I'd agree with wowzz. Since every booking web site or agent asks for your email address and mobile/cell number - then they can inform you. As I say, I have checked the web site of a carrier the day before and the schedule had NOT been altered.

This is the way that companies do business these days. Check your paperwork and do all that you can to chase them - but they can still fail you. We have had a long conversation in here last year about the failure of many carriers to use SMS to their advantage.

Hey, wowzz and PAXboy:eek:
Did I touch a nerve:E
If you buy a car, do you expect the manufacturer to pay for your insurance?:p
Do neither of you make mistakes, or forget things?:=
Take some slight bit of responsibility for you life and don't expect others to do everything for you. I'm pretty sure that if you read the Ts&Cs, when you buy online, it will say that it is your responsibility to check timings. And you must tick the T&C box, or you won't get booked!:ok:
Why oh why do people blame others for their own failings?:sad:
Hold on tight,
And have a good flight.
S. N. F.:)

SNF - When I buy a car, I expect it to be at the garage when I go to collect it! Your analogy does not hold water.

wowzz,
You "expect" the car to be there.....ready. Not always so, though. Mañana, amigo, lo siento.
Talking of flying, would hope not to have to "hold water":ugh:
S. N. F.

Travel Agents often refuse to pass along passenger contact details to the airline. They want the airline to contact them, so they can pass along the information. Too bad most don't work 24/7, like the airlines.

(This doesn't apply to Cryanair, of course, who don't have a relationship with agents)

SNF - you are obviously vastly more experienced than I am in the aviation world, and I therefore bow to your superior knowledge.

One of my point was the following:
"This can easily jeopardize the rest of the trip at both ends (no early trains, booking already done, etc.)"
To get to an airport for an 11.15 am flight, you book in advance (as any wise person would) a cheap non changeable train ticket.
Then you find you have to be at the airport at 5.30 am...
How on earth do you do this on public transport (having already lost your train ticket money).

a) You ask for a refund (thanks for the reminder of the T&Cs) and do not fly, and it costs you money for nothing, or
b) You go to the airport by taxi and it costs you a small fortune...
And the airline CANNOT be held responsible for the consequences of changing their mind? AND do NOT even have to tell you as soon as they made the change? With emails, that is not acceptable IMHO.

As someone said, we are only SLF!!

A wise person would have ensured more than one option was available, particularly when making plans for an event 4 months in the future.

In travelling the expressions "wise person" and "cheap non changeable ticket" don't go well together ...

SNF I think you mis-read me. I was saying: $hit Happens. I was saying to the OP, Yes - it's tough when a supplier fouls up and weasels out of it but it happens every minute of the day. Mostly by accident and sometimes by design.

When you said:
You didn't touch a nerve because I said that each pax must take their own precautions. What I said about the failure of airline companies to use the information at their disposal - and that they have made a prerequisite of booking - is simply to USE it. I was in IT for 27 years so I know something of this. All you had to do was read correctly.

So, by all means feel free to make sweeping generalisations but be careful who you sweep up in your net.

Thanks for your sympathy, KBPsen and Moira!

Which side are you on? British Rail and RyanAir or the conned paying customer?

Naively, I wasn't aware that an airline could a) change their timetable AND b) not inform you.

I have only been flying for 30 years ;o)

You pays your money and you takes your chances. In this case it seems you preferred to take your chances by purchasing non-changeable non-refundable tickets, apparently for both your flight and your means of getting to the flight.

It's a bit like putting all your eggs in one basket, and a cheap one at that, and hoping that the bottom won't fall out.

That timetables can change shouldn't come as a surprise as the possibility is clearly mentioned in the terms and conditions that you accepted when you purchased your ticket. You also accepted that you yourself should check if your flight is rescheduled.

You may still get a notice from Ryanair that the schedule has changed, there is still 2 months to go, and then again you may not. That Ryanair don't do customer service shouldn't come as a surprise.

Nobody conned you. You pays your money and you takes your chances.

Well, KBPsen, I think that you are true that no one conned him but what appears to be the seat of the problem is not being told of the change. With that, I am in full sympathy with the OP as I've had the same same problem when travelling on FR and VS - and I was paying full whack. Whilst I will say - you have to check - we ought NOT to have to check because the carrier could tell us. We had a long debate about this and BA last year in this forum.

The irritation is:-

1. Carrier requires your email address to book.
2. Carrier sends confirmation and e-ticket to your email address.
3. Carrier changes time and .... does not have their computer send out emails to all the pax who have booked that flight.
4. If the time of travel is near - they could send an SMS.
5. They have a cheap technical solution to their PR problem and the greatest majority of them don't use it.
6. They are downright stupid. Their marketing managers should have asked the IT dept to fix it ten years ago.
7. The IT dept should have prepared the fix and offered it to mgmt ten years ago!! After all, in 2003, I was advising a small town council how they could communicate better with their residents through two-way sms and NOT the dreadful Press-1 to listen to music systems that airlines still cling on to.

Meanexpat

your flight is still several months from now, so let's not jump to conclusions yet. I did get informed by text about flight time changes in the past, by low-cost carriers. But only like two days before departure, which is of course a pain if you have already made other arrangements / bought other tickets. Hence my comment about the non-changeable tickets.

I don't take anyone's side here, just wanted to make a point. Been there, admittedly had better luck than some others (got informed about a time change for the return leg by one of the other passengers - only just in time) ... and learnt my lessons from it. It's just one of these nasty thingies you come across when travelling (especially low-cost), and that you have to learn to live and deal with.

should be in the rules
 

I'm not one for over regulation but personally I think the CAA should include some verbiage in the conditions when they issue an airline it's licence. And the rules should say that when there is a schedule change then the airline has a duty to try and notify the passenger. Given email/sms etc then the cost nowadays is negligible if the capability is built into the reservation IT system.

It's the same as the trains in the the SouthEast being built without toilets, where are the regulators saying if you want a licence to operate there is a baseline you cannot go beneath when being fair with the consumer? That's why we have regulators!

G

Got to praise BA here. Got a notification in Dec that a NCL _ LHR leg had a 5min dep time change for a flight end of May. As people have said, it's not difficult, and in these days of connectivity, it is a very cheap IT job to implement.

Spanish Judge rules against Ryanair
 

taken from thenewsonline.es

Let me try to understand this: the airline asserts that time and materials to print a ticket amounts to forty euros? Am I missing something?

Well it always amazes me why there are so many idiots that apparently can book online but when it comes down to the actual 'getting on board' proces cause so much havok. However, no matter how stupid people are, they always manage to pay online for their ticket using their beloved credit card. Bravo Visa, Mastercard and IT folks at FR. Your systems are really monkeyproof.

"Forgot my passport, where did it say I had to print it out, my printer wasn't working very well, I was finishing my beer in the bar watching football so excuse me for being late etc". I heard it all. Yes it's a lot of pesetas, but if that lawyer doesn't like it, (s)he has had the opportunity to book a flight with Iberia. Typical LCC bashing. I fully back FR on these measures. It's delivering safe transportation to the masses by streamlining the process. The majority of people are able to cope with that. There's always the 10% with brains but too lazy and too arrogant to make a fuzz over nothing and the 10% with single digit IQ that's indeed to stupid to comply. You bash that out of them by hitting them where it hurts, their wallet.

Who does this spanish judge thinks she is? It's a contract. That guy ticked the box. Yo no lo entiendo.

Sorry but if it keeps the prices down for those that can follow the rules/comply then it's a good call. Life's like that nowadays either follow the rules for efficiency or try and bypass/outwit them and risk paying extra.