Airline changing flight AGAIN

Schedule changes have occured way before COVID. If the change is "significant" or "major" as defined by your contract of carriage (typically 2+ hours difference from original), just call them with your 2nd-best proposed itinerary and ask them to honor it. This should not cost you anything. I have never paid extra for a "major" schedule change, and I've had plenty of them in the past across several airlines. In worst case, you have the option to cancel outright and get all your money refunded...but that means you'll be back at "square 1" as far as shopping all over again for a new flight. That option can pay off too, but only if the new fare you find is better than the old one.

The OP mentions basic economy. Perhaps it's a different situation with basic economy, at least nowadays.

Had a direct flight on Delta from LAX to France, then a few months later they canceled the direct flight (Code Share with Air France) and routed us through Detroit with a 3+ hour lay over. Then a two months out the direct flight was brought back, I asked to be put back on it and they said we would have to pay the difference, which was $300 more each. I argued that I was originally on the direct flight prior, but their reply was that was a different flight at the time. We kept the Detroit detour flight and made me not a fan of Delta.

Presumably, you booked your flight directly with the airline, right? Not with some third-party?

Agree with all the above. Something sounds very fishy here to me. At a minimum, a badly misinformed CS agent (at worst, some scammer). You should not have to pay any difference in fare. You should have the option to decline their suggested changes, and either propose your own alternative (you must do that homework), or worst case, just cancel at no cost and get a refund.

Hang Up and Call Again. More than once if necessary.

Be calm, be courteous, but stand your ground. Still getting crazy talk? Insist on speaking with a supervisor and start over with them.

I’ve had too many changes to count with Delta. And they don’t always notify me- I’ve learned to log in every week or two to check and see if/ what has changed. They’ve rebooked us on a flight only to leave us stranded overnight (at an airport only a 3 hour drive away from our origination), booked to our new flight only to have the connection flight be listed as -5 minute layover (departure 5 minutes prior to our arrival time), etc, etc. Each one gets crazier. Just spent 3 hours messaging (then got an agent who disconnected me in the midst of it) and finally 1.5 hours on the phone yesterday. But, as mentioned, there have never been increased charges to us since they cancelled or altered the flights. In fact, we’ve ended up booking at a lower fare, received ecredits, and exit row seats at no charge. (Luckily I’m now retired, so my time is not worth so much!)

Thanks to all for your helpful advice! Yes, I have had schedule changes many times before, but they have been so minimal it didn't matter. But this is just ridiculous and I will definitely be calling. Now, I know that I shouldn't have accepted their first offer to change, but it got me on Lufthansa so I figured it was worth another $450!

Yesterday we were in panic mode because the seats we selected in December after changing our United flight to Athens had disappeared. We had the message that seats would be assigned at boarding, which sounded like Basic Economy to me. The change in flights had given us a credit which we had to use to purchase the seats we had originally selected. We had to speak with an agent to access the credit and apply it to the seat selection. I didn't;t think it passed the smell test, but we are so close to our trip that my husband didn't argue.

Here's an article that speaks about changing your flights with no cost.

https://scottscheapflights.com/guides/the-hidden-loophole-that-lets-you-change-your-flight-without-paying-a-fare-difference

I bought basic economy tickets last year and changed my flight 3 times with no cost, even thought the tickets were 3X higher then what I paid. This did require me being on hold for long periods of time and once having to hang up and call back when I got an individual who wanted me to pay the fare difference.

I don't believe you can change your flights yourself, but need to call. Did you call or just change the flights online? If you called, with this level of a significant change, I'm surprised they charged you the fare difference.

Ok just got off the phone with United and after the agent had to "talk to her supervisor" several times, I was able to be booked on an acceptable flight at no extra charge, because it would seem, I already paid with the first flight change! So, it does seem that the best way to handle this type of manipulation is to call and not make changes online.

My wife just spent 2 days getting Lufthansa/Austrian to agree to a ticket refund since they technically violated their terms of carriage (flight change of more than 2 hours). Do your research and dig in your feet when dealing with airlines, they aren't really in the customer satisfaction business anymore. And forget about "loyalty," that is reserved for only the highest level of frequent flyers. Occasional flyers in basic economy are basically invisible. Make sure you're in the airline's freqy flyer club and use their credit card, those things can count.

I don’t book basic economy, so I haven’t had an issue. With British Airways my flight’s departure airport was changed along with an earlier departure time. Later, that time was changed to yet another hour earlier. Any domestic flight I’ve had in the past year has had changes too. Other than the fees, you are not alone.

My daughter and grandaughter recently took a United Trip ATL to CDG. Departure was scheduled for 4:30 PM. Air France
called her on the departure DAY about 10AM and advised that they had been moved to a later same day departure at 8PM.
Obviously a consolidation of unfilled flights (her original flight had very few passengers and the replacement was completely full).
Not a big deal but they lost the seats selected months before, fortunately were seated in bulkhead seats for the trip.

We flew to Denver and back 10 days ago on DL, both times the aircraft (and seats) changed shortly before departure. Wild, wild west out there.

And this raises a good point, make sure you have your airline's app on your phone. When I took Delta to Paris recently they were very, very communicative about my flights both on the app and through email. But naturally, they forgot to mention that on one leg they changed the metal and reassigned everyone's seat. Which wouldn't have been an issue except my wife and I were originally seated together and they separated us. We dealt with that at check-in.

I'm still trying to out why it would be extortion.

But glad you got flights you like.

Maybe extortion was a strong word but after purchasing our tickets (3 people) which originally included an hour and a half layover, and then being notified that our flight was changed to include a 7 1/2 hour layover instead, (because of Covid) but that if we didn’t like that we could change and pay the difference- which I did - and then a few days later they notified me that it was changed again to a flight that would put us at our destination (Venice) at 1100 at night - but we COULD once again change to a flight we liked better and once again pay the difference (flights offered ranged from $150 to almost a thousand for each person basic economy) then yes it felt like extortion! And that was all one sentence!

There's another point I wish everyone would keep in mind. It may seem counter-intuitive at first, but I assure you, it is often what you will get:

The staff at airline call centers are often poorly trained, uninformed, disinterested in providing good customer service, and are just following pre-defined scripts. When confronted with something that does not fit the script, they may make up nonsense and tell lies, because it's easier than actually addressing and resolving a customer's issue if they're not sure how they should proceed.

Yes, that sucks, but it is how the business works (and in fairness, customers have spoken with their wallets loud and clear, the airlines have reasonably concluded that all customers care about is the absolute lowest possible price, so the airlines have responded in predictable ways -- cutting costs so they can sell crazy-cheap seats -- and seeking out the absolute lowest possible cost phone agents is one way they deliver those cheap seats consumers demand; keeping "expert" professionals on staff is an expensive luxury).

Working in a call center is a difficult job. Many customers dial in and sit on hold for hours, and when they finally reach a human, they may be abusive and frustrated. CS agents are human, too, and sometime may respond in kind. Everybody has bad days.

Do not assume that the person you reach is an expert, or even has any idea what they are doing. Often they are not and do not.

You should strive to be the best-informed person on the call. Know what's reasonable to expect, and don't accept any less. Be courteous, keep your cool, but don't let a bad CS agent blow smoke up your arse. Escalate to a supervisor or HUCA when necessary.

Do not assume that the person you reach is an expert, or even has any idea what they are doing. Often, they are not and do not

Don't assume a person who writes this stuff is an expert either. You have no idea who these people are or their knowledge. There is always two sides to a story. That is a pretty shameful remark. IMO Thank you

You are welcome to your own opinions.

I have worked in call centers, in the trenches, on the phones. I have trained call center staff and wrote their manuals. I have many friends who worked for years (decades in some cases) on the phones. I have managed multiple call centers for a large multinational corporation. I know exactly how call agents are treated (by customers and by management), how they are trained, evaluated, hired, fired, and compensated -- because I have been one myself, and I have done all those things. Have you?

I have plenty of experience as a consumer contacting call centers, like most folks have. A LOT of calls to airlines. My experience has been all over the place: some great, knowledgeable, helpful people, trying hard to do their jobs, sometimes going above and beyond to solve problems, to make customers happy. And, yes, unfortunately, also plenty of uncaring, clueless, disinterested people who were going through the motions and just wanted to move on to the next caller and be done with it. And everything in between.

Airlines are businesses. They manage their costs carefully. While some (a few) major airlines still retain longtime, knowledgeable, customer-centric staff, in most cases those are reserved for "elite" customers only ("with status" about whom the airlines care), or (more often) have become supervisors and don't "work the phones" directly (unless called upon explicitly). For most consumers, call center staff is very much a hit-or-miss experience. You may get someone who is sincerely motivated to help, and who actually knows what they are doing. You may also get someone who is just counting the hours until they get off work and who has neither the training, experience, knowledge, nor much interest in solving your problem. I encounter both, frequently. I often get great customer service, but I also I regularly have to explain complex situations to staff, hold their hand as I let them know what's really going on, and guide them through fixing something for me. Most are happy to have a customer who knows what they are doing, some are just reading from the script and will not deviate from that (even when it doesn't apply).

The OP in this thread seems to have made a number of mistakes initially: accepting without much question what the airline's computer offered as an alternative to their original flight; not showing up to the conversation with a preferred alternative to suggest to them; not escalating their issue up to supervisors when they were being given poor options; not knowing their rights or the airline's policies for cancellations...and I would add, expecting every call agent to always be knowledgeable, helpful and motivated to help resolve their issue. I stand by everything I've posted here. It's based on a lot of real-world, hard-earned professional and personal experience over many years. You're welcome to disregard it if you like. Good luck.

Short version: Always read your Contract of Carriage (the section on airline-instigated itinerary changes). Know what your rights are, and be armed with that information when you speak with an airline agent. I have gotten incorrect info before - from American Airlines - but I just called back and talked with someone else.

David - I did make a mistake initially in that I went along with the forced change to my itinerary which yes , was online. But as I stated previously, I didn’t mind so much because our new flight was on Lufthansa and I would far prefer to fly on Lufthansa rather than United. And, as I explained, I did pay $450 more for these three tickets, but was still within United’s typical price range. What I objected to was the second change just a few days later, when once again I was told to pay up if I didn’t like my flight. So then I called and after about an hour and a half of my time, the problem was resolved. I posted on the forum to hear if anyone else had experienced this type of treatment recently.

Sadly David is right, call center personnel are not necessarily highly experienced or knowledgeable, they were hired for passable English language and typing skills and ability to read from a script. If your issue can't be neatly categorized, watch out. Best practice, if you don't feel like things are going well, think of an excuse to hang up and try again.

Lately I've noticed that many times there are roosters crowing in the background when I call! Talk about work from home.

Yep to all that -- spot-on, including the roosters.

On several recent calls to airlines, I have heard roosters in the background (those airline reps were working from home, in the Philippines and Jamaica). Have also heard dogs barking on calls (those agents were at home in Lisbon, Costa Rica and Atlanta). Note: they generally are not supposed to disclose their locations, so you have to ask nicely -- and carefully -- and they may not tell you...but as I was professionally involved with the "outsourcing" of customer service, I always am curious about what part of the world I'm talking to, so I try to ask....carefully. (At the end of a successful call...by that time, from their accent and other clues, I usually have a pretty good idea where they are...I only ask after thanking them for providing me great service and I volunteer to provide feedback to their manager or automated system if they want that...they usually are delighted to hear someone offer to say nice things about their work).

FWIW, in all those cases (working from home, with rosters and dogs, very different locations), I got great service, and my issues resolved...OTOH, a few days ago, I was ready to shoot myself because of the clear incompetence of one call rep I reached whose perfect English sounded very American to my ear. This is not about who you are or where you come from. It's about other things ("business decisions").

David ... why didn't you train them better!

(just a joke) I imagine with more work from home the quality of Call Centers has gone down.

Hard to have patience. But yeah, it is still the best policy. Me ... I'd just say give me a full refund and move on.

David, I so totally believe you. Last week I tried 2 customer service people and one chat. After 3 hours of not getting good help, or understanding them, phone connection not good..I was just about in tears. I received a flight change. Went to look at my options and they were quoting me a good deal more than what I was looking at in the screen. They couldn’t explain it or help me out! I still haven’t changed them yet because I need a day with patience, so, your advice is to just keep trying fir a decent agent? This was with United.

I’m disappointed that airlines are still making the many changes that they were required to make over the last two years. I thought it would normalize this summer. Prices certainly have gone up.

Of course, with the Ukraine-Russian war, nothing is normal right now.

Spammy post immediately above contains link, probably to malware. Do not click it. Spam reported.

(Post prior to that was from CaliMon, who is not a spammer; if there's no post between this one and hers, then the spammer's was removed)

On one trip, I had my return flight change seven times last year and I wasn’t notified about most of the changes. Annoying but something you have to put up with if you want to travel these days.

Our Sept., 2021 [Business Class] flights to Zurich on British Airways was changed/canceled SIX times, moved to American Airlines out of San Diego, then once in Chicago for the British Airways flight , after a four hour delay, AND being boarded on the plane, the flight was CANCELED at around 10:00pm. [The ground crew had hit the plane and it was questionable how much damage was done to the plane.] The airlines put us up in a hotel in Chicago, as the next flights out were the next evening.
[BTW, There were no additional charges.]
The trip was fantastic, but such work, in addition to the covid paperwork/testing. BUT - I'd do it again!
Then on the way back, we received a surprise upgrade to FIRST CLASS- so All's Well That Ends Well!