AY1337

Hey guys, I wonder if anyone has insights on this.
I have booked & confirmed non-stop flights from Tokyo to Nadi (8h overnight) and from Nadi to Auckland in April (via Priceline).
I got an email from Priceline about a schedule change and found out that Fiji Airlines has rerouted me via Hong Kong as the direct flight I booked has been cancelled.
The new itinerary to NAN is now 10 hours longer, includes a 3,5 hour layover and a 5 and 10 hour flights which is *extremely* inconvenient.
I contacted them asking about a more reasonable routing, only to find out that the only remaining directs are two days before or after my planned travel, which doesn't work for me, so routing via HKG seems to be the only reasonable way to do it.
The airline isn't offering any kind of recourse about offering me a significantly worse service.
I wonder if there is anything I can do about it or do I just have to suck it up?
I realize that because they decided not to fly the flight I can't be on it, but I would expect a pretty serious compensation for wasting over ten hours of my life for operational reasons.

Mr. Vker

You can accept the new routing, work on a new routing, or get a refund. That's about it.

Hezu

And the rerouting options to/from NAN are bit slim: FJ is the only airline flying longhauls between NAN and airports in the northern hemisphere and given that FJ has just six A330s and about dozen routes where it uses those planes, that means none operates daily. Australian airlines and NZ provide some additional frequency to their hubs, but I guess that is not really helpful if that NRT-HKG-NAN route already sounds too time-consuming.

AY1337

Yeah. I guess I'm just pretty annoyed at the fact that an airline can just alter the deal we already made and tell me to suck it up and I just get the ...... end of the stick.

obscure2k

As this was a booking via Priceline, I am moving this thread to the Online Travel Booking Forum
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Icecat

KE operates three times a week from ICN operating a 332 with a departure of 1725hrs KST.

SK AAR

If the new itinerary is unacceptable, ask for a full refund and book elsewhere.

AY1337

I would love to. Unfortunately there's pretty much no other options that are realistic and even semi-working ones would add a zero to the original price.

SK AAR

OK - so if the new itinerary is the best possible and you don't want to cancel, there is nothing more you can ask for.

AY1337

So it seems. If I'd alter the contents of a contract after signing it and tell my clients to take it or suck it, they'd sue the balls off of me.

Often1

Which particular provision of the contract was altered?

If you read the document, you will see that no such thing occurred and thus no reason to sue anybody or anything.

As OP himself acknowledges, there is no better option that what he now has. Accordingly, his choices are to cancel for a refund or fly the reroute.

AY1337

I'm the OP. The carrier cancelled the flight they sold me a ticket on for operational purposes and rerouted me with a significantly shittier route - "take it or suck it"
If I did that in my day job, I'd be sued to oblivion.
I.e. they couldn't sell the tickets or know how to run that flight with profit and I get to be the sucker

Often1

An odd day job where you have a contract which expressly provides for what the carrier did here, yet you could still be "sued to oblivion". In what country and what form of contract?

AY1337

This is turning into a useless piece of .... thread, but just to reiterate
I paid for a service. That service was cancelled (very obviously because of "money" reasons). I was given an inferior service for the same price and told me that it's that or nothing, I have no recourse. I think it sucks.

Often1

That makes much more sense. The question was why you thought you could be -- presumably successfully -- "sued to oblivion"

For what it is worth, the FJ contract provision is largely the same as pretty much all IATA carriers.