Friends of mine had just decided about 99% that they have to cancel a trip in June. Of course their flights are non-cancelable. But this morning they got an email that their 8:45 AM departure from Ft. Myers to LAX (through Atlanta I think) has been changed to a 4:45 PM departure. If they were doing this trip, this would totally screw them up, as they were flying into LAX for just one day to visit friends before going to SF, and now they'd be getting there too late at night. It's Air Tran and there are no other flights from them.
Can they call, raise hell, and get their money back?

Usually, when an airline changes a flight schedule (especially by that much) you have the right to either accept it, or tell them it won't work, cancel, and get a full refund.

Shouldn't be any need to "raise hell." As dfr4848 says, in these cases, airlines generally offer a full refund for such drastic schedule changes if things don't work for the passenger.

I have not had this happen with Air Tran, but with other airlines. They have always allowed me either to cancel and get my $ back or rebook it to a more convenient time including date changes.

I would go to the airline's website and search for "contract of carriage" which should have the fare rules. You can also call the airline and ask them about the, but the agent may not know the rule. I had an issue with United once where I was able to change my flight since they had a schedule change. I had to be very persistent though since my departure time only changed 5 minutes. I was changed to a connecting flight with a 4 hour layover versus the original 1 hour when I had purchased my ticket. It was quite maddening trying to explain that my itinerary changed 3 hours even though my departure time only slightly changed.

This has happened to me twice with American Airlines. Both times I called an agent and they were completely agreeable to changing or getting a refund - don't know what the real rule is or how Air Trans handles situations such as this. I'd be interested in knowing the answer.

In your case, no problem getting a refund.

In <b>misterfuss's</b> case, he was lucky. 5 minute schedule change does not give you the same customer rights.

No need to raise hell.

I once lucked out myself. After making the reservation to fly into San Jose, we really needed (wanted) to fly into SFO. They wouldn't change it of course, but as luck would have it, they had a schedule change of something like 6 hours, so then they let me change it to arrive at SFO. (That was AA).

So it looks like by a fluke my friends who were going to cancel the trip and lose the entire cost of two tickets now will get a refund. I love it when that happens.

AAFF - the five minute change in departure would not, but the resulting three hour change in arrival sure would be the basis for a refund request.

<i>AAFF - the five minute change in departure would not, but the resulting three hour change in arrival sure would be the basis for a refund request.</i>,

that's what I thought I said....

"In your case, no problem getting a refund.
In misterfuss's case, he was lucky. 5 minute schedule change does not give you the same customer rights."

"AAFF - the five minute change in departure would not, but the resulting three hour change in arrival sure would be the basis for a refund request.,"

"that's what I thought I said...."


No, AAFF, I think you said that he was "lucky" to get a refund with a five minute departure change. Why would you say he was lucky to get a refund when at the same time it meant a three hour arrival change? I think Seamus is saying that luck had nothing to do with it -- that would be normal to get a refund.

okay, I re-read the post, but it doesn't pertain to this thread.

<i>I had an issue with United once where I was able to change my flight since they had a schedule change. I had to be very persistent though since my <u>departure time only changed 5 minutes.</u>

The above poster was stating that s/he had to fight with the airline to put them on on the same connecting flight they were on originally.

In your friend's case, they want to cancel and what I was trying to say, is that if the schedule change was only 5 minutes, they would not be able to get a refund.

I guess my point is to read up on the contract of carriage to know what rules apply. My departure flight changed 5 mins but the new connection arrived over 3 hours later than originally ticketed. I had a difficult time convincing the reservations agent that I was entitled to change or cancel my flight based on their own rules since my itinerary had changed the arrival drastically despite the minimal change in departure time.