Alaska Airlines cancels flight and rebooks unsuitable option - my rights?

[Timtammi]

We have 1st class tix booked for August with Alaska Airlines MSP - SFO. Today I received an email that said it was a flight confirmation but actually its a complete rebooking. Looks like our original direct MSP-SFO does not exist anymore and they have rebooked us on alternate flights going MSP-SEA and SEA- SFO. Not too keen on 2 flights instead of one but more importantly this would now get us to SFO too late to make our international flight on NZ7. The NZ flight was booked separately so Alaska have no knowledge of that but the arrival time is now more than 2 hours later than our original booking. I've looked at other flights in their schedule for that day and none are really suitable. Can I insist on refund given its their cancellation and none of teh alternatives are suitable? The ticket conditions show as non-refundable on the receipt but the link to the full fare conditions does not go anywhere and I cant find them on their website. If anyone has a link or experience that would be really helpful. I can't change anything online, it says to call them but before I make that phone call it would help if I knew what my rights were.
Thanks for any help!
Timmi

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We have 1st class tix booked for August with Alaska Airlines MSP - SFO. Today I received an email that said it was a flight confirmation but actually its a complete rebooking. Looks like our original direct MSP-SFO does not exist anymore and they have rebooked us on alternate flights going MSP-SEA and SEA- SFO. Not too keen on 2 flights instead of one but more importantly this would now get us to SFO too late to make our international flight on NZ7. The NZ flight was booked separately so Alaska have no knowledge of that but the arrival time is now more than 2 hours later than our original booking. I've looked at other flights in their schedule for that day and none are really suitable. Can I insist on refund given its their cancellation and none of teh alternatives are suitable? The ticket conditions show as non-refundable on the receipt but the link to the full fare conditions does not go anywhere and I cant find them on their website. If anyone has a link or experience that would be really helpful. I can't change anything online, it says to call them but before I make that phone call it would help if I knew what my rights were.
Thanks for any help!
Timmi

Yes. Cancellation is a readily available option to you, with a full refund. They won't even question it.

Just don't 'accept' the changes on line as that can complicate things.

You could also request to go the night before if you wanted.

 

[Himeno]

Just don't 'accept' the changes on line as that can complicate things.

This is where it is often helpful to book directly with the airline rather then via a travel agent.
Agents tend to just automatically accept the change and then tell you it's been changed, which makes it harder to fix if the change doesn't work.

 

[odysseus]

Or if you got a good deal, you could also say that it's not suitable as you need to get there earlier. They may rebook you with another carrier (or the day before as mentioned, if that suits).

A refund is available, but may not be the only option.

 

[Timtammi]

Or if you got a good deal, you could also say that it's not suitable as you need to get there earlier. They may rebook you with another carrier (or the day before as mentioned, if that suits).

A refund is available, but may not be the only option.

Thanks to all that replied. There is a United flight that would work, very similar times to the original alaska flight I booked. I think the deal I got was quite good or prices have gone up now as it's significantly more expensive. Thanks for the tip on rebooking, I will certainly ask, and if that doesn't work will go for the refund and just pay the extra. By the way, there was no option to accept any changes, it was just presented as a confirmation but on totally different flights!