More Airline Problems

[KathyV]

I made reservations for a fall vacation to GC and LC several months ago. At that time it was necessary to change travel dates in order to get a return flight from LC on Cayman Air.

Now I have been notified by American Airlines that there have been changes in the departure times for our return flights from GCM to MIA to ORD.

I am used to getting small flight time changes, sometimes they are annoying and put a strain on plans or connection times but they are usually no big deal, but these changes are ridiculous. We will be getting home for a long trip at least 3 hours later (if all goes well!) than originally booked and confirmed!

The Caymans are not that far away and they have a busy international airport that is served by many carriers and O'Hare is one of the busiest airports in the world, so how come it will take 13 hours to get from Cayman to Chicago?

Here are the flight changes, I looked into leaving LC later but that cut the interval time too close, so we don't have any options but to just deal with it and try to enjoy our time in airports.

Little Cayman - Cayman Brac - Grand Cayman KX# 4422 11:00am-12:00pm
Grand Cayman - Miami AA# 1640 3:05pm- 4:42pm (NEW 5:45 pm - 7:22 pm)
Miami - Chicago / ORD AA# 0981 6:31pm- 9:01pm (NEW 9:32 pm - 11:55 pm)

 

[muzikbiz22]

Had a 5 hour layover 2 weeks ago, going home to LAX from GCM, in Houston.

 

[KathyV]

It is my understanding the the Georgetown Yacht Club is minutes away and offers a free shuttle between the airport and their restaurant. We will be traveling home on a Sunday so hopefully it won't be as crazy busy as Saturday departures.

If (and this is far from certain) but if the American Check-in counter is open when we arrive from the sister islands, we could check our bags and take the shuttle to the yacht club for lunch; that would certainly be nicer than hanging around the Hungry Horse and/or the GCM departure lounge for almost 6 hours.

But last year when we arrived back from Cayman Brac, the GCM Delta Counter didn't open until about 1.5 hours before departure! So we eventually piled our bags on a cart and went up to the Hungry Horse until Delta finally opened.

 

[Drew Sailbum]

Looks like too late for KathyV, but United just announced they are adding non-stop flights from Cayman to Chicago starting in December. Might work for other Chicago area divers.

Saturdays only, schedule would look like this:
depart ORD 10:40am arrive GCM 3:40pm

depart GCM 12:39pm arrive ORD 3:44pm

Must be using a plane that arrived from Houston or Washington earlier for the departure flight to Chicago.

 

[KathyV]

Looks like too late for KathyV, but United just announced they are adding non-stop flights from Cayman to Chicago starting in December. Might work for other Chicago area divers.

Saturdays only, schedule would look like this:
depart ORD 10:40am arrive GCM 3:40pm
depart GCM 12:39pm arrive ORD 3:44pm

Must be using a plane that arrived from Houston or Washington earlier for the departure flight to Chicago.

No, that won't help me for this trip but it is good news for the future, thanks!

 

[tkaelin]

I don't think any of the ticket counters in GCM open earlier than 2 hours before the flight for any carrier other than Cayman Air.
I try direct flights whenever possible for this very reason. I understand that for Little Cayman there is no way around this.
If you had a schedule change and your previously booked your seats as well you better check to see that you still have assigned seats.
Just returned from BDA on a Jet Blue flight that I booked 4 months ago and had confirmed seats. When I went to check in our seats were changed. My wife and I originally had seats together in row 8. Upon checking in they had us both in middle seats separated and in the back of the plane. After waiting on hold with JetBlue for 30 mins I was told there was nothing they could do but offer us the more room seats for $50 a piece more. I asked for a supervisor who quickly noted that we did have confirmed seats when booked but with the flight change our assignment was missed. She waived the fee and put us together. That was nice but lessoned learned on schedule changes and checking seat assignments.

 

[KathyV]

...If you had a schedule change and your previously booked your seats as well you better check to see that you still have assigned seats...Just returned from BDA on a Jet Blue flight that I booked 4 months ago and had confirmed seats. When I went to check in our seats were changed. My wife and I originally had seats together in row 8. Upon checking in they had us both in middle seats separated and in the back of the plane. After waiting on hold with JetBlue for 30 mins I was told there was nothing they could do but offer us the more room seats for $50 a piece more. I asked for a supervisor who quickly noted that we did have confirmed seats when booked but with the flight change our assignment was missed. She waived the fee and put us together. That was nice but lessoned learned on schedule changes and checking seat assignments.

Thank you for this advice! We previously had good confirmed seats that included a window seat on all 4 united flights. Now none of our flights include a window seat and on 2 flights we are stuck in the back of the plane. On one of them we are flat up against the bulkhead and the lavatory. Those definitely are not the seats we had previously confirmed.

Plus the 4th flight has us seated in row 13; except I have been checking online and it appears that United doesn't have a row 13 on this aircraft - they go from 12 directly to 14 because of superstition.

I'm thinking that being assigned seats in row 13 means that we don't actually have reserved confirmed seats any longer! Does anyone know for sure it that is true? I don't mind sitting in row 13 but I do mind not having a reserved seat! Anyway, I am trying to connect with the airline to get the seat situation worked out. Thanks again for posting that advice.

We are traveling during the low season and we are traveling from a major hub, and I booked the trip and the flights 8 months in advance, but making the flight reservations has been challenging; and there is no guarantee that they won't continue to make changes and keep messing with our reservations.

It's rather ironic that if we wanted to change a reservation they would charge us $ hundreds in penalties but they can do what they want to our confirmed, paid for, reservations!

 

[tkaelin]

You may also want a check whether the schedule change permits cancellation. We had a flight somewhere about 6 years ago where they made a flight change that did not work for us or we thought was way too tight a connection. We were able to say no thanks with no penalty and booked on another flight. If memory serves correctly we had a nonstop from JFK to Bon on Delta booked way in advance. Close to the date of travel we received notice of a schedule change that eliminated the nonstop and put us through Atlanta with a tight window. I said no thanks and got a full refund by asking and booked the Continental redeye from Newark.

 

[DandyDon]

I just don't book more than a couple of months ahead anymore because the airlines will pull this crap, including very long layovers and lousy seats. They are just not fair, but they have good lawyers writing the contracts we call tickets - with too much leeway for them.

I hope you can get a full refund and better rebooking. If not, make the best of your trip, keep insisting on accommodations for what you have endured, and have fun.

 

[KathyV]

You may also want a check whether the schedule change permits cancellation. We had a flight somewhere about 6 years ago where they made a flight change that did not work for us or we thought was way too tight a connection. We were able to say no thanks with no penalty and booked on another flight. If memory serves correctly we had a nonstop from JFK to Bon on Delta booked way in advance. Close to the date of travel we received notice of a schedule change that eliminated the nonstop and put us through Atlanta with a tight window. I said no thanks and got a full refund by asking and booked the Continental redeye from Newark.

Thanks again for all the good advice!