let’s say you book a certain flight (or set of flights) because it’s the only way you can get that super low fare, in this case, San Francisco to Moscow for $339.86 round trip. my return flights on that itinerary:
man,that 4:30 AM flight sure isn’t appealing, but oh well. as i always say, beggars can’t be choosers.
but lo and behold, a schedule change notification arrives in your email:
sure, 5:45 AM is better than 4:30 AM, and it doesn’t affect my connections, but there’s a notice on Delta’s page that appears when you’re affected by a change:
(even though this flight is technically operated by KLM and not Delta, it’s a Delta codeshare, so i think that’s why this applies? you may have luck even if it’s not a codeshare?)
basically, the schedule change gave me a free way to change my flight to something better. i tried changing it online but it wanted to charge me the fare difference and a change fee (about $700 total, if i recall correctly). so, i called and got a very friendly agent who was more than happy to change my flights to something a lot nicer:
it might have helped that i’m Platinum elite on Delta, but no matter what, the rules are the rules and i met all of the requirements set forth in that conditions box (although i think that last one is up to interpretation, since i suppose none of my other return flights were impacted by this change.).
other airlines’ policies differ, but many of them will let you completely change or even cancel, if there’s a big enough change in origin departure or destination arrival times, or if the connection times get a bit too close for comfort. i’ve heard reports of people being able to cancel an entire itinerary and get a refund for even a small change in timing. if you’re lucky (and it’s happened a lot with United in my experience), you might get rebooked into a better fare class which may allow for upgrades.
moral of the story: it never hurts to ask (nicely). [hidden moral of the story, which should be everyone’s mantra: if at first you don’t succeed, hang up and call again. (but don’t push it — who knows what they’re noting in the record every time you call!)]