How to deal with airline schedule change

It's unclear to me whether your trip consists of two different carriers since a linked trip would not have this problem (i.e. they could not schedule segment C before you arrived at segment B)

If I misunderstood something, then just call them and ask that they put you on a flight that works for you. If the schedule change is "major", the onus is on them to put you on a more reasonable flight that does not force you to front another hotel night stay.

Your "rights" are spelled out in the terms of carriage for your ticket - read it carefully, it's your contract with the carrier.

i have had the same problem and was able to get a refund from them and book with another airlines. Seems there is a get out of your ticket rule when they change your ticket times.

To clarify--the entire trip was booked through American Airlines. The flights to Edinburgh are operated by American and both legs of the return are operated by US Air, which, as I understand it, has merged with American.

The computer that automatically reassigns reservations is a bit simplistic, and often needs human intervention.

They normally don't come up with routing changes automatically, but you should be able to sort one out on the phone where there is no alternative without a fee.

Definitely call American. There was obviously a hiccup in the computer.

US Airways is in the homestretch of being completely folded into the American Airlines system - signage, airplane paint jobs, etc. Something got goofed-up during this operation, it seems. It's entirely true that the US Airways flight doesn't exist anymore; in time your reservation may show the flight again, only as an AA flight. I'd definitely give them a call, though. You'd hate to stay dropped-out of your return flight...

And keep watching your reservation b/n now and your departure time (which is always good advice anytime).

A similar thing happened to me last year. We booked a flight on Virgin America from Oakland, CA to Portland, OR. VA has about 3 or 4 flight per day on that route. We booked the an afternoon flight. A few weeks out from the trip, they decided to no longer offer that afternoon flight, and "changed" the flight to one that leaves the day after. Being that this was a short weekend trip, flying out the next day was not an option. I find it insulting for the airlines to call that a "change." If they were to move the flight by an hour or two I could understand. But putting flight on a completely different day is basically a cancellation. I called them immediately and just told them to cancel it altogether and we flew Southwest instead. I know in your case it's a bit more complicated. But do check the terms/conditions (i.e., fine print) of your ticket and see what it says about changes made by the airlines. I imagine that they should not charge you for changes you did not request yourself.

OK You have done step 1. Find the flight you want vs. the flight they just assign you

Now on to step two. Call, the longer you wait the less likely you are go get what you want.

No, you won't be charged for the change but if you wait and others move that option you currently see (connecting in Seattle) may be sold out.
(And any airline could have done this. You do run a higher risk on the AA/USAir due to the ongoing merger!)

As Carol stated this can - and DOES - happen with all airlines, but the AA/USA merger is probably going to get a bit messy; all mergers have their problems...

It sounds like you aren't signed up for AA's Phone Alerts. I highly recommend that you sign up for these today! Voice &/or text messages about all things - if a flight has changed time/flight number/gate...sometimes months in advance, but be warned that the phone will ring 3 hours before your flight (if on time) or even earlier if the flight has changed, so it may wake you up :-( BUT it's nice knowing that you have an extra 2 hours to get to the airport, or that you don't have to kill yourself running for the gate in the next terminal because you just got a text stating that your gate is now right in front of your TSA area! If you are sitting at the gate, you'll probably get notification that your flight has been delayed before the gate agents make an announcement :-) If you flight ever gets cancelled, getting the alert before everyone else in the gate area also means being able to call AA and get your flight changed before The Masses. I've even gotten an alert at the beginning of a 3-hour drive to the airport that my flight had been cancelled, and since my routes are always completely full, I was able to call immediately and snag a rare unoccupied seat on a flight the next day. Who knows when everyone else was able to be accommodated? Many, if not most, of them didn't find out for another 3-4 hours.

It'd be nice if you let us know how this all unfolds for you. Good luck!

Call the airline, TELL them what YOU want. Tell them how this (having to spend the night) messes up whatever it messes up in your life. Ask to speak to a supervisor, hold your own. They should pay for your overnight, meals, taxi, and any extra costs you might have at home (taxi, dog sitter, house sitter, etc.) If what they offer you in $$s is not enough, hold your own, and likely you will see it increase in $50 increments of an offer (but be reasonable in what you request and why you are requesting it). In the meantime, check the prices and costs of taxis in Philadelphia (so you will talking from a position of strength).

If you are lucky, you will be able to negotiate an upgrade in your airline seats on one of your flights, but said seats have to be available (and likely they are not). But, you might be able to negotiate extra FF miles or a voucher toward your next flights, etc. Does not hurt to ask.

This happens a lot. It happened to us with another airline. In fact, my flights were changed 3 times, and the second time I discovered. It the last time, the rep calling me told me a flight no longer existed (I looked on line while I was talking with her), but it did. I didn't take kindly to be told something that was not true, but it put me in a better negotiating position. The key is to be extremely polite, yet firm.

Good luck.

It is a pain, but unfortunately it is just part of what the airlines do these days. It's not exclusive to American...problems with all of them. Document who you talk with and what they tell you...then check schedules. If you want to be routed on another airline (for the convenience of commitments you have at home, ASK them to do that (you might not get that), but it sure does not hurt to ask.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

You are lucky that you are finding out about this change now and this wasn't a change that took place after your trip had commenced.

I was on flight last year on United from Frankfurt to San Francisco with a change over in Washington DC. The brilliant people at United sold me a flight where the change over in DC is 50 minutes. This is an impossible connection considering DC is the first point of entry into the US on this flight and one needs to pick up their baggage, go through customs, and transport themselves between two separate terminals. Needless to say, me, and most of the other people missed this connection. We were able to get on a later flight that evening, but we were one of the lucky ones.

Yep, this happened to us last year. I booked tickets months ahead with front row Economy Plus seats in both routes: Seattle-to-Atlanta-Zurich. Our plans were to arrive early in the morning at Zurich and take the trains to Wengen, Switzerland. A few months before the flight, we were reassigned to land in a different location than Atlanta, and take off BEFORE the flight landed.

I called Delta with the requirements (must be able to meet the train schedules to Wengen), and which itineraries we would accept. For instance, I won't take a connection that less than 1.5 hours for an international connection. It wasn't ideal to go through JFK, but we landed in Zurich and had a wonderful vacation.

If they force you to stay overnight, they need to pay for a decent hotel. I would recommend being friendly but firm on the phone. Call them with options that will work for you.

I've always had luck changing to whatever flight I want when they have a schedule change - just login and find whatever flight you want - doesn't have to go through the same place. Call and tell them you had a big schedule change which isn't going to work - so could you please change on to XXX flight and give all the details. I've always had them change it right away.

Good luck!
Kim

I think you could use this to your advantage! I think stopping part way in your journey and spending the night in Philadelphia is not a bad way to deal with breaking up the jet lag/tiredness issues. Ask them to pay for the hotel since their canceling of the flight means an overnight stay. It can be a pretty long haul to go all the way to the west coast on a connecting flight the same day. This could actually work out to be a plus.

We called American and pointed out that their new itinerary was physically impossible and they didn't seem at all surprised. I'm guessing we weren't the first to have this issue. We were transferred to a very nice woman who worked hard to get us the Seattle flight we asked for. She said the goal was to get us home on the 30th and never even suggested that we spend the night in Philadelphia. Happily she was finally able to book us on the flights we had requested and assured us there was no charge. It took quite a while (35 minutes on hold to talk to an actual person, plus another 40 minutes to finalize the arrangements) but she was very apologetic about the mix up and the time it was taking to correct the problem. All in all I'd rate customer service as good. And Eileen--thanks for the tip! We will be signing up for the alerts, but I'm going to check our reservation every week or two anyway. I'm back to being excited for our trip! Thanks to everyone for the advice and encouragement--it really helped my frame of mind!

YEA!

I think a huge source of fear and dread is that when these situations come up, we know they should be solved with just a quick call or email - it's obvious what the problem is, and the solution is just as obvious. The problem comes when we call...and call...and call...then when we reach a Real Live Person things go downhill and fast. They're trying to solve a problem you don't have, while ignoring your pleas to just fix the real problem. Then...your call gets dropped......AND you start the entire process all.over.again. Then comes the implication that you're darned lucky that the company is willing to do ANYTHING for you...and, OH, it's gonna cost you $$$. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...

PJ, thankfully, this call went the way it should have gone...well, except for the whole (probably merger-related) software issue...but these things do happen. We just have to stay on top of things...just one more thing to add to our pre-travel lists ;-)

And DO periodically check on your flight (if at all possible!) while you're traveling. Little gremlins like to play in the meantime...

PJ,
Thanks for sharing the good news. It's always good to a hear a "happy ending" to an airline snafu :)

Safe travels, and have fun!