an airline horror story

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Cruise torpedoed by Delta change fees - Cruising- msnbc.com

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

And everyone scoffs at the notion that you should either book later flights or, even tack a day onto the front end of your trip or the back end of your trip. They also scoff at the idea of buying the package deal through the cruise line for both the cruise and the airfare. While booking through the airline does not provide coverage for any incident that might happen, they do a good job of notifing the airline that you'll be late, booking a hotel for you and getting you on the next flight at the lowest possible cost, if any cost at all.

We had the same thing happen to us in Barcelona Spain. The only difference was it wasn't weather but a fisherman's strike. Our travel insurance didn't cover fishermen's strikes (it was about 50/50 on which companies paid and which didn't). In our case, RCI chartered flights to get their cruise/air passengers home. Since there were extra seats, we were allowed to book on those flights for $700 each. Royal Caribbean did cover the hotel and transfer fee's for us.

When traveling out of the country it's best to not book your flights on the same day the cruise departs or arrives. It's rare but, when things happen it gets expensive fast. As the article points out, travel insurance is NOT comprehensive. Instead it's often a named peril and if what causes you to be late isn't an event named in the policy, you're often just out of luck.

Don't get me wrong, I still take the insurance. I just don't rely on it to always pay out and protect myself accordingly.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

It is interesting that in the lengthy thread commenting on this article on Flyer Talk, only one poster had been in a similar situation, when a cruise was delayed by fog putting into its final port at Venice, and the poster was late for his Alitalia flight from the Venice airport. In that case, Alitalia, although not at fault in the delay, rebooked the passengers on a later flight without any charge, and even gave them a hotel voucher.

This shows that there is a wide difference in airline responses. Alitalia was at a customer-friendly extreme and Delta at a customer-unfriendly extreme. Most airlines would probably be somewhere in the middle, with few giving a hotel voucher like Alitalita and few socking passengers with all of the fees as Delta. Most airlines have what they call a ''flat tire rule'' to accomodate passengers in such circumstances.

It all points to the need to pay careful attention to what insurance you buy and what airline you fly.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

It is interesting that in the lengthy thread commenting on this article on Flyer Talk, only one poster had been in a similar situation, when a cruise was delayed by fog putting into its final port at Venice, and the poster was late for his Alitalia flight from the Venice airport. In that case, Alitalia, although not at fault in the delay, rebooked the passengers on a later flight without any charge, and even gave them a hotel voucher.

This shows that there is a wide difference in airline responses. Alitalia was at a customer-friendly extreme and Delta at a customer-unfriendly extreme. Most airlines would probably be somewhere in the middle, with few giving a hotel voucher like Alitalita and few socking passengers with all of the fees as Delta. Most airlines have what they call a ''flat tire rule'' to accomodate passengers in such circumstances.

It all points to the need to pay careful attention to what insurance you buy and what airline you fly.

Airlines are, for the most part, airlines. Air Alitalia, if I'm not mistaken, has been in financial dire straits for some time now and on the verge of ceasing to exist. Since it's a foreign carrier if you're a U.S. resident, it could have been an even worse bet than Delta, not that Delta is all the great.

Interesting that at Flyer Talk only one person has been in a similar situation yet, on this smaller community I've been in the same situation. As it were, it was Delta who was my airline as well. There are many things that come into play and the airline is just one small part of the equation. Sometimes you just happen to hit it right with an airline and they're flexible. Other times money is tight and so are they when it comes to their rules. If the couple was a no call, no show, Delta didn't even have to give them credit when they missed their flight. I know in our case, since we were unable to call Delta thanks to being on a ship in a foreign port (there were other factors but it's a very long story), they even refused to give us credit for the unused portion of our RT non-refundable tickets.

One can not rely on the good graces of some large company to "do the right thing." You really have to look out for yourself and do everything you can to protect yourself by giving yourself plenty of time and knowing your options. You should also have at least one credit card with PLENTY of room on it for those unexpected situations that rarely come up, but do happen.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Actually, the Flyer Talk poster who had Alitalia go the extra mile for him was a US citizen who was flying back to the US after his cruise. Being a US resident did not stop Alitalia from treating him right.

While not exactly the same situation with a return from a cruise, I had a somewhat similar problem taking a stopover in Budapest between legs of an air journey to do a rail journey to Bosnia. Coming back from Sarajevo, the train had engine problems causing me to miss a rail connection in Zagreb by ten minutes, and there was no train, bus, or plane from Zagreb that could get me back to Budapest in time for my flight. I had thought I had left good time margins in both Zagreb and Budapest, but the scheduling of the few connecting services was such that nothing worked. My next scheduled air leg was on Moldavian Airlines, and when I went to the Budapest airport, the first person I talked to in the airline office quoted a new last minute ticket at about US$700 but as we were talking someone higher up came in, heard the conversation, interrupted and told her that the thing to do was just charge me a change fee which was less than US$100. I was certainly satisfied with that result. Moldavian Airlines is another along with Alitalia that I would rather be on than Delta if I ran into such a problem.

You probably have not heard the latest on Alitalia. They have got their ducks in a row, with a group of Italian businesses including a large LCC, Air One, buying them out of bankruptcy and merging Air One into Alitalia. AF/KLM has bought a 25% stake in the new Alitalia.

Airlines are, for the most part, airlines. Air Alitalia, if I'm not mistaken, has been in financial dire straits for some time now and on the verge of ceasing to exist. Since it's a foreign carrier if you're a U.S. resident, it could have been an even worse bet than Delta, not that Delta is all the great.

Interesting that at Flyer Talk only one person has been in a similar situation yet, on this smaller community I've been in the same situation. As it were, it was Delta who was my airline as well. There are many things that come into play and the airline is just one small part of the equation. Sometimes you just happen to hit it right with an airline and they're flexible. Other times money is tight and so are they when it comes to their rules. If the couple was a no call, no show, Delta didn't even have to give them credit when they missed their flight. I know in our case, since we were unable to call Delta thanks to being on a ship in a foreign port (there were other factors but it's a very long story), they even refused to give us credit for the unused portion of our RT non-refundable tickets.

One can not rely on the good graces of some large company to "do the right thing." You really have to look out for yourself and do everything you can to protect yourself by giving yourself plenty of time and knowing your options. You should also have at least one credit card with PLENTY of room on it for those unexpected situations that rarely come up, but do happen.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Travel agents, too, get the Delta treatment

It is not just the passengers who are on the receiving end of this treatment from Delta. Travel agents, too, regard them as ''exceptionally uncommunicative and unbending''. See the article at Travel Weekly

If an airline treats travel agents, who this day and time mainly book for high dollar corporate clients, this way, then they will certainly do it to Ma and Pa Kettle.