Flight Canceled / Changed
 

What do you do when the airlines calls you on the phone to give you a recorded message about your new itinery. This morning Delta called and moved me to a noon flight instead of 1:47 out of MIA to MDW forget that it will cause a long DTW layover, But it will be cutting it real close to make the plane from the cruise ship.

Do I have any rights or recourse?

(UA did it from PSP to me, taking me off a covented nonstop, into ORD and sending me through SFO. So I paid well in advance for a nonstop only to get a connecting flight after the fares soared on AA for the same day depatture. Again customer service was like hey, we dont really care.)

For the auto rebook, the computer will try to find the "best" match. If that doesn't work best for you, call them and they will work with you. Best to research possible flights before you call, and propose those flights to them.

I'm seeing a couple of routes thru ATL one at 1:30 and another at 3:00. Some specifics on dates would help to see what might be available. How many are traveling?

I thought there was a, hugely-beneficial, rule that allows passengers to get on any flight, if there booked flight is changed.

I did something along these lines on an award flight.

Call, call, call. Schedule changes happen all the time, and changing them over the phone is no big deal.

In fact, I was just able to change a United flight for free that hadn't even been changed by them - the departure flight was changed by them, return flight wasn't, but the phone rep said "I'd be happy to change your return as well."

+1 - The key is to have the alternative you want ready to read off to the CSR. Just calling to complain that something doesn't work isn't going to fix the problem. The tentative rebook is simply the most likely available rebook. It works for most people so it's a proactive thing for the carrier to do. But, if it doesn't work for you, call and ask for what you want.

Agreed, they will often be extremely flexible in cases of schedule change, but it helps to know what you want. Last year my wife was flying AMS-ATL-RDU, they moved the ATL flight to be a half-hour later (arriving RDU after midnight) and I was able to get them to re-route her through BOS and save her over two hours.