air prices

[mcpenguin5]

Thanks. I appreciate your input. I wasn't sure if I would wind up going head-to-head with them if I called, and I hate doing that. I feel safer calling now.

[Lulu76]

I can't imagine they could do that. Some people park at the airport, and it'd be pretty inconvenient if you didn't end up where your car was at the end of the trip.

[mcpenguin5]

Thank you Gromet! I called, and it took a while. The rep I spoke with had to work with her supervisor to get it fixed, but they did it. American Airlines has been very nice with us (at least the reps have) about these things since all the shuffling started. The rep said that this shouldn't have been done in the first place, but they went out of their way to fix it. Now we are coming in to BWI again.
This is great, because I hate flying into Reagan. It is a small airport, and the runways are waaaay too short. The first and last flight I had with them, I found my forehead on my knees by the time the plane came to a stop when we landed, and I was sure we were going to crash into the terminal. I swore I would never fly there again. Now I don't have to.

[cocosmom]

You need to call and insist they fly you back to BWI. On our last trip to STJ we flew out of Reagan due to a much lower price. The night before they called and said the flight was cancelled due to not enough rest time for pilots They wanted us to go on a flight 2 hours earlier. We said no go and suggested BWI ( closer to home). They changed and then were dumb enough to think we would keep the returning flight to DCA. I said either you change it our you will transport us to our car at BWI. It took an hour to do all the changes, but I took my school teacher no nonsense voice & they did not give me any trouble.

[Gromit]

McPenguin-- glad things worked out. I didn't have the time to do all the research but I'm guessing that in the contract of carriage for a return ticket they are required to return you to the airport that you started at. Otehrwise they call it an "open jaw" ticket.

Some folks do these types of tickets on purpose. So for example you can fly into San Francisco but drive down the Pacific Coast highway to LA and then fly back home from LA. Sometimes these tix are cheaper, sometimes more expensive depending on where you're going.

Another thing folks have to be on the lookout for is your travel days and connections. Some folks have been shuffled around so that their connecting flights don't actually connect. In other words flught A gets in at 12 noon, but Flight B leaves at 11:00 am.

I fear that if we aren't dilligent and keep tabs on the flights that you could show up at the gate and be totally screwed -- as you would have been in this case. No doubt the airline's attitude would have been, "Oh Well, it's not that far just catch a cab and we'll reimburse you." No doubt you would have never seen your money again!

AND before you ask, no, I don't work for any airline and I'm not a travel agent. Just a HUGE travel junkie who happens to retain this kind of useless info.

Glad everything worked out. But it's a reminder to all to stay on top of this stuff!