How often do you check your airline reservations?

For international flights, I check my itinerary once a week. My sister and I went to Paris last September and bought tickets in March. We checked once a week. It was a good thing too because the airline switched planes twice from D.C. to CDG so our seat sel-ections disappeared. We wanted to sit together and picked new seats each time, but if we hadn't been paying attention we wouldn't have sat together. Not once did the airline e-mail us with the changes. Small issue, I know. I've heard stories from other people on this site in which their airline canceled whole legs of their trip and they didn't know until they got to the airport.

If I book with Orbitz, they e-alert me to death. I haven't had many airline changes that caught me by surprise - the only ones I check are the ones that have a tight connection or it's really important for me to know if anything changed (usually regional carriers overseas, not major airlines) - for example, a regional connection in Argentina that I couldn't afford to miss. Other than that, I only check once, if at all. I did get hosed by United at Christmas time (I didn't check) but their whole IT and reservation system was in meltdown mode after their merger, so I'm not surprised it fell through the cracks.

On a overseas flight, I care where I sit. Once I had a flight rescheduled that resulted in missing a connecting flight. More than once my seat has been moved to a less favored seat. Before reading about the changes made without notice on this helpline, I was oblivious and thought it was a last minute glitch of unknown origin and shrugged it off. Now I am going to re-check and if something still happens, I am going to follow Rose's example and respectfully request it be "fixed".

Thanks for the input. Sarah, that is exactly what happened to us, altho we had 5 we were trying to seat together. I wasn't on top of it and we wound up scattered around, but I learned a lesson (mostly because I took the non-economy comfort seat!). Agnes, I booked directly with the airline, so didn't know Orbitz e-mailed a lot. I do have a tight connection coming back in to my small local airport. If I miss it I am stuck in SLC for the night, but it is what it is. I will keep checking altho those particular flight times have been the same for years. I am thinking I will have info on SLC hotels just in case. Richard, thanks I wasn't aware of tripit.com. I will look in to that as well.

Never. Who cares where you sit?

Actually, Ed, I DO care where I sit and it's not because I am traveling with kids. I will always go Economy Comfort if there is a choice and I will not sit in one of the "middle middle" of 4 across in Economy again if I can help it. Having my knees more or less up against the seat in front of me for the flight from SEA -> AMS was something I don't want to have to repeat if I can avoid it.

The question was frequency of checking. I don't and always have a ride which is what matters to me. I've made eight transoceanic and a half dozen almost coast-to-coasts this year. I've got a transpacific and another transatlantic already booked and the year's just half done. If I had to keep checking on stuff I'd never have time to actually do it. I try to use my time for the more important stuff. Edit: I forgot Tasmania in April. Toss in two more completed transoceanics up there somewhere.

I always join the miles club of any airline I fly on and then sign up for alerts. When I receive an alert that there's been an equipment change, I contact the airline to be sure my requested seat assignments have not changed. I've never had a problem, except once when due to a change in the seating configuration between a wide-body and a narrow-body plane, I was moved to an undesirable seat. I told the airline the change was made without my knowledge or consent and they needed to fix it. They apologized and bumped me to Economy Plus at no extra charge.

I check at least once a week, and not necessarily because of the seat assignment (never had that change on me), but because of the potential change in flight time, etc. This past June, had my connecting flight in Philly (coming from Rome originally) switched to a flight three hours later. I had to call and have it switched back to the original earlier flight in the day. The sales rep could not answer why they had switched this on me, or why I had not gotten an email notice. Had I not checked, I would have been sitting in the Philadelphia airport for an additional three hours after a transatlantic flight. Not fun!

I never checked reservations until two years ago, when a random check of our Delta reservation revealed that our flight was now arriving in Atlanta AFTER our overseas flight had departed. Now I check every month or two ... not so much for equipment or seat changes, but for schedule changes. On our upcoming September trip to Turkey/Greece, Turkish Airlines moved its flight up an hour with no notification, which would have caused us to miss our overseas connection in Toronto; I was able to switch our flight to United. Last week I noticed that Aegean Airlines had cancelled our flight from Lesvos to Athens in late September. When I contacted them, they were kind enough to rebook us on an Olympic Air flight. But had I not checked while there were still Olympic seats available, we would have been looking at a 12-hour ferry ride. I always sign up for email alerts but seldom receive them. Checking doesn't take long and just makes sense.

I have been fortunate, I guess. The most that has ever changed on me was a flight time that got moved 30 minutes later. I had a four hour layover, so that was no big deal. But I tend to check my flights whenever I think about it, no particular schedule. Last year I booked an Economy Comfort bulkhead seat in January for a May flight, and I was just sure that it would get changed to accommodate someone else - but it never did. I tend to check more often as the date of travel gets closer.

Don't check... had a few times when things changed and it might have done some good, but they fixed all when I got to the airport. I could say I don't have time, but if I didn't spend a lot of time here reading about other people's trips I suppose I could check... but I know I won't.. ( I fly Delta 90% of the time so with silver or gold status I usually get decent seats)

The question was frequency of checking. I don't and always have a ride which is what matters to me. Yes, Ed, the original question was regarding frequency. You mentioned who cares where they sit. I do know from reading your knowledgeable posts that you fly often and widely. Your litany of destinations is enviable. I am just returning to international travel and it is still new and exciting to me. I tend to be a controlling personality and want to have an impact on what I can, but am content to let things go that I can't control. Before I traveled in May, the previous time was in ~1987 and the travel sands have shifted dramatically since that era when the travel agent arranged your tickets and I went to a university library and photocopied pages out of a London phone book to get hotel addresses in the postal code I was interested in staying in. I appreciate knowing how others handle their airline reservations to be alert to changes in seat assignment and schedule. In addition to the seat issue, flying in and out of a small airport with limited flights per day a schedule change can really mess with getting out or back in. Thanks to all! It is very interesting to me to see how different folks handle this!

I check at least once a week--usually on Saturday, as Friday night is when United (with whom I usually fly) usually makes such changes. Over on FlyerTalk, in the United Forum, there is a long and oft-updated thread about checking your itineraries. Airlines do make changes to itineraries beyond just changing the seats, sometimes resulting in little nasties such as negative connection times. Like you, but unlike Ed, I like to know about these things and take care of them before I arrive at the airport to leave for vacation. Vive la difference...

Interesting Eric, I had no idea there could be a specific timing on changes. I would have guessed it was totally random, but it is obvious I am inexperienced! How do you find out when your airline of choice does their updates? My local choices are Delta/SkyWest or Alaska/Horizon with a connection to usually Delta/KLM in SEA. Is that on FlyerTalk?

Recently while riding one hour in a shared shuttle van from home to my departure airport I received 6 email alerts from both Orbitz and American Airlines (3 each!) of 3 gate changes for my outbound international flight leaving in 3 hours. Yes, I could simply check the monitors when I get to the airport, but I like to be aware ahead of time of as many details as possible whenever flying. Then the monitor check becomes a final confirmation before I begin the inevitable long walk down the concourse.

I usually check reservations for flights once every 2/3 weeks up to 6 weeks or so before travel. Then I check twice a week. But I make sure I'm signed up for email alerts. I also follow closely things like airline mergers that might affect me.

Thanks Richard. I didn't find anything specific yet on FlyerTalk (or the Air Travel forum on TA or on some travel blogs related to Delta)regarding the day of the week Delta might use to schedules. Thanks for the info on the 72 hrs or less as well. Good grief Rose. Well at least my departure airport is pretty simple. 2 gates. One Delta/SkyWest, one Alaska/Horizon, lol! The person on the desk has to close down in order to be the person at the gate.

Pam, lucky you. I'd love to have that kind of airport simplicity, and did have once. The airport I use most frequently has several different terminal buildings! Of course, along with simplicity goes fewer choices, and I do like having many different options to choose from.

Yes, you are right about the fewer choices. To hook up with a nice SEA -> AMS flight there is always a 6 hour layover in SEA so it is a trade off. Plus if something is cancelled due to the aforementioned weather or mechanical issues you are pretty much SOL.

We check somewhat often as schedules change and can dramatically impact ability to make connecting flights for us in the hinterlands. Also, aircraft and therefore preferred seats can change as well. During long layovers in Seattle, which are frequent, we take the the light rail from SeaTac to downtown.

A few years ago we were going to Ireland and had a connection out East. Near our departure date the airline changed our flight out of Minneapolis to a later flight with a much shorter layover in Newark. I did some research and found that the flight out of MPLS was consistently late and we would miss our connection to Dublin. Called the airline, described my situation and they agreed, at no cost, to change my flights for a longer layover in Newark. Lo and behold, as we were boarding our flight to Dublin our old flight from MPLS had not arrived and we would have missed our flight. They did not notify us of the changes, but I check my reservations every few weeks, more so closer to our departure date. J&D

Delta sends me an email if my itinerary changes so that is how I find out. I will check a few weeks before to see how full the plane is but never have had any surprises due to the email alerts that Delta sends if there is a change.

Charles, funny you posted. I happened to go in to my Delta account today to check the e-mail settings and I did have all the notifications marked...and was not notified when the flight had a change. Right now I have settled on checking every Monday or Tuesday altho I have not been able to find any indication if there is a certain day of the week that Delta up-dates it's schedules. I appreciate the input from all!

I purchased a Delta ticket from Tampa to Brussels, flying out of Atlanta the day before thanksgiving. I had also purchased economy comfort seats too, and chose where I wanted to sit. Well 3 weeks before my trip, i just so happened to check my flight, and to my dismay, it had been changed....to fly out of JFK. On top of it, they put us in coach, not in economy comfort. I was pretty mad as I wanted to fly out of the south, where snow may not be likely to delay my trip as it seeems some of our first storms of the year happen right before thanksgiving. I called the airline to complain a bit. they refunded our economy comfort fee I paid for in Atlanta and gave us economy comfort from JFK for a very reduced price. I was still worried about weather and crowds traveling the day before thanksgiving. Blue skies and JFK was so mellow, you could hear crickets chirping.
I also checked my settings and I had checked off to be notified about changes but never knew about the change until i just so happened to look.

Between business and pleasure I'm on a plane at least once a month. Most of my flights are on United, so I always seem to have 2-3 reservations going at any point in time, so when I'm in the United web site, I'll check out all the reservations. So today I booked a flight for business to Tampa. After booking on our company travel site, went to United to select my seats. Thought I'd check the flights to Fargo in October that I'd booked about a month ago. Sure enough, all 4 legs had a time changes, and two had an aircraft change and had to re-select seats. No issues with the time changes, just longer layovers. For the last trip to Italy, we booked our flights using miles 10 1/2 months in advance. At one point, 1 of the legs (Frankfurt to Florence) had been cancelled and not rebooked, nor was I notified.
Review connection times closely. If the connection time shrinks too much, and is no longer an "approved" connection, contact the airline, and ask to be booked on alternative flights. Do your homework in advance and know what flights you want to be on and be firm with the airline. Most flights are overbooked these days, so if you miss a connection, the best the airline might do is put you on a flight the next day. It's not so simple anymore as just getting on the next flight.