I booked a flight from Singapore to America for April 30-May 18 of this year with my partner. Although there were various issues with airline delays on arrival, we were still upbeat - until we reached New York for our connection. As it turns out, the flight time had changed within the last 24 hours, while we were on our flight from Singapore to Tokyo and had no time to check. At the time we arrived, they were already making boarding calls, and it was only by a miracle we managed to get on the flight after sprinting through the terminal. We were upset enough and arrived at our destination stressed beyond belief, then checked our mail to discover we had no notice of this change at all. 12 HOURS LATER we finally got a message in letting us know the flight had changed and would be impossible to catch, so to contact travelocity immediately. I think that information would have been more helpful earlier. I mailed them back to let them know and added a request to please inform us earlier of any schedule changes, to which I got a nasty reply that if I didn't check it was my fault anyway. No matter that I DID check my schedule before leaving and it had changed only after I checked and they still only gave notice half a day after the fact. Whatever, no problem, we made it after all.
However, 24 hours before our return flight I checked my flight schedule to be safe and discovered 2 of our 3 flights had been changed, once again with no notice. Our new flights made it so our connection in NY would leave 6 HOURS BEFORE we even arrived and our connection in Japan would be leaving from a different airport than the one it was arriving in, hours away. I called immediately to try and correct this and was met with the worst service I have EVER experienced.
We needed to stay on schedule due to work issues, and I told the rep we would be fine to leave earlier if need be (thereby cutting our once a year trip home to see family short) but we could not be late. She gave me one option - arriving an entire day later, still leaving from a different airport in Japan and when I asked if I would be reimbursed for their failing or my additional cost (and stress, and missing work) from having to travel across Japan she got downright nasty. I asked to speak to her manager several times and she would put me on hold for 10 minutes each time, then come right back on the line to tell me again that I only had that option and if I didn't like it I could just find a new carrier. I told her repeatedly I was on a pre-paid phone and didn't have the minutes to wait on hold, but she continuously put me on hold. Finally she directed me to her manager, who then right away told me she'd transfer me again to a rep within the US who could help. 35 more minutes on hold and my minutes ran out.
I called back and got a new rep who managed to miraculously find more options, including one that would let us arrive at the correct time, but which meant we would need to leave for the airport within 1 hour, though we were still not packed. If we had been told this option over two hours earlier when I first called there would have been time with no need to rush. We took it as our best option and rushed to the airport.
When we got back to Singapore I filed a complaint and sent copies of my transport expenses across Japan demanding a refund. I was told right away that I was in the right and would be refunded $500. Three days later I got a new email that as it turns out they weren't going to refund me $500, so for all my trouble and expense I ended up with $75.
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