We (7 adults and teens) are due to travel DL IAD - ATL - JNB r/t in Dec/Jan 08 - 09. Biz class, most of the tickets paid for, one with miles upgrade. We do not have any flexibility in arrival or departure times, really, as this is an expensive, long planned for vacation over the school winter break.

What are the chances that DL might cancel some flights, or otherwise change our reservation? Is there anything that I could do to prevent changes, and what rights do I have if it happens?

I am not normally a worrier, but the situation with the airlines does not lead me to be confident.

Very good chance, nearing 100%, the schedules could be changed. Nothing you can do to prevent it. Chances of advance cancellation are all but nil, but weather and circumstances of the day may necessitate last minute adaptation.

If the changes are minor (like under 90 minutes or so) there's not much you can do. If larger than that, or cancelled, you will have the option of accepting those changes or getting a refund. They will probably not put you on another carrier.

If you are concerned, get travel insurance.

Just had 4 out of 5 flights cancelled or changed on a flight to, and from New York on Delta. Coming home, it was weather related, but going, it was lack of a crew to fly us. So it messed up the subsequent flights. You wouldn`t know any of this ahead of time. Good luck!

I made Delta reservations for January. Let's pray and hope, MomLiz!

My flight Newark-San Juan for October was canceled (both legs). Continental put me on another flight (same day). However, I am connecting to another airline to Virgin Gorda and the new time (the return leg) does not work with the other airline (None of the other times on Continental that day worked). I had to bite the bullet and pay the change fee with the other airline.

They will tweak the times several times before you leave. But they can and might cancel a route all together.

We lost 2 days of our vacation to Barbados because DELTA went from flying there 4 days a week to only one (Sunday).

We booked the tickets in August for a trip in May.

The change hit in February.

FF Miles bought the tickets.

They offered to refund the miles but we had already paid for the house in Barbados.

We got one day back by having them fly us to St Lucia and we paid to fly ourselves on to Barbados. (4 people +$100 EACH)

Flights change often and without warning. (They will only contact you within a 30 day window.)

I have several trips scheduled on Continental in the fall, and all of them have been changed. One had me coming and going from the wrong cities. You just have to keep checking your reservations. I expect my trips to be changed several more times before I actually fly. I check them every week so that I have plenty of time to react. 2 of the trips involve connecting flights booked on other airlines. Even though I left plenty of time between flights, it's possible that further changes will affect those flights as well.

I think it's very likely something will change, if only an adjustment in times. Trip insurance would be a good idea.

Well, I think you might be in for some changes, but I would be mildly surprised if any of those changes were drastic enough to change the dates.

Look at your flights, the first is IAD to ATL. Even if they cancelled some frequencies, this is a pretty heavily scheduled route. And if you could be flexible leaving from either DCA or BWI, it gives you even more options. So getting to ATL is not likely to be a problem.

As for the second flight, my understanding is that the South African routes are doing very well for Delta, so I just don't see them doing much more than fiddling around with departure times for the ATL-JNB flight.

Again, no guarantees, but I wouldn't worry too much about this.

I agree that with your routes the chance of major change is unlikely, but schedule adjustments are certainly possible. Just keep checking regularly. There's nothing you can do to prevent and if the change is major enough, as noted, you can accept or cancel and get refund - and make other arrangements.

CO just canceled our daughter's return flight from ATH in Dec. The options they're giving us on other carriers is not good at all (no option to fly their current partners KL, AF, or DL - which would make the most sense). So we'll probably cancel entire ticket, get refund and start over. Not fun!

Thanks for your advice, all. Yes, I'm not too worried about IAD - ATL, as long as w have enough time to make our connection. And, my thoughts were that ATL - JNB wasn't going to change either. But, it seems that the airlines are changing, and having to deal with so many more variables these days, as are passengers, so I was a little concerned. We do have insurance, this trip was too expensive not to pay a little extra, and the cost of the insurance was a small proportion of the total price of the trip. We do spend one night on arrival in JNB then are off on safari the next day, and I do NOT want to miss that connection.