TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin AA Schedule & Flight Changes

Been a while since I traveled on AA (or USAir) as I have been using Delta for SXM. I got on the AA website this morning to check on the flights we have booked for Nov, only to find they no longer exist. I called AA, got a very decent agent who indicated their records showed I was notified and accepted said changes on Feb. 24. No notification in any form and I am signed up for every possible flight notification from AA. We now have to connect through Philadelphia, change terminals on both ends and HOPE it works out.

As has been mentioned many times on here, check your reservations often and do not rely on the airline to notify you.

AA changed our May flights without any notification. I discovered the change and called them. I was able to get some of the original flights back but not others. Net result is we get home several hours later than originally planned. We fly AA exclusively because we fly out of DFW and often use frequent flyer miles from our credit card. That may change. I recently saw someone from Texas flying Southwest to Fort Lauderdale and connecting on Jet Blue. I may look into that next time.

Well, that sucks, as I know you wanted to avoid Philly. Hope it works out! I have to say though, I am NEVER notified of a change of schedule on any airline.

I have always received my notifications for changes but AA usually takes a week or so after the changes happen. JB is usually very good if my experience is any indication - they let you know about minuscule changes almost immediately.

The changes went into effect on 2/24 according to the agent I spoke with.

We fly AA through PHL and have had changes. Sometimes i get an email and sometimes not. I am also signed up for all notifications. They changed my aircraft type and flight number this winter and reassigned my seats, so i had to adjust them again. Just checked a week ago and they removed me from my seat in row 13, made it an upgrade seat and reassigned me to row 35. So yes you have to check on it yourself once in a while.

I have to confess, I don't usually look that carefully at my seat assignments when double-checking flights. Guess I need to start doing that. Thanks.

Edit--Huh. Just checked our Delta flights for June. Slight schedule change that makes no difference, but for whatever reason, they changed Eric's seat on one of the flights from what it was. His original seat was still there, so I changed it back. Weird.

For sure as we were moved to the next to last row with the changes and we were well forward when we initially booked., as in row 9 and row 21. A phone call got that changed but they also increased the "premium" (meaning they charge more for them) seats so we are still farther back than we were initially.

One thing I have learned re dealing with AA! Beyond expecting changes, that is.....

Since we often book FF seats from separate FF accounts and end up with separate record locator numbers for the same flights, on more than one occasion when there were changes in routing or equipment we ended up having our seats separated. Apparently the computer recognized us each as solo travelers and didn’t connect the names.

What I didn’t know for the longest time is when you book reservations under these specific situations you can contact AA and have then ‘link’ the record locators. At least then, if we end up having our seats changed, they change us both and we still end up together. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if we weren’t seated together as long as we’re on the same flights but it certainly is more convenient and ‘comfortable’ that way.

We have always done that with our reservations when we are traveling with another couple. Easy to do online.

Pat--thanks for that info. In this case, this was Delta, but the flights were booked separately with frequent flyer miles. Since we're connecting on the flights, I may call Delta and see about doing that, in case we have a problem with the connection in Atlanta.

I wonder if Jet Blue does this too? On JB if you want to book two people but only one with checked luggage you have to make two separate rsvp. I always worried doing that we'd get separated.

Just check my return flight from SXM/ CLT/SEA. AA had us leaving CLT an hour before we land in CLT. Now we had to overnight in CLT so we opted to spend more time in SXM and over night in MIA and fly to Dallas to SEA. Nice thing is it's a 777-200 from MIA to DFW and our flights are FC. Glad I checked. I did get an email notice of changes but never put the times together.

I always get flight change notifications from AA so not sure why others have issues. I use miles to fly to St. Maarten and recently got a notice of a change in my trip this coming April. Originally I was leaving at 7:00 a.m. but was changed to 5:00 a.m. I was not happy that I was going to have to get up at 2:30 a.m. to catch the flight. Called AA and they put me on an even better flight than my original itinerary--one that was unavailable without supervisor approval. So I have no complaints and find that most AA associates are very helpful.

It seems people using miles for travel receive the notifications when others do not. Maybe a problem in their system.

No idea but that is a possibility. I was told I "accepted" the changes on 2/24. Hard to accept when you get no notification. I was told by an agent today that "significant" schedule changes get notifications and "minor" changes do not. He alleged it was based on the amount of time change with the schedule and connecting city changes was not considered "significant". Sorry, I disagree as a connection city change is significant.

After spending some time on the phone with AA I was able to make a change by one day on each end of the trip that avoids a tight connection in PHL and as of now we are routed through CLT again going to SXM.

Let's see how many changes there are between now and Nov.

I usually travel to SXM with Westjet and they have been excellent notifying regarding all changes. My last flight was a difference of 2 minutes and they sent an email with the new itinerary. Hopefully that service continues.😊

Thank you. Didn’t know that.