Airline changed schedule flights to impossible one - what can I do?
 

Booked return-from-cruise flight on Air Tran for end of Feb. school vacation week. Today got phone call message changing our flight to one that is too early in day (can not get there from cruise in time) - that is the impossible part.

The annoying part, which I know is just one of those airline things is that it is Miami-Chicago-Boston, something I tried to avoid during winter, with only 30 minutes to change planes.

At this point since it is a busy travel week only alternate itinerary I can find costs $150 more per person. Any suggestions?

it wasn't on Air Tran, but when another airline changed our flights to something unacceptable, I called and they changed it to something acceptable with no charge.

Check with the cruise line to see if you can still add a flight.

Same experience as Abram, but with AirTran. When one-way flight cancelled and they automatically rebooked us to earlier flight I called. If they had a later flight they would have changed us with no problem, but it was the last flight of the day. So in the end I cancelled for full refund and rebooked with another airline for about $10 more than I had originally planned.

Thanks - tried the cruise-line flight idea - website says no longer accepting add-a-flight, but might be worth a phone call.

Only other AirTran flight later in the day would involve waiting about 3 hours at Miami, then having a 3 1/2 hour layover in Atlanta and then on to Boston.

Mess is bigger since it is a one-way ticket (strangely, least expensive way to book was one-way south on AA and north on AirTran).

Good to hear they may give us refund - may just have to eat the $150/person.

As mentioned, you can cancel for full refund.

JetBlue usually has attractive 1-way fares. They don't fly from Miami, but they do have non-stops from Ft Lauderdale to Boston. Ft Lauderdale is about 30 miles from the Miami cruise ship dock.

Call AirTran, and have the flight numbers ready that you want to change to.

Also Gail, if you change your cruiseline info to "independent traveler" you may be able to spend part of that three hours in Miami on the cruiseship. You will be last off, and some cruiselines allow you to wait in your cabin (Holland America), so go have a nice leisurely breakfast in the ship dining room, then back to your cabin to relax. All pax are usually off by around 10:30 AM though...what time is that flight?

British Airlines did something like this to me. They changed their schedule so they didn't have flight returning early enough in the day for me. When I called, they ended up buying my return on another airline.

Keith

End of story - we changed to later Air Tran flight - the one with the 3 1/2 hour layover in Atlanta. Air Tran tried to tell us we had to pay $198 more per person for that flight since cheap tickets were no longer available for that flight - we squawked enough to get them to honor original fare. Not happy that we leave cruise ship at about 10 AM and arrive back in Boston 12 hours later, but this was only option that did not cost us a great deal more money. Thanks again for all suggestions.