Itinerary change problem
 

I booked a ticket for my relative from RIC to LAS via DTW. The flight from RIC is to depart at 8pm on Dec 29 and she'd arrive in LAS at 12:13am. NW sent a mail saying the itinerary has changed and she will have to leave at 4pm and arrive LAS at 12:37am and will have to wait in DTW for 5 hours. I called them and was told that the 8pm flight is cancelled but they couldn't find anything later than 4pm and refused to put her on CO flights because of the type of the ticket. (The ticket costs only 415$). The only thing we can do is to change the DTW-LAS to an earlier flight so that she will stay in DTW for less than 2 hours. Has anyone had this problem before? Does it happen often?
Thanks..

I'd call back and ask for someone else. Although $415 is not a bargain-basement fare, we'll just assume that NW doesn't want to put you CO for whatever reason. Fine. I'd still think it possible for them to connect your relative through MSP or MEM (or both) and get her there sooner and/or avoid a 5-hour layover. So call back and ask about routing through a different hub.

NW doesn't fly from RIC to MSP or MEM. CO has flights from RIC to EWR, CLE and IAH (only once a day for IAH). I bought the ticket in August and they have just told me about the change last week. Thanks for your suggestion. I hope this won't happen often.

motnot, nlp has not given any indication that NW will not re-book this person on an earlier NW flight. That does not seem to offer a viable alternative for this person. But I do not understand the 5 hour layover at DTW. The 4:10 p.m. flight from RIC arrives DTW at 6:01 p.m. The legal connection would be NW's 7:25 p.m. flight to LAS arriving at 9:03 p.m. A 5 hour layover is not even considered a legal layover on a domestic routing. As to re-booking on CO, no, that is certainly not required of any airline to do when there is advance notification of a schedule change or flight cancellation.

What you describe is not at all uncommon, and rarely is the customer satisfied with the options offered. In a situation like this, the airline's only obligation is to offer alternatives on their own airline or offer a complete refund. In most cases, a refund isn't a viable option because the alternatives are more costly.

So my suggestion is to call back and ask to be re-routed on NW 1417 connecting to NW 1195. Now if they tell you that your fare class isn't available on 1195, that's when I'd raise a ruckus. They are absolutely obligated to re-route you that way if any coach seat is available.

[This message has been edited by Sheryl (edited 12-03-2000).]

Yes, I changed the DTW-LAS to the earlier flight that will arrive at 9:03pm already. My problem is that the 4:10pm flight is too early not too late. There's no need to check for an earlier flight. Northwest has a codeshare flight from RIC-CLE and CLE-LAS (operated by CO) but they refused to put my relative on these flights. Probably I'll get a refund and buy a new ticket with CO.