I have flights booked for September on Alaska Airlines and there's been a flight schedule change which makes my arrival 2.5 hours later than what I had originally booked. I also now have layovers of over 2 hours in each direction. Since this is for a long weekend trip, I wouldn't have chosen these flights as they are scheduled now. Am I entitled to a refund if I'm not happy with the new schedule? What's the general rule on this? Just want to find out what my 'rights' are if any before calling. Thanks.

Patty, I'm not sure what your exact rights are, but if I was in your shoes, I think would check to see if there are flights being offered that are closer to what you would like to have. Then call in to discuss whether or not you can be reaccommodated on your preferred schedule. Failing that, you might even want to look at an alternative trip with the value of the tickets and ask to have the change fee waived, due to the circumstances.

Whatever you do, your goal should be to get this taken care of all in one call (don't hold an open credit without a trip booked; these things tend to get lost.) Get the name and location of the rep that you deal with.

The longer layovers aren't welcome, but two hours isn't extraordinarily long, either. Arriving 2.5 hours later isn't a great deal either, but I am guessing that the schedule change is not going to be significant enough to make a case for a refund. As a person who does longer weekend trips from time to time myself, I can certainly understand the lost value that a few hours can really represent in such itineraries. I can't find it right now, but it seems to me that the "line" for claiming refunds, etc. on schedule changes was always something like four hours. Maybe someone else has a fix on that and it may even vary by carrier.

If you want some "expert" advice, you might want to post this question on:

www.flyertalk.com

You'll get plenty of advice from savvy fliers there.

Yes, a full refund is an option.It is AlaskaAirlines Rule 260(NOT to be confused with Rule 240!) as follows
http://www.alaskaair.com/www2/compan...c_section6.asp
HTH...............S

Call AS and ask if there is anything closer to your original schedule. Occasionally the re-schedule is done by a computer, which doesn't pick the best alternatives, whereas a person could find something better. If not, and this schedule is not acceptable to you, you are entitled to a full refund. The only problem with that is that sometimes you can't find anything cheaper for the same destination especially if it's close to departure, so you will have to decide if you want to change destinations, dates or are you willing to live with the new arrangement.
Regardless of the other possibilities, YOU ARE ENTITLED TO A FULL REFUND, if that's what you want.
Good Luck!

Thanks so much for the info! I called AS and there weren't any better options since they've reduced the number of flights on this route. They said a refund was no problem. I'm going to rebook on Delta. Their fare is little higher but much better schedule which I think it worth it for a short stay.

Glad to hear you were able to get this taken care of and I'm happier still that some savvy fliers came onto this thread. It looks like Alaska Airlines has a very fair policy on this. I'm not sure that all carriers are the same with this kind of thing, but I will be mentally filing the information away for future reference.

Just be ready for changes. It is possible that Delat's schedule may change as well.