The reasons why flight schedule changes are frustrating can vary; but if you travel often enough, you invariably will experience one. If the change in the schedule of the flights on your itinerary is significant enough, you might be forced to eliminate some options of which you were planning on your trip while asking yourself, “Why can’t an airline have its flight stick to its schedule?”
Why Flight Schedule Changes are Frustrating.
Unfortunately, a plethora of factors affect the answer to that question — including but not limited to:
- Airlines plan their flight schedules as far in advance as 320 days
- Flights to new destinations may be added — or flights to current destinations may be discontinued — which can affect the schedules of other flights
- Ground times may need to be adjusted at a specific hub airport, which can cause a domino effect of changes to flight schedules at other airports
- Aircraft may not be available due to either scheduled maintenance or unforeseen maintenance occurrences that were not planned
- Different aircraft can be swapped out — sometimes multiple times — until the day of the flight
- Members of flight crews are typically not assigned until up to two months prior to the flight
- Fluctuating cost of fuel
- Slot restrictions and availability at airports, which may need to be reconfigured
- Changes in operating hours at airports
- Changes in passenger demand which can lead to changes in supply
- Updated security measures
- Strikes or labor actions
- Changes in government regulations
Changes in the schedules of flights are frustrating because:
- They can significantly change the itinerary of your trip
- You have the option to cancel your flight and obtain a full refund — even on tickets with the most restrictive fare classes — but if a free change of flight is not available to you, then you may be forced to pay the going rate for whatever flight options to the same destination are available; and they can be significantly more expensive than what you originally paid
- No other viable options may be available
One benefit to a change in the schedule of flights on an itinerary is that if for some reason you cannot — or prefer not — go on that trip after all, you will get the aforementioned full refund. I have fortunately been able to take advantage of that option when I absolutely needed to do so.
A list of policies for the changes of scheduled flights as defined by each airline are included below:
- American Airlines has Flight Schedules and Notifications route to the same place as the Book Flights option
- Delta Air Lines
- Southwest Airlines
- United Airlines
Final Boarding Call
The reason why I wrote this article is because I have an itinerary that is scheduled for later this year in which half of the flights changed significantly at least twice since I booked the tickets — and some of the changes differed by more than seven hours. Sometimes that can be beneficial — but other times, that can be quite frustrating when an itinerary is finally planned.
One solution is to not book or reserve any activities on the days when flights are scheduled — but then, that adds days to the itinerary and significant cost with additional lodging and meal options…
…and sometimes having an itinerary more lax is simply not an option.
Should airlines be held to a more restrictive standard of ensuring that disruptions are kept to a minimum for customers if the reasons for the changes are within their control? Other than being granted a full refund, should customers benefit from changes in flight schedules that are a minimum of three hours, to use a random example?
What are your thoughts?
All photographs ©2015, ©2019, and ©2023 by Brian Cohen.
