American Airlines and Flight changes are STRESSING ME OUT!

[imktdqt810]

Our flights from May 2020 were rebooked in Oct 2020 for June 2021 flights! Everything has been quiet and I have been randomly going in AA to look if any seats have opened up to move closer to the front of the plane. Sunday night I got an "Alert" that our flights from Home to Charlotte and Charlotte to Orlando have been changed. From leaving at 10:30am and arriving into Orlando at 3:15 pm (with layover) AA changed us to leaving at 5:05AM and arriving in Orlando at 7:40 PM with a 10 hour lay over in Charlotte. I was like..NOPE! I researched a better flight and found something close to our original (leaving at 11 and in at 3:00pm with a shorter layover). I called AA Sunday night when the email came in and my "researcher hat went on" to have the automation tell me the call back would be 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours. I said NOPE again and called at 6:30 am the next morning and talked to someone. She got us on the better flight and was still able to keep the 3 of us together on both flights. Today (this morning at 10:30) I get ANOTHER flight change alert, this time it was for our return flight home. Same saga.....huge 11 hour lay over that time. I was put into the call back queue and got the call back 4 hours later. We got on better flights but not as great as our original and we get home in the evening and not afternoon. But here is the kicker, they couldn't assign us seats on our 2nd leg because the ONLY thing open was all preferred seating and I had to go online to book those preferred seats (and pay more money). But there was no other flight option home that day less then a 3 hour lay over. The agent ALSO told me that since we are about 6 weeks out from our flight she "suggested I get back to keeping an eye daily on my flight and don't rely on the email alerts since those are auto populated to go out to everyone on the flight when there is a change in flights". So now I am a nervous-nilly getting stressed out over the flights and HOPING we can stay on the ones we have and not get any more flight changes. Thank you, thank you all for letting me type down my thoughts and rant a bit. If I so much as mention this to DH his knee jerk response is "Cancel the whole dang trip, Disney is TOO expensive anyways". So I'm zip-lipped!

 

[GBRforWDW]

Our flights from May 2020 were rebooked in Oct 2020 for June 2021 flights! Everything has been quiet and I have been randomly going in AA to look if any seats have opened up to move closer to the front of the plane. Sunday night I got an "Alert" that our flights from Home to Charlotte and Charlotte to Orlando have been changed. From leaving at 10:30am and arriving into Orlando at 3:15 pm (with layover) AA changed us to leaving at 5:05AM and arriving in Orlando at 7:40 PM with a 10 hour lay over in Charlotte. I was like..NOPE! I researched a better flight and found something close to our original (leaving at 11 and in at 3:00pm with a shorter layover). I called AA Sunday night when the email came in and my "researcher hat went on" to have the automation tell me the call back would be 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours. I said NOPE again and called at 6:30 am the next morning and talked to someone. She got us on the better flight and was still able to keep the 3 of us together on both flights. Today (this morning at 10:30) I get ANOTHER flight change alert, this time it was for our return flight home. Same saga.....huge 11 hour lay over that time. I was put into the call back queue and got the call back 4 hours later. We got on better flights but not as great as our original and we get home in the evening and not afternoon. But here is the kicker, they couldn't assign us seats on our 2nd leg because the ONLY thing open was all preferred seating and I had to go online to book those preferred seats (and pay more money). But there was no other flight option home that day less then a 3 hour lay over. The agent ALSO told me that since we are about 6 weeks out from our flight she "suggested I get back to keeping an eye daily on my flight and don't rely on the email alerts since those are auto populated to go out to everyone on the flight when there is a change in flights". So now I am a nervous-nilly getting stressed out over the flights and HOPING we can stay on the ones we have and not get any more flight changes. Thank you, thank you all for letting me type down my thoughts and rant a bit. If I so much as mention this to DH his knee jerk response is "Cancel the whole dang trip, Disney is TOO expensive anyways". So I'm zip-lipped!

I kept dealing with that with our January flight return home on Delta. I purposely picked a 10am flight or later so we weren't having to get up at 4 or 5am to return home. Our trip in 2018 had us up at 230 and I was like never again.

Anyway, after they moved us forward, I pushed back to 11, they moved forward again and I pushed back to noon, they pushed forward again and I pushed back to 1. Fortunately this one stuck. The next later flights had returns getting in at 10pm and we had work and school the next day so really didn't want to do that, but would have been better than waking up early. I had also pushed my Topolinos reservation back to 930 when I got the 1pm flight, so really didn't want any earlier flight.

anyway, good luck to you. I know the struggle and it is real. Lol.

 

[happiestgrl]

Our flights from May 2020 were rebooked in Oct 2020 for June 2021 flights! Everything has been quiet and I have been randomly going in AA to look if any seats have opened up to move closer to the front of the plane. Sunday night I got an "Alert" that our flights from Home to Charlotte and Charlotte to Orlando have been changed. From leaving at 10:30am and arriving into Orlando at 3:15 pm (with layover) AA changed us to leaving at 5:05AM and arriving in Orlando at 7:40 PM with a 10 hour lay over in Charlotte. I was like..NOPE! I researched a better flight and found something close to our original (leaving at 11 and in at 3:00pm with a shorter layover). I called AA Sunday night when the email came in and my "researcher hat went on" to have the automation tell me the call back would be 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours. I said NOPE again and called at 6:30 am the next morning and talked to someone. She got us on the better flight and was still able to keep the 3 of us together on both flights. Today (this morning at 10:30) I get ANOTHER flight change alert, this time it was for our return flight home. Same saga.....huge 11 hour lay over that time. I was put into the call back queue and got the call back 4 hours later. We got on better flights but not as great as our original and we get home in the evening and not afternoon. But here is the kicker, they couldn't assign us seats on our 2nd leg because the ONLY thing open was all preferred seating and I had to go online to book those preferred seats (and pay more money). But there was no other flight option home that day less then a 3 hour lay over. The agent ALSO told me that since we are about 6 weeks out from our flight she "suggested I get back to keeping an eye daily on my flight and don't rely on the email alerts since those are auto populated to go out to everyone on the flight when there is a change in flights". So now I am a nervous-nilly getting stressed out over the flights and HOPING we can stay on the ones we have and not get any more flight changes. Thank you, thank you all for letting me type down my thoughts and rant a bit. If I so much as mention this to DH his knee jerk response is "Cancel the whole dang trip, Disney is TOO expensive anyways". So I'm zip-lipped!

The final June schedule just came out last weekend, so there shouldn’t be too many more changes. I would keep an eye open for seats - they do sometimes open up as holds expire and people change or cancel. You might end up in the premium seat for no charge, and AA will do everything possible to keep families all together.

 

[4fordisneyworld]

The horror stories I keep hearing about flights changing is making me super nervous about our July trip. I have been watching airfare on United, Southwest, and Frontier. Two of those I would normally never fly but when I heard Southwest was having scheduling issues as well, I started researching other options. Southwest has been higher this entire time as well. The worst I keep hearing is about Southwest, AA, and Delta. Has anyone had any recent issues with United or Frontier?

 

[4fordisneyworld]

The final June schedule just came out last weekend, so there shouldn’t be too many more changes. I would keep an eye open for seats - they do sometimes open up as holds expire and people change or cancel. You might end up in the premium seat for no charge, and AA will do everything possible to keep families all together.

How do you when the final changes for schedules come out for each airline? I would love to have that info doing my research!

 

[happiestgrl]

How do you when the final changes for schedules come out for each airline? I would love to have that info doing my research!

I work for one of the airlines and in my job I need to know schedules for forecasting needs no guarantee that the schedule won’t change, but there have been a lot less changes since travelers are returning and flights are filling up.

 

[4fordisneyworld]

I work for one of the airlines and in my job I need to know schedules for forecasting needs no guarantee that the schedule won’t change, but there have been a lot less changes since travelers are returning and flights are filling up.

Ah! That makes sense....ty for sharing

 

[imktdqt810]

I kept dealing with that with our January flight return home on Delta. I purposely picked a 10am flight or later so we weren't having to get up at 4 or 5am to return home. Our trip in 2018 had us up at 230 and I was like never again.

Anyway, after they moved us forward, I pushed back to 11, they moved forward again and I pushed back to noon, they pushed forward again and I pushed back to 1. Fortunately this one stuck. The next later flights had returns getting in at 10pm and we had work and school the next day so really didn't want to do that, but would have been better than waking up early. I had also pushed my Topolinos reservation back to 930 when I got the 1pm flight, so really didn't want any earlier flight.

anyway, good luck to you. I know the struggle and it is real. Lol.

This sounds like our LAST flight home from WDW in 2016. It was United Airlines that time and we were like you...having to be up and waiting on that "not so magical leaving for the airport" bus at 3 AM for a 6AM flight. It had a LONG layover and when we were coming into our airport a storm hit so they re-routed us to a smaller airport 45 mins (drive) from home to land and get gas after circling our airport 1 1/2 hours. We finally landed by 9pm and luckily we live about 20 mins from the airport. But THAT was a LONG FULL Day of travel. No wonder DH doesn't like WDW so much, every time we go there seems to be "issues" lol!

 

[imktdqt810]

The horror stories I keep hearing about flights changing is making me super nervous about our July trip. I have been watching airfare on United, Southwest, and Frontier. Two of those I would normally never fly but when I heard Southwest was having scheduling issues as well, I started researching other options. Southwest has been higher this entire time as well. The worst I keep hearing is about Southwest, AA, and Delta. Has anyone had any recent issues with United or Frontier?

Our small dinky airport only services American, Delta and United. We drove 4 hours north to hit Pittsburgh Airport in 2012 for a WDW trip b/c the prices were about $700 cheaper at the time with no layover. We HAVE to have a layover from dinky-town to get anywhere but after the 3 hr (prior to flight) transfer from WDW to MCO and then the air travel to sit in a car of 4 hours had us realizing that we would much rather pay to fly from dinky-town with a lay over then that long drive home. But our 2nd time going to WDW in 2016 with United sucked (story just posted on that one) so I was hopeful with AA. I TOTALLY feel your pain and hope nothing changes for your July trip!

 

[jennyq87]

The horror stories I keep hearing about flights changing is making me super nervous about our July trip. I have been watching airfare on United, Southwest, and Frontier. Two of those I would normally never fly but when I heard Southwest was having scheduling issues as well, I started researching other options. Southwest has been higher this entire time as well. The worst I keep hearing is about Southwest, AA, and Delta. Has anyone had any recent issues with United or Frontier?

Yep, we're dealing with Southwest issues right now - just got the email this morning for our trip in June. We had a direct flight on our departure day that was scheduled to leave at Noon (the only direct flight of the day). That flight has now been moved up to 8:00am (meaning ME will probably pick us up around 5:00am ). So our trip is shortened by 4 hours (and really even more than that because we will likely change our plans the evening before to make sure we're packed up and ready to go at 5:00am). I appreciate that we're allowed to switch flights or cancel altogether at no charge, but neither of those options really makes us feel "whole". There are no other direct flights, so we're choosing between two worse options: lose 4 hours of the trip (plus some) or deal with layovers, significantly more travel time, or getting home really late at night. I understand that schedules change and times are weird, but I don't like the idea of "deal with it or cancel." I know - first world problems - I'm of course appreciative that we even get to go in the first place - but just still annoyed about it.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Dealing with the same for our JetBlue flights this summer. First they moved the departure an hour early, but the flight number was the same so our seats were fine. Now they moved us to a different flight number, which interestingly is the same exact time as the original flight we booked. Since it's a different flight we lost our seats and got moved 15 rows back. I'm glad we're still seated together but I'm super paranoid about losing our seats together. I think they consolidated a couple of morning flights so it now looks pretty booked.

 

[Leigh L]

The horror stories I keep hearing about flights changing is making me super nervous about our July trip. I have been watching airfare on United, Southwest, and Frontier. Two of those I would normally never fly but when I heard Southwest was having scheduling issues as well, I started researching other options. Southwest has been higher this entire time as well. The worst I keep hearing is about Southwest, AA, and Delta. Has anyone had any recent issues with United or Frontier?

I've flown 10 times (5 trips) since the pandemic and have flown JetBlue, United, Frontier, and Southwest. United has by far, surprisingly given the least stress. JB changed us 3-4x in August, Southwest has added layovers, canceled flights, and changed times. JB was OK for our February leg though (it's my fav airline).

United, which I normally avoid due to previous overbooking problems with them back in 2017 and poor CS, has been pretty good with keeping flights over the past year. We've been changed by a couple of hours here and there, but nothing earth-shattering. They usually make any changes weeks ahead of time and stick with them.

Frontier I can't comment on much other than last August they canceled us outright and didn't have an alternative for four months. I did fly them in February, but it was due to an imminent snowstorm knowing my existing flight on another airline would be canceled. Booked them at 1 p.m. for a 4:30 pm same-day flight and it was a decent experience. (My original flight, leaving two days later, was indeed canceled)

Currently booked with AA and SW for June and more than a little worried, lol. DH and DS SW flights (two different flights/airports) for June were just changed yesterday. Our AA ones were already changed and hopefully will stick.

Definitely check flights daily - one thing I've learned this year is to roll with it because chances are they will change, ugh. (Right now I'm scrambling to find a minivan or 7-seater that isn't $500 above my original booking due to yesterday's SW flight changes.)

Good luck!! I hope things go smoothly. Slowly but surely, things are going back to normal. 2021 flights were smoother than August-November 2020. Hopefully, going forward even more so!

 

[4fordisneyworld]

I've flown 10 times (5 trips) since the pandemic and have flown JetBlue, United, Frontier, and Southwest. United has by far, surprisingly given the least stress. JB changed us 3-4x in August, Southwest has added layovers, canceled flights, and changed times. JB was OK for our February leg though (it's my fav airline).

United, which I normally avoid due to previous overbooking problems with them back in 2017 and poor CS, has been pretty good with keeping flights over the past year. We've been changed by a couple of hours here and there, but nothing earth-shattering. They usually make any changes weeks ahead of time and stick with them.

Frontier I can't comment on much other than last August they canceled us outright and didn't have an alternative for four months. I did fly them in February, but it was due to an imminent snowstorm knowing my existing flight on another airline would be canceled. Booked them at 1 p.m. for a 4:30 pm same-day flight and it was a decent experience. (My original flight, leaving two days later, was indeed canceled)

Currently booked with AA and SW for June and more than a little worried, lol. DH and DS SW flights (two different flights/airports) for June were just changed yesterday. Our AA ones were already changed and hopefully will stick.

Definitely check flights daily - one thing I've learned this year is to roll with it because chances are they will change, ugh. (Right now I'm scrambling to find a minivan or 7-seater that isn't $500 above my original booking due to yesterday's SW flight changes.)

Good luck!! I hope things go smoothly. Slowly but surely, things are going back to normal. 2021 flights were smoother than August-November 2020. Hopefully, going forward even more so!

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. I think we are going to chance United and pray that it stays the same! I have always wanted to try JetBlue. However, coming from where we live, the layovers are crazy and they are always more expensive. Wishing you pixie dust so you can find a rental car for your adjusted flights!

 

[Leigh L]

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. I think we are going to chance United and pray that it stays the same! I have always wanted to try JetBlue. However, coming from where we live, the layovers are crazy and they are always more expensive. Wishing you pixie dust so you can find a rental car for your adjusted flights!

Good luck with your United flights, I hope you have a good experience .

And thank you for the good wishes! (I'm also flying United again in about 3 weeks to go visit DS in Milwaukee and the flight lands in Chicago. So far, no changes!)

 

[Ursula J]

Am trying to figure this out with United--they just sent a major change for the flight my parents and sister & her family are taking. The whole idea was to have someone travel with my elderly parents, and United actually SPLIT UP THE PARTIES onto 2 different flights. They're claiming they've reasonably accommodated everyone, but my parents just don't want to fly without somebody with them. It's SO FRUSTRATING. We're flying SW and had ours change last week, too, but we were able to adjust easily. Trip is 6 weeks out.

 

[4fordisneyworld]

Am trying to figure this out with United--they just sent a major change for the flight my parents and sister & her family are taking. The whole idea was to have someone travel with my elderly parents, and United actually SPLIT UP THE PARTIES onto 2 different flights. They're claiming they've reasonably accommodated everyone, but my parents just don't want to fly without somebody with them. It's SO FRUSTRATING. We're flying SW and had ours change last week, too, but we were able to adjust easily. Trip is 6 weeks out.

Am trying to figure this out with United--they just sent a major change for the flight my parents and sister & her family are taking. The whole idea was to have someone travel with my elderly parents, and United actually SPLIT UP THE PARTIES onto 2 different flights. They're claiming they've reasonably accommodated everyone, but my parents just don't want to fly without somebody with them. It's SO FRUSTRATING. We're flying SW and had ours change last week, too, but we were able to adjust easily. Trip is 6 weeks out.

Just out of curiosity, were all of their flights under the same confirmation number? I am flying with two teens, one just turned 18, and we are all under the same confirmation number. I am surely hoping they would not split us up! I am so sorry that happened to your family. That is crazy with the amount paid for tickets that they can completely change everything so drastically.

 

[Ursula J]

Just out of curiosity, were all of their flights under the same confirmation number? I am flying with two teens, one just turned 18, and we are all under the same confirmation number. I am surely hoping they would not split us up! I am so sorry that happened to your family. That is crazy with the amount paid for tickets that they can completely change everything so drastically.

They booked at the same time over the phone, but to be fair I think they probably did have different confirmation numbers since my parents insist on paying their own way and would have wanted theirs on their own credit card!
I will edit if I'm wrong on this.