USVI-On-Line

I was checking my Delta flight itinerary on line for next April in order to add frequent flier miles and here is what I found for our trip that was booked as leaving on 4/15 and returning on 4/22-

Tues 4/15 6:00 BOS - ATL
Mon 4/14 9:55 ATL-STT

Wed 4/23 2:30 STT-ATL
Tues 4/22 8:10 ATL-BOS

The scary part is that I looked at it a least 3 times before I spotted the error.

After an hour on the phone with Delta and up past midnight, we are flying out on the 14th and back the 21st.

The Delta folks were pleasant and helpful. It seems they are cancelling some scheduled STT flights for next year already. The cancellation was "computerized" and the agent was dumbfounded why such nonsensical reassignment would be made.

Screwed up computer or not there is no excuse for not notifying me when any change is made to my flight itinerary.

Lesson learned: It may seem anal, but I guess it's up to us as travelers to regularly check our flights to make sure everything is square.

Been there ... I checked my november trip (booked tickets back in May or something) and found they had my original first leg with a whole new second leg, oh and by the way the layover in Atlanta was 28 hours! UM NO. Also, my return direct flight was no more.

They apparentely cancelled all Thursday flights to STT. Period. From anywhere. So they had us going out of IAD on Thursday, laying over until Friday in Atlanta and on to STT from there. We changed to a Wednesday flight. So now we are overnighting on STT but at least we aren't missing a day on STJ!

American canceled our direct BOS-STT flight in April and had us booked on a flight through SJU that didn't get in until 8:00 at night. They were very helpful when I called and moved us to a better flight (gets in at noon), but when I asked if we would have been notified of the change, the agent said "Oh, not until closer to the departure date".

Moral of the story, it pays to be obsessive about checking flights!

Question raised - why are these various carriers doing away with some of their STT routes?

pswlrw wrote:
Question raised - why are these various carriers doing away with some of their STT routes?

I had the same thought Paula... As you have noticed, there have been some fare wars lately and maybe the revenue equation isn't as attractive. Or maybe (wishful thinking) a new carrier, perhaps low cost, is testing the waters.

Well, I'm currently scheduled for Wed out and back flights in June on Delta (thanks to FF miles - good news is I got Skysaver, bad news is it's on Wed.). Oh well, I'll take it.

So, I did some checking. No Tuesday flights currently listed even through the winter, in season! But, they are listed in June - perhaps the schedule changes haven't gotten out that far yet?!? If they can't fill a Tuesday in Jan/Feb I doubt May/June will be more heavily traveled. They also used to run 2 flights fairly regularly in season (at least 2-3 years ago, not sure about last year), but I only found a day where that's the case over a several week period in Jan & Feb.

For a comparison, I also checked St. Maarten (SXM), where we went this past summer. IIRC they didn't fly on Tues or Wed (and maybe Thurs). Now they seem to be going on Sat. only.

My concern is that if they're cutting back and changing after they've taken reservations, it could be a problem for lodging reservations. If they would make a change and put me on other days, now what about the free hotel reservation I've got booked, it may no longer be possible to switch. Or a villa reservation I'm preparing to make, could be issues of availability and cancellation fees. I could see them saying fine, you can go on Thurs. or Fri on the flight, but it may screw up other plans I've made, and I'm sure it would be my problem, they're not going to help.

Not much I can do at this point, though I may hold off on the villa for a little while. At least the hotel can be cancelled no penalty. Maybe it was too good to be true - free plane tix, 1 week free at Marriott, then pay for a villa on StJ, get 2 weeks in USVI for price of one week in a villa plus car/food etc.

It does make me wonder if it's just Delta being more frugal, more competition, or are there fewer travelers, perhaps job losses, tapped out consumers, not booking trips?!?!?

So do your part and get out there and book Delta to STT (at least on 6/11 returning 6/25), to help me out

Our delta flights back in June were changed at least 3 times after we booked them in April. Luckilly it only amounted to a few minutes here and there. I've already booked AA for next June and will check on them in May. Hopefully there will be no unpleasant surprises!

This fascinating... I saw that USAIR doesn't run any flights on tuesdays and thursdays in the offseason until November I think. And the direct from PHL doesn't start until November either (and then I think only on Saturdays).

Seems that I remember reading that Delta will be flying into St. Kitts and Bonaire now so am sure that there will be more changes down the road since there are only x number of planes.
I remember once that AA switched our flight and split us up putting each us on completely different flights from each other!