Flight Change question

[Bruce W]

Received notification today that the return flight on our January Florida trip had a change in schedule. It was originally supposed to depart Sarasota at 7:30 PM, now it is 11AM.

The airline is Continental. Does anyone know of any rules that we may use to change to the next day without penalty. I asked a rep today, she said she would do it if I wanted it right now. I could not make that decision without discussing with DW. I asked if I called back later would it be ok. She said "it depends who you talk to" Not a help, but at least she was truthful.

Thanks

[JeffW]

In general if an airline makes a significant change, they'll usually let you make a change for no charge. I think with your change you'd probably be okay.

A semi-related story about Continental and flight changes. My MIL is scheduled to fly back from Bakersfield to the East Coast 1st week of June. While looking for additional return flights from there (this was a few months ago) for another family member, I saw no flights at all. I then stumbled across a screen that said seasonal service to BFL was being suspended May 3 thru Sep 4.

I called Continental and confirmed this. Then I asked what her options were. The agent basically said any almost any change was possible, but primarily:
- return from Bakersfield either before May 3, or after Sept 5
- return from any other airport (think the assumption was a nearly one in California.

We didn't do anything. A few weeks later I looked online at her flight, and her 12:30pm BFL-Houston (IAH) Continental flight (the one cancelled) had been replaced by a 9:30am BFL-LAX one on United, then a CO LAX-IAH one, then lastly on her original flight home. The fact now that she went from no flight (but unlimited change potential) to one 3 hours earlier, I'm not sure if they'd still let her make a change. It's nice that Continental automatically found her an alternate flight, but it's not a pain, because other family members were supposed to fly home with her (she's in her 80's), and buying a United+Continental ticket will be ridiculously expensive. I did ask the agent if she could move to a Delta (part of CO's SkyTeam alliance) flight from BFL, and she said no.

I was very disappointed that there was no email notification of at least the original cancellation. At least on Delta, I think I receive notification when there are any changes in flight numbers or times.

Jeff

[tashamen]

Originally Posted by Bruce W

I asked if I called back later would it be ok. She said "it depends who you talk to" Not a help, but at least she was truthful.

Actually I think that is helpful, because when you call back and don't get the answer you want you can hang up and try again. We had to do this recently with USAir - they changed a flight with the result that a connection was about 25 minutes, which for the particular airport in question (and the people traveling) is not something I was comfortable with. The first rep on the phone said "that's a legal connection" and wouldn't allow a change without a fee. The second rep said "no problem - what flights would you like to change to?" and charged no change fee.