What if an airline changes your flight plan

NEW YORK – It ‘last trip to the bait and switch. You can book a ticket on a nonstop flight, but the airline will cancel a couple of weeks later, leaving a computer to automatically rebook. Your new itinerary includes a stop, turning a five-hour trip in eight hours of travel. "You are at the mercy of the airline," says Anna Stinson, 40, of Minneapolis in May, Stinson has bought tickets for a trip to North Carolina in the middle of August. She is traveling with his son and took four years because it offered a Delta non-stop flight. Then, as part of the system at the level of cuts, the flight was cleared. She was rebooked with a connection in Atlanta. "I’m frustrated," said Stinson. "I do not have the product that I gave them my money." With airlines cutting hours because of fuel costs, travelers who have booked flights in advance may now find their plans overturned. And is likely to worsen in the fall. Delta cut 3.5 percent of its domestic flights in September and 1.6 percent for October. U.S. Airways cut by 4.5 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively, and U.S. has stopped 4.4 percent and 5.3 percent, according to Barclays Capital. That’s nearly 1,000 flights in less than last year for just these three airlines. "It is more likely than ever to find the plans that you made in November could change and could change dramatically," says aviation consultant Michael Boyd. Sometimes the connections are added to the trip. Other times two hours of parking is extended to six hours sleep. The government offers little protection for the time travelers, and a change of program, there are few alternatives. Although airlines have already set their plans for fall, experts warn that further cuts could come. "If the economy gets much worse, fuel costs remain high and business travel demand slackens, then I expect we will see the airlines reduce capacity," says Henry H. Harteveldt, airline analyst at Forrester Research. To prevent a nightmare journey, arrives one day in advance if a cruise or attending a wedding. In addition, provide an up-to-date phone number and email address when you make a reservation so that airlines can be contacted immediately in case of change of time. If the program gets changed: • Do not just accept the computer chooses. Call the airline and see if it has a better solution. • Know the alternatives. Go to the website of the airline and flight research according to the schedule. When you call to complain, he asked to be placed on the specific flight you want. • Check other airlines. You may be able to get a refund and buy a new ticket to another carrier. However, the closer you get to your travel date airfare tends to be more expensive. The airlines say the program changes are necessary to keep their operations profitable and flexible. They say they make every effort to accommodate the most disturbed. The Department of Transportation rules to protect customers of the airlines do not address the problem, except to say that airlines should offer refunds for "significant change" in departure or arrival. What constitutes a big change varies between airlines. For example, Delta offers refunds to passengers who do not arrive within 90 minutes of their time originally planned. American offers good changes for over an hour and cash refunds for changes by more than two hours. U.S. Airways refund a ticket if a schedule change is unacceptable for a passenger until it was purchased directly though the airline. Where you can find the rules? They are buried in a lengthy document called "contract of carriage" that governs who has responsibility for an airline passenger. "They are making it harder to read as possible," says Christopher Elliott, a travel consumer advocate. Refunds are often not useful to passengers. For the moment, is a program change, there could be another flight available at a comparable price. "It’s going to cost you three or four times as much as would have three months ago," says Kate Hanni, executive director FlyersRights.org. "The reimbursement is not a remedy." ___ Mayerowitz Scott can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott.