Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton says the airline makes every effort to contact customers whose flights have been canceled and accommodate them on other flights.
For his part, Salt Lake City resident Matthew Hanson hopes he can get Delta to reconsider the change it made to his November return trip home from Tampa, Fla. The 36-year-old software engineer had originally booked his family on nonstop flights to visit his parents in Tampa. But now, the flight from Tampa connects through Cincinnati, where he and his wife will have to haul their two children, ages 8 months and 3 1/2 , onto a connecting flight. Hanson says he realizes the changes are not the end of the world, but he really prefers to fly direct with the kids. "Things tend to run a bit more smooth," he says.
The Cincinnati connection also pushes back their arrival time in Salt Lake City a couple of hours to after 10 p.m., making it a late night for the children. Hanson says he discovered the new schedule only after checking his itinerary online. "The lack of the nonstop definitely is the killer," Hanson says. "Especially when you originally bought the nonstop."
Airlines will not say how many passengers are affected by the cascade of cutbacks announced in recent weeks. Many of those reductions in flights will not take effect until the fourth quarter, after the peak summer travel season.
Still, even when fliers are notified months ahead of time, the changes can quickly derail travel plans and add to travelers' expenses. For example, when Delta offered Yang a flight landing in Ecuador four days before his cruise, he realized that meant four more nights in a hotel. Yang says he asked the airline to pay the extra hotel expenses. Delta refused and offered no other compensation.
Financially strapped airlines have become less willing to spring for such costs, says Joanne Gardner, owner of the Travel Specialist, a Chicago-area travel agency. With surging crude-oil prices pushing jet-fuel costs higher, airlines say they have little choice but to cut routes and schedules. Some carriers now charge passengers a fee for the first checked bag, and others have eliminated free in-flight beverages and snacks.
Gardner says she has seen an increase in major disruptions of her clients' bookings because of schedule cutbacks. "We're seeing more of these major ones than we've ever seen before," she said.
