*&$%!$£"! Schedule Changes!!!!

Unfortunately I must pause from the fun part of looking for tours, etc. to rant and rave against... in no particular order... American Airlines, Qantas, Mexicana, Iberia and the Adventure Travel Company...

Maybe I'm just too used to flying from Heathrow, where "slots" are so valuable that no airline dares play around too much with their schedule. But the above airlines are doing a great job of causing me to lose my hair...

Exhibit A

The plan was to fly from Brisbane to Los Angeles, arriving at 7am, continue to Dallas at 10.30am, then connect through to Cancun on a 5pm flight. But AA decided to cancel the last flight of the day from Dallas to Cancun (not every day, just MY DAY). So their proposed solution was the following:

Fly from Brisbane to Los Angeles, arriving at 7 am, stepping into a special time machine at LAX to go back in time 2 hours, allowing me to catch the 6.30am flight to Dallas and connect onto a 1pm flight into Cancun. Hmmmm.... OK then....


So, on to Plan B then... Mexicana had a direct flight from Los Angeles to Cancun, leaving at 10.30am. So I decide to spend the $200 and just buy a ticket on the direct flight. I would then make arrangements to exchange my "round-the-world" flights for a land-only sector on my ticket. Ah... but the Adventure Travel Company advise me to contact the airline to make ticket changes, but the airlines tell me they cannot make any changes before the first flight has been flown. So back to Adventure, who then suggest they can indeed make the changes, for a further booking fee of $125...

But before I could get around to doing that, Mexicana then decided to cancel the direct flight from Los Angeles to Cancun. Their suggestion? Take a 6.30am flight to Mexico City, connecting onto Cancun. Hmmm.... yet another trip in the time machine...

So, we're back to where we started. No way to get from Los Angeles to Cancun in the same day... so a night at an airport hotel in LA or Dallas awaits! (instead of a night at a 5-star resort in Mexico) Yippee!!!!


Exhibit B

The Australian leg was supposed to be pretty simple. Fly from Melbourne up to Ayers Rock to start a tour of the area, which starts in Ayers Rock and ends in Alice Springs. I would then fly on from Alice Springs to Cairns to start the next Australian tour.

Ah... not so fast... first of all, for some reason I just couldn't book the Alice Springs to Cairns, so we chose an Alice Springs to Brisbane flight. From there I could take a bus or grab another flight up to Cairns. But Qantas now have different ideas... no more direct flights from Alice Springs to Brisbane. Their suggestion... connect via Sydney to Brisbane. BUT I DON'T WANT TO GO TO BRISBANE!!! Grrrrrr..... Probably about 12-15 hours of flying + airport connections... instead of a simple 2 hour flight up to Cairns. (which seems to still be scheduled, but of course Adventure Travel Company want their $125 fee!)

As I was wandering around the Qantas website looking at the various options, I noticed the following press release... among other cutbacks due to high oil prices, they're dropping the Melbourne to Ayers Rock route completely. Except when I check their schedule, they still show a flight from Melbourne to Ayers Rock on the day I plan to go. Not every Friday, or a few days here and there, but ONLY on the precise day I am booked to go.

Are you as suspicious as I am? That I will arrive at Melbourne airport, only to be told that there is no flight and that I have to connect via somewhere else (instead of a quick 1.5 hour flight), missing my tour group????


Exhibit C

This one isn't so bad really... but Iberia simply decided not to fly from Rio to Madrid on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. (I was booked on the Tuesday) Rather than offer a connection via Sao Paolo or London, their idea is that I should just wait for the next flight to Madrid, on Thursday... 2 extra days in Rio... I'm not sure most people flying Business Class are happy waiting around 2 days for the next direct flight, but at least I'm not trying to catch another tour... and there are worse things than some extra time admiring the view on Ipanema or Copacabana beach!!!


So, there we go... one round-the-world ticket booked in April... five flight cancellations / schedule changes announced by June... maybe I should be taking the train...