Airline(s) least likely to keep flight time before trip

[pseudoware]

Are there any airlines that have a poorer than average track record for keeping their scheduled arrival /departure times. I'm not talking about minor, same-day fluctuations that can impact any airline, but rather when a time is changed by minutes or hours prior to the day of travel?

 

I don't know, but Delta did it twice to us on the same leg. Not complaining, as it allowed me to change to another flight w/o any fee - an hour layover in NYC is now 2 days more on our vacation 😀

 

Just wondering. I don't recall it happening to us w/several other airlines we've flown over the past few years.

Edited May 16, 2015 by pseudoware

[Kamloops50]

Are there any airlines that have a poorer than average track record for keeping their scheduled arrival /departure times. I'm not talking about minor, same-day fluctuations that can impact any airline, but rather when a time is changed by minutes or hours prior to the day of travel?

 

I don't know, but Delta did it twice to us on the same leg. Not complaining, as it allowed me to change to another flight w/o any fee - an hour layover in NYC is now 2 days more on our vacation 😀

 

Just wondering. I don't recall it happening to us w/several other airlines we've flown over the past few years.

 

We had one leg on American changed 4 times in four months.

[Ashland]

Seems DL always has at least one flight time change sometimes more than that...

 

And Alaska Air did a major flight time change for our cruise in September...I had to end up changing airports.

 

But that's the price I pay for booking my air early.

[alcpa1]

We've had changes on every airline we have ever flown. That includes domestic and international. We book far in advance, often when schedules open at the 330 day mark and expect adjustments along the way.

For this reason I made a point to make the participants in the travel classes I led aware of airline reservation monitoring. It's particularly pertinent when flying to a cruise port the day of embarkation and when unable to avoid connections.

[bearette]

When I've bought airfare farther in advance it usually changed by an hour or so once or twice, but most of the major flight changes I have had have been last minute the day off due to weather etc...

 

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[Flatbush Flyer]

We've had changes on every airline we have ever flown. That includes domestic and international. We book far in advance, often when schedules open at the 330 day mark and expect adjustments along the way.

 

For this reason I made a point to make the participants in the travel classes I led aware of airline reservation monitoring. It's particularly pertinent when flying to a cruise port the day of embarkation and when unable to avoid connections.

 

 

Please! No one who is a seasoned traveler (I.e., weekly commuter vs a couple of cruises a year) would fly in day-of-departure for a cruise.

[Ashland]

Please! No one who is a seasoned traveler (I.e., weekly commuter vs a couple of cruises a year) would fly in day-of-departure for a cruise.

Please...not always true ;)

[monicajay]

We've had changes on every airline we have ever flown. That includes domestic and international. We book far in advance, often when schedules open at the 330 day mark and expect adjustments along the way.

For this reason I made a point to make the participants in the travel classes I led aware of airline reservation monitoring. It's particularly pertinent when flying to a cruise port the day of embarkation and when unable to avoid connections.

 

You led travel classes and suggest people fly into a cruise port on day of embarkation?

 

Having worked over 10 years as an agent and done a lot of trips myself I would never recommend booking on the same day as embarkation. Just too many things that can go wrong.

[waterbug123]

You led travel classes and suggest people fly into a cruise port on day of embarkation?

 

I highly doubt that alcpa1 actually suggests that people fly in the same day; the point was that sometimes people are hell-bent on doing what they want to do, including flying in same day, in which case he recommends that they actively monitor their reservation.

[Theredofshaw]

Had 2 changes of 30-50 minutes so far for our Delta flight. What was a 3.5hr layover in JFK is now about a 5hr+ layover. Unfortunately, tried changing it under their "schedule change clause" but because each one was under an hour difference, they won't honor it.

[Globaliser]

You led travel classes and suggest people fly into a cruise port on day of embarkation?

 

Having worked over 10 years as an agent and done a lot of trips myself I would never recommend booking on the same day as embarkation. Just too many things that can go wrong.

I'd bet that the majority of cruise ship passengers fly in on the day of embarkation, and that the vast majority of those who do get to their cruises without any hassle.

 

It's all to do with your personal risk appreciation (including whether you understand the magnitude of the risk). It would be as wrong to advise never flying in on the day of the cruise as it would be to advise always doing so.

[kelmac]

My last Delta flight went through five or six changes before we finally junked everything and started over. We ended up with flights home, but nothing close to the original itinerary.

 

American makes changes, as well as United. British Airways has made of couple of very minor changes on our TA flight, but nothing we can't live with.

 

That's one of the reasons I like Southwest -- they come out with their schedule later than everyone else, but they rarely make a change once that schedule is released.

 

Enjoy!

Kel:)

[TruckerDave]

My last Delta flight went through five or six changes before we finally junked everything and started over. We ended up with flights home, but nothing close to the original itinerary.

 

American makes changes, as well as United. British Airways has made of couple of very minor changes on our TA flight, but nothing we can't live with.

 

That's one of the reasons I like Southwest -- they come out with their schedule later than everyone else, but they rarely make a change once that schedule is released.

 

Enjoy!

Kel:)

 

I have over 275k lifetime miles on AA (US Air) and almost 75K on United (Continental) and never had a flight changed more than 15 minutes or so either way.

 

Just the luck of the draw.

[kelmac]

I have over 275k lifetime miles on AA (US Air) and almost 75K on United (Continental) and never had a flight changed more than 15 minutes or so either way.

 

Just the luck of the draw.

 

The last straw with Delta was our connection (3 Jan 2015) for our flight arriving in Atlanta at 1:00pm, moved from 2:05pm to 7:30pm. Does anyone do a five and half hour layover? That's when we rebooked to a late afternoon flight that connected to that 7:30 departure. Our original flights were late morning, early afternoon, home by 2:30pm. Still first world problems, but with holiday prices triple what they were six years ago, you hope things would be a bit easier.:rolleyes::)

 

Enjoy!

Kel:)

[Tiggertastic]

Every Virgin flight has been changed, they code share with delta. Never more than 2 hours but luckily they've never affected the cruise.

[Ashland]

I highly doubt that alcpa1 actually suggests that people fly in the same day; the point was that sometimes people are hell-bent on doing what they want to do, including flying in same day, in which case he recommends that they actively monitor their reservation.

Not always "hell bent"...just something that some may have to do for a variety of reasons.

[ducklite]

I have over 275k lifetime miles on AA (US Air) and almost 75K on United (Continental) and never had a flight changed more than 15 minutes or so either way.

 

 

 

Just the luck of the draw.

 

 

You've been beyond lucky. Up until a year or so ago I had only a few non-weather related delays/misconnect so in over 25 years of flying with US. Since then , almost every r/t has had at least one major delay/misconnect/cancelled flight/etc. that was not weather related.

[waterbug123]

Does anyone do a five and half hour layover?

 

Occasionally, if the price is right. Silver lining is that if the airline DOES subsequently change the schedule, you can usually call them to get it switched and often end up with the more desirable itinerary that was too expensive when you originally booked.

[UKBayern]

It seems to be an American thing. I have worked in a European airport for a long time, and many of my friends still do, but I have never experienced many schedule changes on European airlines.

[Globaliser]

It seems to be an American thing. I have worked in a European airport for a long time, and many of my friends still do, but I have never experienced many schedule changes on European airlines.

I think it is a bit different for airlines operating domestic flights within the US. Most European flights are international (even if operating within the EU or within Schengenland) and so have to work within the constraints of the IATA scheduling season system.

 

In contrast, airlines operating US domestic flights seem to be able to schedule flights without any such constraints. Indeed, usually they can schedule flights without even having to pay any attention to the capacity of the airport to handle those flights, given how few US airports are slot-restricted. That leaves the airlines able to change their domestic schedules much more often.

[kelmac]

Occasionally, if the price is right. Silver lining is that if the airline DOES subsequently change the schedule, you can usually call them to get it switched and often end up with the more desirable itinerary that was too expensive when you originally booked.

 

Meg,

 

Very true; my first thought is "what can I switch to make this thing better than the original" -- doesn't always work, but I've used it to my advantage many times.

As of now, most of my flights are on WN (about 1/2 are freebies with mileage+credit card). We do have a United to Cancun next Thanksgiving and a BA flight to LHR in a couple of weeks.

 

For next Xmas we went online to get WN flights to FLL and the price for a 19 Dec departure was over $1,100. :eek: The other airlines were in the same ballpark, so I worked on it for several hours -- ended up with non-stop flights from PHX to FLL in the $620 range. The kicker, we used more WN freebies R/T to Phoenix to couple up with those flights.

 

We've cruised 13 years in a row during winter break -- In 2016 I looks like it's NOW cheaper to do a AI in Mexico or the Caribbean compared to a cruise.

Never was the case in the past.

 

Enjoy!

Kel:)

[UKBayern]

It seems to be an American thing. I have worked in a European airport for a long time, and many of my friends still do, but I have never experienced many schedule changes on European airlines.

 

Oh joy....It now happened to us as well, on a intra-Spanish Iberia flight. I must have jinxed it! But actually in our case, it is an improvement, as the flight to our cruise leaves 40 minutes later from Madrid, giving us a transit time of 2H 10 M instead of 1H 30M.

[skf]

It would be as wrong to advise never flying in on the day of the cruise as it would be to advise always doing so.

Mr. Globaliser has it right; it is a personal choice and also dependent upon factors beyond one's control, such as work or school.

We used to fly the day of the cruise but after a near-disaster in 2009 we have been going the day before.

Steve

[Michidoeme]

Air Canada just cancelled the only direct flight between Toronto and Zurich on the day before Xmas and rebooked to the day before. Luckily my daughter managed to get extra day off at work.

 

Lufthansa cancels sometimes European flights last minute if they have some hardware scheduling problems - almost empty flights are then cancelled and passengers rebooked on next flight. One can then claim a compensation of Euro 250, but I guess most people are not aware or don't make the effort.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Michidoeme

[TruckerDave]

You've been beyond lucky. Up until a year or so ago I had only a few non-weather related delays/misconnect so in over 25 years of flying with US. Since then , almost every r/t has had at least one major delay/misconnect/cancelled flight/etc. that was not weather related.

 

I've had my share of weather delays, mechanical issues and stuff like that...the worst was a MIA-SDQ flight, we were 45 min from landing in Santo Domingo when we suddenly made a u-turn and went back to Miami. Pilot said we had a "minor" issue. We landed and were surrounded by the fire trucks while we sat by ourselves at the end of a runway. Then got escorted to the gate and deplaned. :eek: After sitting in the gate area for an hour while they tried to fix it they finally cancelled the flight. Then had to scramble and find us all flights to the island. I opted for a flight the next day after they paid for the hotel. (The sofitel was quite nice on AA's dime :D ).

 

I have just (knock on wood) not had my fights changed before hand. No 8am flight moved to 3pm or crap like that.