Flight cancellations

[Singinginthesnow]

Hi all

We are supposed to fly on the 20th to Spain with vueling.

I have just seen the same flight as us but for today has been cancelled. I'm starting ti worry now. How much notice do they give you that the flight is cancelled? Does anyone know. They are cancelling due to the same reason as easy jet etc.

Its so hard to tell , just flown with tui , flight out about 1 hr delay , flight home all on time
They changed aircraft several times though in the weeks before which meAnt we kept loosing our seats
Flew from garwick and was busy but queues not too bad , flight home and bags collected quickly
Didn't believe the holiday would go ahead until we actually departed though due to all the news Stories we had seen/ read
It really seems to be pot luck

I’m not in the UK but twice recently I’ve been waiting to board my plane and there has been an announcement for an adjacent gate that their plane is delayed and potentially cancelled as they have no pilot or cabin crew and are doing their best to organise emergency staff and will update in due course. Plane is sitting there with previous crew disembarked (and gone off home or to other scheduled flights I guess). I thought how does it get to the point where you have everyone at the gate and then figure out you have no crew for the plane? Guessing they just keep ringing round trying to find someone off duty to come in until literally the last minute? Not a budget airline either.

I hope your rearranged flight goes! How frustrating.

DDs KLM flight was cancelled at 48h notice, the one the previous day was cancelled too. She was rebooked onto one 48h after her original.

Not ideal when she was travelling as a 16 year old alone and missed 2 days of school!

@Singinginthesnow That's how booking through a third party site works though; if you'd booked through a high street travel agent the airline would have their contact details, not yours. The airline informs them of any changes, and they in turn inform the client. It's likely they would have contacted you had you not noticed first, but they'll be working through cancellations/changes in order of priority according to date of travel.

Oh I see. Thank you.ucky I saw when I did as lost seats where booked up!

Hey @Singinginthesnow you mentioned you've never flown before - be sure to also check all documentation required for flying including ID, COVID stuff, as well as health insurance.

Also make sure you're aware of exactly what luggage you're allowed on board and to check in, size/weight/contents etc (liquids!!!). Maybe familiarise yourself with airport bag drop and security procedures so everything goes as smoothly as possible!

Hope everything goes ahead as planned!

Thank you!!

Depends on the airline and how they roster, also depends on the airport…

Sometimes the outbound crew are actually initially operating an inbound flight with a view to switching to “your” aircraft on the turnround….all well and good if their early flight is on time but if they get delayed inbound then you get the situation you described…aircraft on gate but no or limited personnel to operate it. If the inbound personal get very delayed then operations might have to start trying to find extra crew off stand by…and there might not be any/many given personnel levels at the moment.

The other issue is if your crew is actually a fresh crew and your flight is their first flight of their working day then they might only “report” (effectively clock in for work) at the airport an hour, maybe a bit more, before that departure. If you end up a crew member short at report time due last minute sickness (it happens) then again it is possible people might actually be gathering at the gate whilst operations staff are scrambling to find a stand by crewmember PDQ.

When I was working in the industry we used to have a lot of short haul crew on stand by actually at the airport to cover this sort of situation but ATM I’m not sure there are the spare bodies available..

My flight tomorrow has just been cancelled. 16 hours notice 😭😭

I recently flew with vueling and both flights were overbooked. On the flight back it would not let me check in. I had a feeling I was going to be getting bumped.
I went to the desk at the airport the day before and refused to leave without a boarding pass and it worked. Several other passengers were waiting at the gate on standby in case someone didn’t show up and they didn’t get on the plane so it was definitely full.

So I just added priority boarding to our pass. Will this help at all if over booked? Also chosen and paid for the actual seats for all flights too

Im worried about this, I am due to fly to Ireland in 2 weeks for my DS wedding. He is also flying out, his fiance is flying out earlier than he is but I am going the day before the wedding, together with my other DS (his best man) and my DD, a bridesmaid. When I asked my DS what he will do if the flight is cancelled, he said he will drive there. But if we are told the day or just before even that may be a problem. We are flying to Belfast International with Easyjet from Gatwick, what is the likelihood we will be affected ?

I had a Ryanair flight from Stansted to Shannon (return journey 2nd Aug) cancelled with a month's notice - only had to change time luckily & was free - am definitely keeping an eye on emails in case of further developments 😬

AFAIK and unfortunately I think there's absolutely no way anybody here can provide any guarantees or advice one way or the other.

I know of a few people who are still (trying) to fly frequently for work purposes with various airlines (LoCos and full service)and they are being hit with flight cancellations either weeks ahead or at quite/very short notice...

Sorry but it's all more than a bit of a mess.

Our holiday shortened. Firstly the flights were changed so that we had to fly back a day early, now another change to fly out a day later too. Thousands spent on a large villa, a weeks rental and down to 5 days.
My brother and his family were joining us. His flights have been cancelled completely. 🥲

@Jenasaurus Some family were in a similar position recently, also for a wedding, and chose to hedge their bets by booking a ferry as well, so there was a fallback option. They didn't need it so sacrificed the money but considered it worth it for the peace of mind at the time.