Aer Lingus changed my flight time?

Stinicker

Hi,

I am booked on Aer Lingus to fly to Gatwick at the end of March from Cork and booked the flight a month ago (4.5 months out). I was due to fly out a 17.10 and arrive at 18.30. However I got an email this evening telling me they have changed their schedules and brought my flight forward to 12.45 arriving at 14.15.

This is the first time this has happened to me with Aer Lingus and I am rather annoyed as I am flying out of Gatwick at 11pm with Air Asia to KL on a 12-13 hour long haul flight and I will be pretty shattered as a result of this change as it would mean I would give the day bored at the airport then face into a long night flight! Last time I did this with a 9hour layover in Heathrow with a 17 hour flight (London-Abu Dhabi-Bangkok) I was awake almost 30 hours and like a zombie for about 2 days afterwards.

It does say in the email:

Your new itinerary is carefully selected to minimise the level of disruption to your travel plans. If your schedule change is within two hours of your previously confirmed itinerary the normal fare rules apply. If your itinerary has been affected by a change of more than two hours, and does not suit you, please contact our helpdesk to discuss alternatives on 0818365000 (Ireland), 0871 7185000 (UK) or 1-(800)-585-0672 (North America).

I would like to thank you for your co-operation and understanding and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Please do not reply to the above e-mail address as this is an automated service and does not have a reply facility.

Kind Regards

Aer Lingus Customer Contact Centre

I think I'll give them a call tomorrow to see if they'd comp me into the lounge area or else give me Gatwick express tickets to go into the city. Slim chance I know but worth a shot either way!

mikedragon32

They won't do either, Stinicker! All they will do is offer to reschedule your flights at no extra cost or offer a refund.

Although, you might be a more persuasive person than me! Let us know how you get on.

steve-o

It's one of the many risks you take when you book separate tickets, especially when you book a long time in advance. Bear in mind that the flight time could change again, and Air Asia could just as well change theirs too.

You could ask Aer Lingus to fly you to Heathrow instead at a later time and then make your own way to Gatwick (I doubt they'll cover the cost of bus or train ticket).

Dodge

steve-o wrote: »

It's one of the many risks you take when you book separate tickets, especially when you book a long time in advance. Bear in mind that the flight time could change again, and Air Asia could just as well change theirs too.

Whether the flight was booked as a package, on the same e-ticket or seperately6 wouldn't effect whether Aer Lingus changes its timetable in fairness.

Happens quite a lot. I had the opposite happen last year. Flight was changed to give a 3 hour lay over instead of 5. Not that that helps the OP

Would flying form Dublin be an option?

Mr. Presentable

It's a pain, OP. No question. I'd go into town for a few hours - make the best of a crappy situation. Be glad it wasn't the other way though; I lost a day in the sun last year when Ryanair rescheduled a flight that would have landed at 10:35 to land at 23:05. Poor me.

steve-o

Dodge wrote: »

Whether the flight was booked as a package, on the same e-ticket or seperately6 wouldn't effect whether Aer Lingus changes its timetable in fairness.

It makes a lot of difference. You can call the long haul airline or travel agent (whoever issued the ticket) and say this schedule change is not acceptable and they will often reroute you on other flights for no charge. In many cases they will proactively call you and check that the change is ok.

Dodge

steve-o wrote: »

It makes a lot of difference. You can call the long haul airline or travel agent (whoever issued the ticket) and say this schedule change is not acceptable and they will often reroute you on other flights for no charge. In many cases they will proactively call you and check that the change is ok.

Fair point, I was only thinking about the Cork-London leg

Stinicker

OK guys just an update to this; I contacted Aer Lingus and their phone attitude really made me happy I booked them and not Ryanair who would pretty much tell me to get stuffed and take it or leave it.

I tried playing ball with them but couldn't get either lounge access or Gatwick express train tickets, however I only paid €51 for the flight including baggage so am not too disappointed. However I am very happy with their level of willingness to help me, they offered to change me to Heathrow or to fly from Dublin at a different time as Cork-Gatwick is now down to one flight a day for no additional cost.

However if I am not happy they will give me a full refund and I have up until the day of my flight to cancel; ok you may think this is normal however this works great for me as my connecting flight onwards from Gatwick to Kuala Lumpur with Air Asia X is facing an uncertain future and may be cancelled and I have had to book another ticket with Emirates as a contingency plan, and if Air Asia do pull the plug I can now cancel the Aer Lingus flight whereas without the schedule change I would have been a no-show and lost my money! see here re: the Air Asia X farce.

BuffyBot

OK guys just an update to this; I contacted Aer Lingus and their phone attitude really made me happy I booked them and not Ryanair who would pretty much tell me to get stuffed and take it or leave it.

To be fair, Ryanair will do exactly the same in this situation. They have no choice, it's a legal obligation under EU rules covering schedule changes.

Stinicker

BuffyBot wrote: »

To be fair, Ryanair will do exactly the same in this situation. They have no choice, it's a legal obligation under EU rules covering schedule changes.

Yes but would they offer me an alternate flight or airport I wonder?

mikedragon32

Stinicker wrote: »

Yes but would they offer me an alternate flight or airport I wonder?

Yes.

Bigcheeze

mikedragon32 wrote: »

Yes.

No they wouldn't offer an alternative airport if the flight change is unacceptable.

mikedragon32

Bigcheeze wrote: »

No they wouldn't offer an alternative airport if the flight change is unacceptable.

Thy are obliged to offer a reroute as follows:

EU Regs wrote:

(12) The trouble and inconvenience to passengers caused by cancellation of flights should also be reduced. This should be achieved by inducing carriers to inform passengers of cancellations before the scheduled time of departure and in addition to offer them reasonable re-routing, so that the passengers can make other arrangements. Air carriers should compensate passengers if they fail to do this, except when the cancellation occurs in extraordinary circumstances which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.
(13) Passengers whose flights are cancelled should be able either to obtain reimbursement of their tickets or to obtain re-routing under satisfactory conditions, and should be adequately cared for while awaiting a later flight.

From here:http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:EN:HTML

Bigcheeze

The OP is already being offered the same route at a later time. I don't think the offer of a flight to Heathrow instead of Gatwick is a legal obligation but is good customer service by AL

jtown

My Ryanair flight in 3 weeks time.. flight to London.. time changed from 9.40 to 18.40.

Ryanair offered full refund for flight over and back even tho only the flight over changed.

Rebooked and saved 166.. flight over to Luton and back on same orginal flight..