If you are one of those organized people who plan your other vacation in advance, beware of the involuntary flight downgrade.
With the airlines reducing capacity, some routes may be eliminated completely. For example, Aer Lingus is canceling San Francisco to Dublin nonstops after October. Ticketed passengers will either be offered refunds, or the option of connecting somewhere with one of the airline’s partner carriers.
In other cases, the airline may still be flying to your destination, but the flight times may change. Which could mean a much longer connection, or an impossible connection. If the new schedule is too awful, most carriers will allow a refund.
Or they could just give you an option you don’t like. I booked clients on a Northwest Airlines nonstop in September Detroit to San Francisco at 12:15 p.m. When as part of their merger with Delta, the airline canceled the flight, they changed the passengers to a 12:25 p.m. connection via Minneapolis. While they are still flying 3:35 p.m. nonstop. Which they cheerfully allowed me to rebook when I called.
Even if the flight is not canceled, a simple aircraft change can cause more hassles than you might think. If an airline switches to a completely different plane, your four seats together might end up scattered all over the cabin, or the seat assignments may just be canceled without replacements. Or an economy plus or exit seat might turn into standard seating. (All of these and more have happened to clients.)
How do you keep track of potential changes?
If you’ve booked online, you should get a message from the airline or online agency. “Should” being the operative word. And to be fair, messages can end up in spam and/or be accidentally deleted as advertisments. If you’ve booked with an agency, your travel agent should let you know. (I’ve actually taken to calling, however, because of vanished or unread emails.)
But even if you haven’t gotten a message, it doesn’t hurt to check your itinerary once or twice in advance. Especially around the holidays. That way, if there’s a problem, you can figure it out while there are still options on other flights. Even a complete refund in November may not help much when other airlines are sold out around Christmas. Ditto if there is a seating problem better to get it fixed while there are still open seats.
It might take a few minutes but it could mean the difference between a little wasted time now, and a major hassle at the airport later.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
