UGH...Third major schedule change...

[Berlingirl]

Background to my vent...

Booked our air out of our hometown and bit the bullet and bought 5 tickets for our one week, Saturday to Saturday. It's April school vacation in New England. If you dont' book weekend to weekend when it's first available, you don't get it. We have three adult work schedules and two school kids in our party of five. Not flexible. The following are our changes in the past 6 or so months.

1st. Airline from our town to JFK had flight schedule change...caused complete misconnect on the outbound. Had to reschedule to nearest town which is 90 miles away that would work with the existing itinerary. Problem...five seats unavailable on Saturday. Ok, if it means we'll get to go on our trip, we'll leave home at 130A and drive 2 hours for 545a departure on Friday prior. One day earlier. Ok...now need accomodation Friday night in USVI. Our property is booked on STJ so need to book hotel for five. Not easy. Not cheap.

2nd. I am checking air record a few months later and find another schedule change...flights back to original time from original destination. What??? Call airline, they can do rebook, however still have to stay with Friday to Saturday. No inventory on Saturday period. Ok...happy, get to sleep night prior to trip and leave from home. Very happy. Now have one night on STT booked and have paid for it. It was painful, but decided it was a benefit and am getting another day vaca.

3rd. Checking again this Monday and find major disappointment. Airline has cancelled all JFK flights from my town. They (their computers) booked us in and out of LGA...with 35 minute connect on outbound and complete misconnect on return. Can't fly back to our town period. Schedule is not going to work. Call airline. Reps first words were...NOT happening. Umm...I know that!!
Options limited to nonexistant at this point.
Only option now if we want to go on trip.(Have paid hefty deposit on STJ villa and will incur loss if cancelled.) So we are back to town 90 miles away. Now, need to leave evening before. This town lost their JFK flights also. So we have to leave Thursday, drive 2 hours, fly to LGA. Taxi to JFK. Spend the night. We need another two rooms at JFK. Not happy with this...but we will make the nonstop direct flight from JFK to STT in the morning. The benefit will be we get to go on vacation.

Just venting...I am after all a travel agent, have been for 22 years...I do have access to the Executive airline desk. (yes, airlines do have them). I do know how to work out the alternatives fairly quickly.
Didn't want a refund, nothing to rebook period.
April is only time frame that works for our schedules. Missing work and school now..well, will have to deal with that down the road...not thinking about it right now...

Fyi...airline was Delta btw, really doesn't matter, they all have sched changes. One isn't better than another. I do miss the old days...when getting to the airport was the start of the vacation. Plus back then we had the benefits of discounted flights, hotel rooms, etc...times have changed.
But I've managed to keep the vacation on tract... , my sanity...well I do miss it sometimes...

[liamsaunt]

Wow, that is awful! I am so sorry. That April vacation week is tough for flights. John and I looked into that week when we booked a couple of weeks ago and the flights from BOS were around $1K. We moved one week later and got flights for $259. With kids, that flexibility is not there, I know.

I hope your trip is absolutely wonderful and worth all the hassle!

[NCSue]

We have a saying in our family - we truly must suffer for our vacations! It will make your beautiful, wonderful week on St. John all the more sweet! I know - doesn't help now. Good luck!

[BillVT]

We feel your pain. We had booked a one stopper out of our hometown for late March in July. We have a timeshare so our weeks are fixed also. We booked through Orbitz and got a notice of a schedule change. Twenty minutes between flights. Impossible.

Orbitz rep checked and could only find a 3 or 4 stopper and suggested sitting on it for a month or two to see if it changed again. I tried to get Orbitz to book me on another one stopper on a different airline for the same price but our mutual friends at Delta wouldn't go along. Watched flights and when a two stopper out and a one stopper back on Delta showed up I bailed out and took it.

I wrote Delta about my displeasure and accused them of a bait & switch. I know, I was just trying to make a point. We've had schedule changes before but this was the first time we had been bounced from a flight. For some reason I think this year has been special. Hope things work out for you and hopefully things will get better next year.

[tipsy]

berlingirl, so sorry about your flt screw ups. All the airlines are playing w/schedules,cutting way back on non-stops and flt times. Beware of AA right now, have a friend who works for them at JFK and there is going to be hundreds of pilots layed off this yr. which means a trickle down effect for all employees and flts.

if need a hotel by JFK, we stayed at the Best Western once, it's nice,clean and for a quick one night stay is convenient and reasonable $. have free shuttles to the airport. Free continental breakfast too.

We're flying out of jfk on 4/17 on delta Flt #503 non-stop.

Just keep thinking of where you're going to end up and it will all be worth it.

[loria]

that really stinks. FWIW, there is a shuttle bus (13$ per person--and you will NOT be able to get 5 people in a cab so you'd need two cab which would be as much as $35 (with tip) or more if there is a huge amount of traffic plus their lovely surcharge if you are going in the evening ) --I think the newyork airport service MIGHT discount kids and MIGHT discount groups. look for them at www.nyairportservice.com

[Berlingirl]

Thanks Liamsaunt...we usually do fly out of Boston, however it adds a good two days to the trip for us as well as the additional travel and hotel expense. Usually because the fare is so much lower than our hometown we were still better off. Wish I'd stuck with Boston...would've changed, but not cancelled. You got a great fare btw!!!!

NCSue...yes, we must suffer for our USVI vacations and the airlines are most assuredly doing their part!

BillVt...any response back from Delta??? I thought about writing also...briefly,then I thought they'd look at the flights they rebooked us on that return which is completely overbooked and oversold and they'd change their minds and make us take a refund...don't want to tempt fate? (we do have seat assignments so we're ok...)

Tipsy...we were orginally booked on that April 17th nonstop back last year, that changed the first schedule change...

Loria...thank you for your suggestions, I'm going to check the website out. This latest change has put us way over the top of our budget...we'd strained to even make it happen period. We just feel like if it's our last USVI vaca at least the whole family will be able to have enjoyed it.

Thanks for kind words.

[Agent99]

Berlingirl, that's happened to us in years past and is so frustrating. The warnings about AA are also well taken. We booked early last year for our school vacation week, and naturally paid a little more to get a direct flight to STT from Logan so that we wouldn't lose a valuable day in travel. Sure enough, several weeks before travel AA pulled the direct flight that would have had us there by early afternoon and redirected us onto a connecting flight that would have had us arrive late in the evening with a 7 some odd hour layover.

By then it was too late to switch to another airline because it was school vacation week. Maddening!!! I eventually became such a PIA to them that they agreed to book us a day earlier....still a connecting flight but one that arrived earlier in the day. We then stayed on STT that night. We had to take the kids out a day early. Still cost more $$.

Now we book a Jet Blue flight from Logan to SJU and take Cape Air to STT. (They run every hour). Far more reliable than AA and more comfortable and you arrive in the early afternoon.

[tipsy]

berlingirl, hang in there. are you coming to the Beach Bar on Sunday the 18th for VIOL members meet? If so, please allow us to buy you a drink to ease the aggravation of all you went thru to get to STJ..

BTW, just got a change notice from Delta for our flts. Landing at STT 10 min. earlier & leaving 10 min earlier. Why? only the airplane Gods know. What diff. does 10 min make? It's a non-stop.. Not even going to try to figure this one out.

[surfnh]

That's a total bummer. We fly out of Manchester with connections on USAir each year, get into STT around 11:30am. We always book early, and USAir typically changes the flight times a few times after we book, but the times never screw us up....they are always just small adjustments.

I will say, when we vacation in winter with snow risk, we always do direct flights to San Juan from Boston to reduce the risk.

best of luck.....JF

[BillVT]

Here is the reply we got from Delta. My complaint email was firm but polite in hopes that maybe somewhere along the line we might get upgraded. Yes, I have a vivid and vital fantasy life.

"Thank you for your e-mail. We appreciate your comments.

I am truly sorry for the inconvenience you were caused due to our schedule change and clearly understand your frustration. Feedback like you have provided will help us to improve our overall customer
experience. Be assured I will be sharing your comments with our NetworkPlanning and Analysis leadership team for their future consideration
with flight changes in this market. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience.
Again, thank you for writing. Please accept our apology for the circumstances you described. Your comments are appreciated since this is one of the best ways we have of knowing which areas need additional
attention. We hope you will continue to make Delta your airline of choice."

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

We are so glad that we were of such help to Delta.

[tipsy]

Billvt, well that helped you alot now didn't it?

And we all know that Delta will think of your email and inconveniences before they make flt changes again to other passengers.

Just keep thinking of where you're going to be at the end of the trip and that will make it all worthwhile..

See you at the Beach Bar,remember we want to buy you a drink to celebrate your "surviving" the frustration.