Iberia change of flight by 5 minutes

[yonasl]

IB is changing a MAD-LGW flight by 5min. When I go to MMB on their app I am asked to “accept the changes” before proceeding further. Does that mean I could call and be asked to move to a different flight on the day for free or is this taking it a notch too far?

[stevenhp1987]

Usually for small changes like this it’s automatically accepted.

Does it have the same flight number?

[yonasl]

stevenhp1987 wrote:

Usually for small changes like this it’s automatically accepted.

Does it have the same flight number?

No charge of flight number. Just takes off 5 min earlier.

You do need to accept the “changes” before being able to check the booking (change seats etc.) and a link is provided to your rights as a passenger as if it was a much bigger issue.

I have seen in the past these 5-10 min changes in schedule and accepted them but never tried to use them as an excuse to change the booking. That is why I was asking if anyone ever had.

[DanGK]

No charge of flight number. Just takes off 5 min earlier.

You do need to accept the “changes” before being able to check the booking (change seats etc.) and a link is provided to your rights as a passenger as if it was a much bigger issue.

I have seen in the past these 5-10 min changes in schedule and accepted them but never tried to use them as an excuse to change the booking. That is why I was asking if anyone ever had.

Change of flight number is a cancellation (of the old flight) so you can request a refund without penalty.

[yonasl]

DanGK wrote:

No charge of flight number. Just takes off 5 min earlier.

You do need to accept the “changes” before being able to check the booking (change seats etc.) and a link is provided to your rights as a passenger as if it was a much bigger issue.

I have seen in the past these 5-10 min changes in schedule and accepted them but never tried to use them as an excuse to change the booking. That is why I was asking if anyone ever had.

Change of flight number is a cancellation (of the old flight) so you can request a refund without penalty.

But the flight number has not changed … still the same, just being told it will leave 5 min before.

The strange thing is that I am asked to “accept the changes” as if this was material for some reason

[dougzz99]

I managed to get BA to rebook me on other flights (all AA) following a 6 minute change, this was Tuesday. I argued that I’d previously accepted other changes and the 6 minutes was straw that broke the camels back. Always call and ask, the worst is they won’t do it, and you may get an agent that wants to help.

[John]

Especially if it’s 5 minutes earlier (rather than later), I would think airlines want you to “accept” the changes so you can’t then turn up at the original time and claim you didn’t know

[ChrisBCN]

The question is do you want to change the flight? If you do, call them. They may say no, they may say yes.

If you don’t want to change the flight then just accept it.

[yonasl]

ChrisBCN wrote:

The question is do you want to change the flight? If you do, call them. They may say no, they may say yes.

If you don’t want to change the flight then just accept it.

Personally I don’t, but I thought this could help anyone needing to make a change and having this sort of situation like @dougzz99

[gtellez]

I am having a hard time with BA at the moment for a change of 40 minutes. The problem is that the connection now is only 1h 15 min at Heathrow and I am travelling with a 1.5 year old baby. Furthermore, if I miss the connection, there aren’t more flights that day. I called to request a change to an earlier flight that day (there are many, as I’m flying from Madrid) and they refuse to do it for free. They argue that the policy only allows free changes when the change is over 2h… It is funny because there is a flight at exactly the same time I originally booked (although with IB instead of BA) and they still refuse to put me in that flight.

[yonasl]

Checked with IB and if the schedule change had been more than 60 min they would allow a change of plane. For 5 min they don’t (which makes sense but is a pain for those with 40min changes as discussed above).

[trevor]

To OP – Have a look at the schedule change document in the link from Iberia trade support website

https://www.iberiagencias.com/Iberiagencias/showMenu.do;jsessionid=Xf2Sx4OvPhuxJv_jwN_E-qqGQdCMiHjDCkX8ofzbJVRR4UzS62rx!1410852384!1428925388#

my reading is that for an involuntary schedule change short haul up to 1 hour an alternative flight is “OK”

[JDB]

For schedule changes, each airline has different policies and I don’t think it has been properly tested for EC261 purposes, but the general understanding (assuming no flight number change) is that the timing difference to allow rebooking on another flight is the same as that for delays. Obviously, if the journey involves a protected connection on the same PNR, that will provide additional rights if the timings no longer work.