A litle lesson learned about booking flights in advance
 

I had a funny inner feeling the past couple of days. I had booked my November flight to San Jose back on June 1 of this year. I had a feeling that I would not be able to make a connecting flight. Anyway, after much overthinking, I decided to call the airline (Continental) and see if I needed to make any changes. It turns out it's a good thing I did! When buying a flight package far in advance, sometimes the airlines make changes to times, etc. within that time frame. Now we are coming home at a much better time, 4pm CR time. So we will be able to stay the last part of our trip a little farther from the airport those last couple of days. This part of my trip is still undecided. But this gives me way more options. All in all, be sure to check with your airline, you may be surprised, or not.

All four of my flights have changed flying to Mexico City and back from Cancun. I bought tickets long ago. I keep checking about once a week. One flight change was very significant as I couldn`t make the connecting flight on another airline either.

Yep. This happens to me all the time as well. They will assign you to whatever flight they want to though, so it's best to keep checking and keep on top of it so you can make sure they put you on the flight that works best for you (not them).

I set up an alert on the website of the airlines and they email me when there is a flight change. But now you have me nervous so I think I'll log on and check the flights that we have to Cancun (going to Akumal) in Dec. Thanks for the heads up!
Sally in Seattle

Beware the email alerts though! Last fall, Delta sent me 3 emails the day of my flight that it was 2 hours delayed. They even called around 2:00 and I had a long talk with a nice rep. about making my international flight connection in NY.

I was told and emailed to check in 2 hours late. At 3:30 Delta called again to say the flight was ontime, GET THERE NOW!

We made it in 15 minutes. Theen the Delta agent said that since it was 45 minutes until boarding, that I could board, but they could not check my one bag! Delta only had me for the domestic leg, I had booked the international myself on a different carrier. So as far as they were concerned, this was only a domestic flight and 45 minutes is within the rules.

Plus, I showed her the printed emails received THAT DAY from Delta, no luck. The agent was so rude I broke down and turned things over to my husband, (not an experienced flier and not coming with me that time),but I was so steamed I figured the next thing I said or did would land me in jail.

I did get another flight and did meet my mother at JFK in time for the next flight, but without any help from Delta. I wrote customer service and got the standard email letter reply.

I'm leaving this weekend on Delta again, if that same agent is there I figure my luggage will be on the next flight to Timbukto!

Moral here, don't rely on alerts the day of your flight and always get to the airpot extra early!

Ok now another dilemna. Now that I have the time straightened out, I noticed the prices went down for my flights considerably. Do I stand a chance of getting them reduced? Or am I dreaming. It would be a $300 per person savings.

AA will return funds if ticket prices go down after purchasing but I'm not sure about Continental. You should call.

Most airlines will charge you the change fee to change the ticket so you need to figure out if the savings is more than the fee to make the change. Definitely check with the airline.

Well, I did just that and called the airline. I could, indeed, get the difference, with a penalty. After the fee, I could receive the balance in the form of Continental airline voucher. Not worth the trouble now, but at least I am glad I tried. It would have been only 100 dollars in the long run. So much for buying a ticket 6 months in advance. I could have saved on cost if I was just patient. Gee, I am full of shoulda, woulda's and coulda's here!