saw the concern, and helped me find flights that actually shorten the route a bit, but preserve the equipment and times. She then tells me but she'd have to charge me the fare difference, but could waive the change fee!

I thought she was unclear that there was a schedule change, and she said she understood. but she said that she was not allowed to change the route. Turns out she was a supervisor, so I couldn't escalate. She told me I'd either have to follow the route of the original ticket (and what the computer gave me), or tough luck.

What's odd is that I asked about the possibility of an involuntary refund, and she said she would gladly refund my money. In other words, CO would rather give you your money back than rebook you on another flight.

Anyhow, I obviously was getting nowhere, so I thanked her, called We Care to ask about this (since the we'll refund you but not make a change rule seemed to not make sense), and the agent there researched it and came back with the same answer. She was more willing to help, though, but was constrained in what she was allowed to change.

So it seems that CO agents and supervisors have lost much of their ability to make changes after a schedule change.

What's odd, is that if I were to book the lowest-cost ticket between my city pairs today, that ticket is about $40 less than what I paid. I'm tempted to have them go through the motions of the invol refund and book that.

Anyone else experience new draconian schedule change policies? Did something perhaps change with the new year?

I haven't experienced this, but I'd definitely get them to refund the original ticket and repurchase at the lower fare!

channa: Any reason not to get the refund and purchase a new ticket all the while costing CO some revenue and saving some greenbacks for yourself? Is it because the flight offerings at the cheaper fare are not what you want?

3 weeks ago i had a schedule change on an itinerary i purchased for my 2 daughters and 2 friends flying ewr-mco for a wedding in march. i thought it fortuitous as they wanted to change their trips from the last flight of the night to the second flight the next morning. the csa said she could accommodate the 1st flight the next morning for no fee but not the 2nd. after my tale of being loyal, platinum, suffering co aircraft changes, delayed flights etc, etc, her response was, no. she waived the change fee but insisted on the fare difference. i relented as it was important to our schedule. when the process was finally complete she told me she would also waive the fare increase but in the future don't make a practice of it.
so, at times there is still may be a heart in this company.

I'd take the refund and rebook it :D

The main reason is I paid for part of the original ticket with a voucher, and I really don't feel like babysitting the refund process for a dual payment refund.

I have always found these strict policies nonsensical. You buy a ticket for a given flight and time with the assumption you will take that flight at that time. CO makes a change to suit their purposes, not yours, and then basically has a tough luck attitude.

I belive that if CO makes a schedule change then all bets should be off and they should do whatever they can to accomade you.

I do think I know what happening here/ This is one of those instances were "the computer won't let then change it." They havd designed a system to protect to so strictly protect fare buckets that there is no way to actually accomadate a pax who they have caused a problem for.

The fact that they'd rather return funds then make a customer happy seems backwards and not consistnet with an organization that is at least partially predicated on customer service.

Well, looks like they're at it again.

CO changed one of my flight departures by 8 hours (7am instead of 3pm), and we couldn't find anything at/near my departure time in my city pair (ROC-OAK). We found ROC-SFO that had a very similar schedule to what I originally booked, but the supervisor denied that, saying that a route change would require a refare. :rolleyes:

I'll try again later, but who's got time to bicker with them like this? An 8-hour schedule change is pretty egregious, and we tried in good faith to keep the markets the same. I didn't even suggest the alternate airport (which would have been fewer miles, a near guarantee of no upgrade, and a longer drive home) until we exhausted any other possibilities.

Wirelessly posted (HTCP4350-Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC))

8 hours and the agent wouldn't let you change the route to an alternative city pair?

:td: to that.

That is really unreasonable IMHO. It's not like they slightly misconnected you. They took almost an entire day off of your trip!

Classic CO "service"! I've said it before, CO is the most professional airline, but when it comes to helping you out, they never put any real effort into it.

Aren't SFO and OAK co-airports (and SJC)? They would quickly fly you into DAL instead of DFW and leave you so why can't you request to go to SFO instead of OAK when they are the same thing? ugh.

If this is truly CO's new policy, then it is simply asinine.

[Sarcasm]I truly hope they took time away from implementing changes such as filling middle seats from the back and creating elite priority standby to come up with this gem of a policy[/Sarcasm]

:td:

If this is a new policy then I agree CO really needs to rethink the intent and impact. :td: :td:

So let me see, we who purchase tickets are not readily able to make changes without penalty, but CO can change itineraries by a full business day at their will? That should go over well. Espescially when we can't even see our itineraries online to see if there is a schedule change. :mad:

as always, airlines feel free to make changes at their whim...but, god forbid you want a favor or two. ain't gonna happen.

i've had this debate with a revered member of the flyertalk community that disagrees with the practice of "mistake fares." he feels that people shouldn't take advantage of mistake fares. i, on the other hand, wholeheartedly believe in taking advantage because when I make a mistake, the airlines have no qualms with sticking it to me. so, why shouldn't i do the same?