Has anyone else had a schedule change occur 2 or more times for a single flight? I am flying home for Christmas (DFW to BWI) and was flying Christmas Eve, then it was changed to an earlier time that day. So I called and had it changed to Christmas morning. Now, it was changed again and I am landing late Christmas Day. Other airports in same arrival area also don't have feasible landing times on AA.

I have composed a letter to send to AA directly as I know it is operational changes, but at the same time it really messed up both work and personal schedules. I am definitely considering another airline. The PLT desk said I could change (again) my flights or cancel completely for no fee. And, times could change again the rep told me. The scary thing is, I paid for first class just because it was the holidays. I guess they'll lose that revenue for a potential upgrade from someone else.

 

Over what length of time? Several months, or just in the last few weeks?

 

This occurred twice in the last week; 10/28 and then 11/4. I hope it doesn't keep happening unless this is a frequent holiday tradition of some operational shuffle game.

 

Happened to me three days in a row - DFW-PHL for flight 10/14! Called and got it changed for free because it was 6 hour shift earlier in the day. It worked out in my favor though as I was able to eliminate an ORD connection. Then for the next two days I got additional change notices- 1 for flight number change only and the other for a 5 minute earlier departure on return. It certainly was bothersome.

 

Barring any last minute operational issues, the schedule changes should stop at this point. The scheduling department is most likely doing some last minute tweaking of schedules around the holidays. They may be seeing extremely light loads late on Christmas Eve and early on Christmas morning. Therefore, they decided to cancel those flights only for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

No conspiracy going on at AA! Just normal holiday tweaking. It can be very frustrating as a passenger. I've certainly been affected in the past.

 

As aggravating as it is, AA isn't the only airline that does the "holiday tweaking"... the same thing happened to us for a Christmas Eve flight last year on UA. We said , "AA would NEVER have done this to us!!"

 

It is just a pain changing work schedule and family schedule, and then having to do the same thing later on. I just told family and work that it'll probably happen again. Other carriers don't have non-stop flights and some cost a lot more. My dad said they'd just have a Russian Christmas this year. haha.

Positively, I just had a nice first class flight back to DFW earlier tonight.

 

I booked an Award ticked for Christmas back in February. I originally booked a 12:10 pm return flight (it was non-stop flight). Two weeks ago, I got a Shedule Change Notification email saying that now I am on the 8:35pm flight. It looks like they cancelled the 12:10pm and accomodated everyone in the only other direct flight at 8:35pm. I would've been upset if I hadn't decided already that I wanted to stay a little longer that day (New Year's). Eight hours is a big difference.

 

So I booked/tickets on Oct 8 for depart 12/24 (late night) and return 12/26. AA had an operational schedule change so I called to have a new schedule that day because their change didn't suit my travel time and I made my depart date be 12/25 in the early morning with a return of 12/27.

Later that same week a had another schedule change which canceled that early morning flight and had me landing in the afternoon of Christmas Day!!! Work wouldn't budge with the 24th travel time and I had to keep that schedule. So I did nothing more.

Today I called because work said it was okay to leave on the 24th. AA is telling me that there is an undocumented rule that one must called as soon a possible after an AA Operational schedule change to update their flight (for free). I talked to two supervisors and one eventually said, "Ok, I'll go ahead and make an exception this one time." She tried to update itinerary but the system was charging me a $170 fee ($100 change/70 fare diff). There was 19 days since this latest AA change. Then she said, "sorry, there's nothing I can do for you." I called back about 30 minutes later and a rep told me that I waited too long, but couldn't find any documentation on it.

Am I stuck at this point? She even made sure I knew that PLT or even EXP status has nothing to do with anything of this nature.

 

I think your only recourse is to ask for a refund. That said, it's a pretty crummy way to treat an elite customer.

 

My outgoing was paid class N and return was paid class P. I can try and see - I have to look up my fare code basis. Too bad my outgoing was the one to change being economy!! Go figure.

 

I called to cancel my reservation, but then happened to ask if I could change. The agent said yes because there was a valid schedule change for a second time. The agent changed it, no supervisor required.

So I am sending a letter to their attention to thank them for doing what 4 other reps, and 2 supervisors, couldn't do. And for keeping a pax from going to another carrier.

 

IMO that's exactly what should have been done in the first place. It's unfortunate you had to spend so much time on the phone, but it's seems your perserverance paid off.

 

Part of me wants to say it's crap that they do it... part of me thinks... with everything going on, the few times is does happen, what's the big deal?

My only issue is those emails they send us saying "there has been a change" never actually tell you what's changed... just the new schedule... i've had to call the plat desk to ask only to find out the flt number has changed or the departure time is 7 minutes later...

 

I save the orignal email confirmation they send me. Then if it says the schedule changed, I pull that up and compare it to what aa.com now shows and can see the change. (I found, for example, that they recently added 30 minutes to the JFK-FCO flight, and moved the FCO-JFK flight 30 minutes earlier, by doing such a comparison on a booked flight that says in red that something's changed.)

The equivalent alternative, obviously, would be to save (in a printout, or a saved web page) the aa.com page that shows your itenerary.

In each case, this allows you do to do the comparison yourself without having to ask them what it is.