6 ms·

I've been going through this these past two weeks in Europe. I just need to do two short flights, one of them between two major cities. So far, it has cost me h

I've been going through this these past two weeks in Europe. I just need to do two short flights, one of them between two major cities. So far, it has cost me hundreds of dollars - ie, I've lost that much - and two dozen hours of lost time in phone calls, emails, and non-functioning websites and apps (of major airlines and subsidiaries). I currently have several hundred dollars in many cancelled flights apparently being refunded to me. Almost every flight time gets either changed or the flight gets cancelled, and Airbnbs get cancelled left and right as well. All of this post-confirmation. Secondary effects of these cancellations are having to rearrange schedules of connecting flights or accomodations, and thereby losing money. It's been a (first-world problem) nightmare. As of now, my first flight looks like it might actually happen, and I've given up on pre-purchasing my second flight, choosing instead to attempt to buy the connecting flight from the airport.

phaedrus 6y ago
My wife was recently traveling in Europe, and wanted to return early. She asked me to handle calling the airline to reschedule the return flight. It was exactly as you describe. Luckily I was talking to a very helpful airline employee, and (I guess?) because it was the airline trying to book the tickets (with themselves and other airlines for other legs of the trip), I wasn't charged for each booked-but-ultimately-fictitious flight. But even the airline employee seemed mystified. What would happen is she'd find and reserve the flights in her system, read me the whole itinerary, then get to the last step and say, "oh that's weird, <other airline> isn't accepting adding you to this flight." This happened three times, with different flights / different partner airlines. In the end the only thing which worked was to book an identical itinerary, same day of the week and times, just one week early - implying that the only "real" flight out only runs once a week.
- personlurking 6y ago
  >In the end the only thing which worked was to book an identical itinerary, same day of the week and times, just one week early My own booking problem and later "hack" is as follows: I think one mistake I made was to book my connecting flight (wiht another airline) within a few hours of my arrival time. In this kind of scenario, if airline A or B changes the flight time or cancels, then it messes up my flight with the other airline. Which means, in Covid times, it seems best to stay a day or two in the layover city rather than try to make everything line up before any flights have taken place. >implying that the only "real" flight out only runs once a week To try to figure out real flight likelihood, I had to piece together ever-changing gov't regulations about who can fly where, in regards to quarantines, with how the airlines might be responding to that news in their flight scheduling. And on top of that, pretend to book flights to figure out how full they are, then continuing to do this every other day even after my flight is booked, to get a gauge on how likely cancellation is.

phaedrus 6y ago

My wife was recently traveling in Europe, and wanted to return early. She asked me to handle calling the airline to reschedule the return flight. It was exactly as you describe. Luckily I was talking to a very helpful airline employee, and (I guess?) because it was the airline trying to book the tickets (with themselves and other airlines for other legs of the trip), I wasn't charged for each booked-but-ultimately-fictitious flight. But even the airline employee seemed mystified. What would happen is she'd find and reserve the flights in her system, read me the whole itinerary, then get to the last step and say, "oh that's weird, <other airline> isn't accepting adding you to this flight." This happened three times, with different flights / different partner airlines. In the end the only thing which worked was to book an identical itinerary, same day of the week and times, just one week early - implying that the only "real" flight out only runs once a week.

personlurking 6y ago
>In the end the only thing which worked was to book an identical itinerary, same day of the week and times, just one week early My own booking problem and later "hack" is as follows: I think one mistake I made was to book my connecting flight (wiht another airline) within a few hours of my arrival time. In this kind of scenario, if airline A or B changes the flight time or cancels, then it messes up my flight with the other airline. Which means, in Covid times, it seems best to stay a day or two in the layover city rather than try to make everything line up before any flights have taken place. >implying that the only "real" flight out only runs once a week To try to figure out real flight likelihood, I had to piece together ever-changing gov't regulations about who can fly where, in regards to quarantines, with how the airlines might be responding to that news in their flight scheduling. And on top of that, pretend to book flights to figure out how full they are, then continuing to do this every other day even after my flight is booked, to get a gauge on how likely cancellation is.