Holly, did AA offer to change your flights to another departure city or date? Did they refund you completely (including taxes) without penalty for canceling your flights? Just curious. Right now we are looking into possibly using our friend's timeshare and just changing our dates altogether! So I have not yet called to see what they will do for us.

I just know in spite of all this hassle, it will be well worth it all once we are relxaing on the Aruban beaches!!

Return to One Happy Island, January 7, 2009!

per aa

i am relaying what the phone person at aa advantage international told me 1 hr ago.
the airline broke the contract when they changed the flights (times/layover/equipment)

if your ticket was purchased with $$
the airlines are required to refund your money fully move you onto a flight that is agreeable to you charge no fees for any of this

or

if your ticket was purchased with airlimes..............you have to take what is offered and if there are advantage seats on better flights, you will be accomodated at no additional charge....................no guarantees though.


clear as mud?

andrea

Sorry to hear about the change in AA flight. Hope everyone has time to adjust if they have to. I am flying from DEN on 10/26 with 2 other couples thru Charlotte and on to Aruba. 1 hour to change plains in Charlotte and departing DEN at 5:45am. Couldn't help but notice I may have made a mistake taking this flight on US Air...... Any insights much appreciated.

jadeno1....did you take into acct that there is a three hour time diff? that may affect actual times? are you flying aa or usair? one hr between international flights is cutting it close...worse on return flight though.
as far as my own flights...i never booked the aa flight...after i saw the $$$increase and flight time changes...i went with usair. have heard so many horror stories about usair....just gonna take our chances.

Thanks, Andrea, for this info. We purchased our tickets with a credit card and not airline miles, so that's good! I should know by mid-week next week if we will be able to use our friend's timeshare. Our dates are flexible, but the problem is that AA's non-stop is completely booked on the day we fly down. We may have to change our dates altogether, and hopefully that won't be a problem with AA. However, it could be a problem with the hotel!! I will feel better when this is all taken care of.

Return to One Happy Island, January 7, 2009!

holzeto1... I booked flying US Air the whole way Denver to Charlotte and then 1 hour layover before Charlotte to Aruba. Leave DEN very early ( 5:45am) which is a GOOD thing. Earlier yu leave in the am the better chance of ontime to Charlotte and making that connection. Could care less what happens on the way back. Just want flight out smooth. Bringing 3 other couples with us this trip. 1st time visitors to Aruba. Will be our 3rd trip. Will be taking our chances with US Air also???

Just as an update, I took your suggestions and called AA last evening to see what our alternatives were. Unfortunately, I was first dealing with a rude, uncaring ticket agent whose idea of an alternative was to book us out of Hartford via Miami to Aruba. Those flights were no better than what we were on, with a 5 hour layover down and 9 hour layover back!! He didn't seem interested in helping me at all and when I inquired about flying from Boston and possibly changing dates, he was quite fresh and told me he would have to assess penalties and the difference in cost. At that point, I asked to speak with his supervisor!

Ultimately the supervisor was able to book us on the non-stops out of Boston with no additional charges and changed our booking dates by one day on each end so we could fly non-stop on our return date. (AA flies non-stop from BOS every day but Wednesday, which was our original return day!) He told us that if he changed it by more than that, we would be charged the penalties and fees. So even though they only had a couple of single seats available, I grabbed the flights. My husband and I will not be sitting together on the way down, but we will be on the way back. Since we have five months to go, I am hoping for some cancellations on that flight so we can grab two seats together. I guess it's a small sacrifice to pay, right?

Thank you all for your support and suggestions. Anyone else out there who is unfortunate enough to be on the BDL-SJU-AUA flights, give AA a call. Hopefully they will be able to accommodate a change for you as well.

Return to One Happy Island, January 7, 2009!

we all have bad days at work.
i know i surely do.
but, i have to put on a happy face and pretend all is wonderful.

the air reservation folks at all of the airlines had better wise up imo. their job is customer care/service/sales.

no excuses allowed for a rude and uncaring ticket sales person that was in your opinion fresh too. no excuses whatsoever.

glad that you got your flights!!!!

and off topic IT IS FRIDAY

happy weekend all.

With the sometimes astronomical prices we pay in airfare, they have no right to be rude.

2 years ago my husband and I did not have seats together on the return flight home. When we were checking in at the Aruba airport, I totally forgot to ask about getting seats together, and the attendant kindly said "let's see what I can do to get you two sitting together". She was so helpful and kind to suggest a change, and she did indeed get us 2 seats together. Unfortunately, I swear that with airline employees you either get someone who is wonderful, or someone who is a bear - it seems there is no in between!