Spanair Flight Changes For September

[theonlineguy]

Sort of a long story here, so bare with me.

Ok, so my friend and I from Canada decided that this would finally be the year that we make our way over to Ibiza. For the last past 4 months, we've know that we leave Toronto at 9:50pm on Saturday September 13th, then land in Madrid the following morning at 11:10am (that's with the time change added), then we have a 3 hour layover until 2:00pm, at which time we would have been flying Spanair, arriving in Ibiza at 3:00pm...well, apparently not any longer.

Travelocity.ca, the website we booked our flights with still shows that there is a connecting flight at 2:00pm, however Spaniar.com does not...at least not anymore...but they did when we originally booked.

So, I call up Travelocity and say "Um, so what's going on here...I got this notification saying that we have an itinerary change". The representative on the phone says "Well, the 2pm flight still shows that it's operational". I said "Place me on hold and call Spaniar to confirm this please". After being on hold for 5 minutes, the representative comes back on and says that the flight has been cancelled and wasn't able to give me an explanation why either. "So what's the earliest flight after that?" I ask. He says "Not until 8pm".

So lucky us, we have to sit in the Madrid airport for 9 hours vs 3 hours.

I have no idea if they cancelled this 2:00pm flight because of thier recent tragedy, but it seems very odd that they would cancel a flight like that 3 weeks before we even leave, and that weekend is probably one of the busiest for flights to/from Ibiza with all the closing parties going on, no?

Before I told the representative to book us with that flight I asked "Is there any alternative to switching to another airline that leaves earlier?", but he said "No, and there would be very high penalties if you cancelled a flight and changed airlines".

Just curious to know if anyone else here was scheduled to be on the same flight and now has to enjoy the comfort of metal airport seats for half a day.

Great start so far huh...

 

[Morbyd]

Don't sweat it! Here's what you do.

The terminal that SpanAir flies out of has a metro station and a left luggage room. Also, you can check in your baggage long long before your flight.

My advice to you is the following: as soon as you arrive, see if you can check in for your SpanAir flight. They have electronic kiosks. You get your boarding pass and then go to the counter and check in your bags (word to the wise: double check the tags they put on your bag before they take it off the counter... last time we flew SpanAir, they sent ours to Palma de Mallorca )

If for some reason you can't check in that early, take your bags to the left luggage room and get a locker. It's a relative quick process.

Then head to the metro and take the train to Puerto del Sol station. It's about a 45 minute ride, with one change of train. Have a nice walk around downtown Madrid. Grab yourself some lunch. Do a little shopping. And, if you're checked in, just head back to the airport on the metro about 2 hours before your flight (otherwise, leave an extra half hour)

Viola! Bonus!

Enjoy your trip!

 

[blackswan555]

This is what has possibly happened to your flight, cut from http://theibizasun.com/
it seems the early morning connections with both Barcelona and Madrid from the island are to be cancelled. The news came as travel agents in Ibiza revealed they were unable to book the early morning flight as it was unavailable on the system. Clickair later confirmed the 8 a.m. flight from Ibiza to Barcelona would be cancelled "for the time being". The other connection, run by Air Nostrum, is the 6 a.m. flight to Madrid which was only introduced last February at the insistence of the Island Council, to avoid travellers having to fly the previous day to catch early morning international flights. A company spokesman denied the flight had been cancelled, and said it was currently unavailable as they were planning their winter schedule. However, the suspicion amongst travel agents is that it will not reappear when the revised schedule is announced.
The news brought an angry reaction from the Island Council with its spokesperson, Pilar Costa, claiming it was unacceptable that the companies ran full programmes during the profitable summer months, only to abandon the island in winter. She said the Council was tired of having to renegotiate the contracts every year, but assured the public it would do its best to reinstate both of the flights.


Only been through Madrid a couple of time`s, But if I remember correctly , there is a fair few flights here a day, may be worth giving the people that sold you the tikets a little s*it then settling for their flights just to madrid and find or own way onwards ? It is not going to be busy at that time of year I would think, and if the poo does hit the fan, As Morbyd said, Have a day or 2 chilling in Madrid



Have a good one

Tim