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Flight changes normal?

Just out of curiosity, I went to look at how many seats were filled on the flights to and from Germany and noticed some changes. The departing flight has changed the flight number completely and is 4 minutes later than the one I booked. The first one stops in Charlotte N.C. and it's the same.

The departing flight from Germany leaves 15 minutes earlier now. Just wondering if this is normal? I think I will call the airline tomorrow just to make sure we're still booked and everything is ok. But wonder if this is common?

Posted by
119 posts

I forgot to mention that over half the seats coming and going weren't filled yet. Will they cancel the flights if they don't get more people?

Posted by
23177 posts

No it is not uncommon for flight schedules to change especially if you booked it some time ago. The plane will go regardless of number of seats sold because it will have to pickup a load in Europe so you would be canceling two flights not just one. You can probably check you status easier on-line.

Posted by
9098 posts

The seat map isn't a good gauge of how full the plane is. Not every person that has a ticket has been assigned a seat yet

Posted by
85 posts

We made our reservations last July 2008 for a flight in March, 2009 and they changed drastically in Nov. I had to change them to suit our schedule (no charge).

Our flight from Newark, NJ-Frankfurt, Germany was only half full. It was so nice to get a whole row to sleep in. But the trip back was a full flight.

Posted by
14804 posts

When's the flight? The further out you make your reservations, the more common it is for flights to change.

Usually, if there is a change in time or flight number, the airline will contact you...if you left an email address.

I'd suggest you keep an eye on your flights. With the state of the airline industry, more and more changes will be made to save money.

Posted by
23177 posts

And you cannot check on your flights too often. After years of no problems, we were lazy two years ago and nearly got burned. USAir changed our first leg so that we would arrived one hour after the international flight departed. No notification of the change. The only thing that saved us was another communication error that put us at the airport an hour earlier than we had planned so we were just able to catch a United flight that got us to Philly in time. I am back to checking my flight schedules every week.

Posted by
119 posts

Frank II, I bought the tickets in January. I did go to their website and attempted to accept the new schedule/flight but I got an error message saying I couldn't do it on-line, so called the 1-800 # and the woman told me that it had in fact been changed but their website was acting up.

Got our new printout and e-mailed the other person traveling with us so they could change their's too. i will be checking every couple of weeks now. Thanks.

Posted by
805 posts

Its extremely normal. Airlines adjust their schedules slightly typically every three months or so. Just make sure you book a seat ahead of time and you won't have to worry about getting on...

Posted by
934 posts

One other thing.Airlines codeshare with other airlines and then combine flights if they dont have sufficient passengers for both flights.

Posted by
9098 posts

A code share already is a combined flight. It's planned out before tickets way in advance before tickets are even sold. I've never heard of a "last minute" combined flight. If any airline has multiple flights to a destination sometimes they will mysteriously cancel the earlier flight and put everyone on one plane.

Posted by
11507 posts

Last friday my friend made her final( non refundable) payment on a RS Family tour in June.

This monday AirTransat cancelled her flights, outbound June 5th and inbound June 23. Just erased them!
She was given a choice of some other flights, but dates and times would have had her spending a night overnight pre flight to Europe and post flight, ( arriving late at night after last flight to our city has left, and too early for first flight in) , and she would have had to stay three extra days in Paris, thats FIVE extra hotel nights.

She took refund and had to repurchase on a more expenisve airline ..

Airlines suck, they can do whatever the heck they want and you just have to shut up and take it.. .

Posted by
14804 posts

Kathleen, you still haven't answered my question:

When are you going? (Not when you bought the tickets.)

Posted by
119 posts

Frank II, sorry, read it wrong, we leave at the end of June.

Posted by
14804 posts

That's still plenty of time for change.....keep watching your flight to see if any more changes are made. Even up to the day you are leaving.

Airlines are hurting and doing whatever they can to save money.

BTW, once in Europe, it's also important to keep checking your return flight. It too can change.

Posted by
12172 posts

My last flight was Northwest and KLM. The flight plans went through several changes as they canceled flights. It ended up pretty close to what I first booked so I can't complain.