A couple days ago, we got an email from Delta. They have changed our flight on our final day. Originally, we intentionally chose a flight that went out later so that we could have some time in EPCOT before we left.
Two things happened. One is this flight change, which moved us from flying out at 7:12 pm to a flight leaving now at 5:00 pm. This leaves us with two fewer hours in the park.
The second was when Disney, a few weeks ago, changed the hours at Epcot from opening at 11:00 to opening at 12:00. So this was another lost hour.
We decided this was a waste of a day, because we’d literally have less than 2 hours in the park, which hardly seemed worth it.
So, in order to better optimize our final day, we decided to replace this Epcot final day with a second day (well…morning) at AK. (This should make @OBNurseNH happy.) As a result we can have more like 5 park hours instead of 2 on that final day.
This is actually the second time Delta has changed a flight on us. The first time was our arrival flight…but in that case it didn’t matter because since we ended up adding a day to the front of our trip, we were able to just modify the entire flight to the day before.
Regardless, it is super annoying to make plans according to a certain flight schedule, and the airline just willy-nilly decides to change it on you.
And, in case anyone is even the slightest bit interested…as of TODAY, this is our anniversary trip plan…subject to change as we see fit! (Or the airline sees fit…or Disney sees fit.)
Let me tell you about my honeymoon…I booked the flight through Expedia not knowing any better and United changed the flight of the Austin to New York flight which would cause me to miss the NYC to Athens Greece flight by hours and we’d have to spend the night in NYC losing one of only two nights in Athens. No one at Expedia told me anything ever until the day before and it might have even been United sending me a reminder email where I caught the change. When I tried to call people to get them to make changes no one at United would help me on the phone since I booked the trip through Expedia…so I drove to the airport and cried and the gentleman at the counter put me on another airline but it took me being in person and crying. He gave me a lecture about booking through third parties and I haven’t done it since because apparently they don’t have to tell you of flight changes or fix them when connections no longer work.
PS We did get stuck in NYC on the way home due to a delayed flight because of airline strikes but that one was okay (we had family in NYC to spend the night with and it didn’t take away from one of our precious honeymoon days) but airlines…customer service is not very important to them. I wish I could have seen the early days when people got dressed up to fly and it was special!
We had a flight change for our July trip which was similarly annoying - instead of leaving at 10 am and arriving in Orlando at 3 pm, United changed it to leave at 10 am and arrive at 6:30 pm. I had to move our plans around as the only park we could possible get to on arrival day was MK with extra magic hours, which was all moot anyway since we cancelled the trip and magic hours would not have been a thing had we gone.
However - you just did me a big favor. Inspired by this post, I went to check on my July 2021 flights, as when I booked them (using my July 2020 credit), I could only get a 3 pm departure at a reasonable cost. I was able to change to a 7 pm departure for no additional cost, so 4 more hours of Disney fun for me!
You probably couldn’t have flown at all. It was a LOT more expensive. I didn’t remember the specifics but google tells me,
" According to a study by Compass Lexecon, commissioned by Airlines for America, the average flight from L.A. to Boston in 1941 was worth $4,539.24 per person in today’s money, and it would have taken 15 hours and 15 minutes with 12 stops along the way. By comparison, a nonstop flight in 2015 would cost $480.89 and take only six hours.
So, you can still get the same experience but you’d have to pay the same price. It is just first class now. Note, that the above was one-way flights.
What I miss was Legend Airlines, which American Airlines, may they burn in hell, used frivolous lawsuits to drive out of business. They had small jets with all first class seats from DFW to LA for less than cattle-class on AA. They had other routes, but that was the one I used.
Great plan! Replacing EP with AK seems like the right move based on the rest of your schedule. I’ll also be in Epcot on 12/3 and HS on 12/6. So if a random 6’6 guy waves and yells hi, it’s probably me.
I read an article recently that talked about how Southwest Airlines killed fast moving trains here in Texas which would have been so much better for the environment and more pleasant experiences for all those times I had to travel back and forth b/w Dallas and Austin as a kid (divorced parents). I always liked Southwest Airlines until I read that.
But yes, I mean I could maybe afford that flight if I stayed with family and did not go to Disney so much! LOL I have always wanted to travel Business/First Class for cross-continental flights but it’s always 5X-10X more expensive. I don’t care so much about US flights being in Texas nothing is too far and I can usually find direct which is really all I care about. I’ll fly Spirit or Allegiant if it’s the only direct. And to be honest I’ve never had an issue with Allegiant or Frontier and if it’s 3 hours or less I don’t so much care about comfort. (My issues always come with big airlines like United and American) It’s those 15 hours flights to NZ from Houston (my brother lives there) that kill me and I’m 5’4". I cannot sleep on a plane very well so I’m almost willing to give my pinky toe for a seat that lies down but not $10K. ha ha ha
The union killed train travel in Texas. You can’t go from Dallas to any big city south without a multi-hour stopover in Waco. As a college student in the DFW area I looked into taking the train to Austin to party. I forget the logic behind that Waco rule.
The union rule is that a shift is X hours or one leg of a trip. So, you can’t have one conductor going back and forth between Dallas and Fort Worth. You end up with the train going one way one on even days and the other way on odd days. I love trains and would love to travel on them more.
@threeprincessesfourprinces waved to me while in line for Winnie the Pooh during our last trip, but I was completely oblivious until she mentioned it in the Trip Report in real-time! My daughter said she noticed someone waving, but she didn’t know why.
We had that happen on our return flight on southwest as well for our Nov trip (@ryan1 - it is our anniversary/50th bday trip too). We were on a flight leaving at 7:50pm would have been able to stay in AK until almost closing at 5pm, but now our flight is at 5:30pm and that is the last flight of the day. Our trip out changed as well, but it just got us there earlier - which is fine with me!
We had a similar change made to an AA flight home, but they didn’t even email. We only saw when we logged in that they cancelled our later nonstop and put us on a different flight 3 hours earlier with a connection. It was one of a few reasons we just cancelled our November trip. Sadly.
