Dick Ginkowski

I usually have the panicky feeling and then see it's a six-minute change. But then there are times when it's more severe. Best one for me is booking the inaugural MKE-SEA flight on the day it was announced. Weeks later I get the Saturday night massacre message that I was rebooked onto two flights. I called the Plat line and the agent said it was cancelled. I said that's weird because it was an announced service inauguration and they usually have a launch party, etc. A couple of hours later I called back and got a more knowledgable agent who pulled up the press release and also thought it was weird. So she called operations and was told they didn't have a plane! Then we saw the MKE-SEA nonstop was in the schedule for the following day. Turns out whoever did the press release made a goof and put the wrong date in it. The plane was added to the schedule and tickets were sold, etc. Then operations discovered the error and just "corrected it" without telling anyone. DL rebooked me for the inaugural flight on the next day once we figured out what happened. Seeing how messed up that got something prompted me to drop a dime on MKE airport operations. Turns out nobody at DL let them know of the date change and they were geared up for the rollout party on the wrong day!

Dick Ginkowski

Even worse is when you get that one after landing!

jrl767

yes; the "..." after "record locator XXXXXX" is literally a long pause to wait for the phone agent to confirm they're looking at the same itinerary, which I take to mean they can see the schedule change notification

jrl767

imo the idea -- even for vacation travel -- is to book flights you're actually willing to take, whether or not they're the ideal ones; that way you retain a degree of flexibility in the near-inevitable event of schedule changes

Duke787

+1. Can be especially helpful on award tickets when you book a cheaper (or cheapest) mileage option with a less convenient schedule. Schedule change can be a great opportunity to move onto the more direct/convenient option without an add/collect.

Thinking specifically of Europe where the cheaper options usually require you to flow via AMS or CDG instead of taking the direct from secondary European cities.

danielonn

If the change is very significant as in I won't make my connection then I call Delta. If not I will then just let it be. To me 3 minutes more or less is not a major deal. If I will miss my connection then of course I will switch to a new flight or if it means I will miss an important event.

Gig103

Yeah, that thread helped me when I had a significant change in the not-so-distant past. So when I have had a second one in a month I was like "WHAT NOW?!"

Interesting FT'er perspective of liking the changes to get 'better' routes that might have cost more originally.

NZLMAN

I'm always willing to take whatever flight I originally book, however it doesn't always mean it's ideal. I recently booked a YYZ-China round trip for USD2200 in D1 with 2 connections on the way home, but as I am actually closer to DTW I would have preferred the direct from there, yet it was USD7000. After schedule changes I was able to get direct DTW-China. 12+ more hours with my family is a good thing!

Cledaybuck

Not if you are going somewhere with one flight a day and your connection has just been busted or they have decided not to operate your non stop flight that day.

mot29

Opportunity, sometimes positive with no action on my part, sometimes not, but almost always manageable.
Most recent was with the return on an award flight to PRG. The non-stop will be starting later next spring. DL rebooked me to another afternoon flight from PRG (I really didn't want the 6 am departure connecting in AMS or CDG). And I get to fly on the KL 747 from AMS-JFK, and even booked me into 1A, one of the only 2 window seats with aisle access on KL 747.

DiverDave

That story is worthy of its own thread.

David

3Cforme

No carrier promises to operate every flight, every day. Some routes are going to get busted. If you can't live with that, pick origin and destination wisely - or charter.

DiverDave

Panic? Not so much.

Drool? Usually.

David

The Situation

No reason to worry - you should be excited. If you have a change of an hour or more, its your golden ticket to the best equipment, routing and timing of the day! Just call up, have the flight #s you want to be on handy and Delta will fix it for free.

LoganFlyer

Depends on whether partner airlines are involved. If I have a purely DL ticket, I love seeing the schedule change notification (or better yet, getting the notification from ExpertFlyer, so I don't even have to check the DL website!) But if there's a partner airline involved, especially if it's an award ticket, then I can get a little nervous. For example, I have an upcoming award ticket to BKK that I put together very carefully on a combo of DL & KE. When I see schedule changes on that, I get nervous because if I can't make the KE flight I'm confirmed on, there's no guarantee DL can put me on a different KE flight. DL can't force KE to open award space on other flights and KE is notoriously stingy in releasing partner award space.