galelstorm

OK, I had finally found and booked our flights to Italy back in January through Orbitz ($991.00). Two stops, JFK and Rome, with roughly two hours between flights, just in case of problems. Today I received notification that Alitalia changed our return flight from Leaving Catania at 11:00 AM to 7:30 AM. Then once we are back in the States, we are JFK for six hours! Has anyone else experienced these changes? This is of course my first experience with Orbitz and Alitalia.

djkbooks

Airlines change their schedules all the time. Your changes aren't really that inconvenient and two hours at JFK may not have been sufficient. And, more changes could occur between now and your trip.

You might want to re-shop like the dickens, as usually when the airline changes your flights you can receive a full refund and start over. Though, you'll have to go through Orbitz...

djkbooks

Also, but again this may not be possible, since you booked with Orbitz, if you can find a more convenient flight than the one randomly rebooked for you, you can usually get changed to that one.

ira

Hi G,

>Can Orbitz/Airlines Just Change Your Itinerary?!!! <

It's the airline that changed the itinerary, not Orbitz.

YES, they do it all of the time.

iris1745

Hi gale; If you still want the 11am flight, what I do is go online and see if the flight is still available. If it is, then I like to check what seats are available. Usually there are seats available. You can do that online. Then call Orbitz or Alitalia, tell then there are seats available on the origional flight and tell then exactly what seats you want. It's worked without fail for us three times, twice in the US and once to Europe. iris1745/dick

doug_stallings

Gale, on your return, I would not feel comfortable with only 2 hours to connect in JFK. It's fine on the way out, but you need time to clear immigration and customs and then to re-check your bags, which really needs to be done an hour before the flight. Therefore, 2 hours isn't really enough time. I'd definitely advise you to stick with the flight with 6 hours waiting time. Have a nice lunch or dinner and relax a bit at the airport.

galelstorm

Orbitz did offer to see what was available when I called them yesterday, but I thought, why chnage if there are more changes possible down the road. Sage advice and thank you djk and doug, it's been MANY years since I traveled to Europe and I hadn't considered the customs matter. iris, I have been unable to book exact seats, even on the US legs of this trip. Both Orbitz and Alitalia say this isn't available yet.
I have waited five long years for this trip and am so excited. I will breathe deeply and try to relax a bit. Thank you all!

ira

Thanks to you, G, I checked my plane reservations for our upcoming trip and found that my wife still had her seat reservation, but I didn't.

It seems that they changed the equipment and the new plane didn't have row H.

It took a while, but we have our seat assignments again.

nytraveler

Yes, the airline can change schedules at wil. You have the option of accepting the change or finding a differnt flight that you prefer and getting a refund for the first tickets.

SCFoodie

galelstorm - you should be glad you booked through Orbitz. They will send you a notification every time there is a change in your flight itinerary - even if it is only a time change of a minute. And Orbitz will work with the airline for you to get a good resolution when major issues come up.

I had a flight booked directly with an airline last year and never received notification that the initial leg of my return flight was cancelled and that they had booked me on a different flight. If I hadn't been on the airline website and by chance checked my itinerary, the airline would not have contacted me until about 30 days from my departure date. Which might have dramatically cut down my options. Even with me calling the airline, it took 2 days of back and forth conversations to get a marginally acceptable resolution.

Then the same thing happened a couple of months ago, but since I had booked the flight through Orbitz, I received immediate notification. I called Orbitz, they contacted the airline and in about 20 minutes everything was taken care of. And I didn't have a 6.5 hour layover (domestic flight) which is what the airline had chosen for me!

I use Orbitz almost all the time, and have been a customer of their's since they started up.

Regarding the 2-hour layover at JFK, if you have only carry on baggage, it's do-able. With checked baggage it could be difficult.

sf7307

<i>I had a flight booked directly with an airline last year and never received notification that the initial leg of my return flight was cancelled and that they had booked me on a different flight.</i>

My son was booked on one last year (Ethiopia Airlines) and never received notification AT ALL. He booked through STA. Fortunately the new flight was 12 hours LATER than the old one, not 12 hours earlier LOL!

yk

SCFoodie - which airline was that?

I have tix with American Airlines for travel in April, and I received an email notification from them last month when the flight time was changed.

panecott

I once booked an American Airlines flight thru' Travelocity from NY to Mexico, with a change of planes in Dallas.

AA changed my return connecting flight to one that left Dallas before my first flight arrived! Neither Trav. nor AA notified me and I found out by accident a few days before departure.

I got no satisfaction from either company and they both acted as if I were the one at fault! Unbelievable, considering that they put me in an impossible position. I asked the AA agent if the connecting flight was going to wait for me and he said I was being ridiculous! LOL.

My hotel was nonrefundable b/c it was from a winning bid on Skyauction, so I wound up having to come home a day early. (In truth, I was just as happy b/c I was bored to tears in Cabo and a hurricane blew in on the last day, so I was lucky to get out when I did). But, of course, that's not the point.

SCFoodie

yk - Both instances were on Delta. On the first one (the one with no notification) the rep told me that they would have contacted me a month before the flight. I "discovered" the change about 3 months prior to our departure and had a tough time finding a flight that had available seats. I can't imagine what a tough time I would have had a month out!

panecott - That is like what happened to us! When Delta changed the return flight, they put us on one that arrived in Atlanta after our connecting flight was scheduled to leave. While we were able to change to a flight that was better for our vacation schedule, it involved spending the night in ATL, and Delta would not compensate us for that expense.