Ds2 handled all his arrangements for study abroad. This weekend, he received an e-mail from Student Universe saying that the airlines have changed flight times and that now the flights he purchased won’t work. He is in India with limited phone and Internet so I am trying to deal with this for him. I called tonight, and SU can’t find any alternative flights so they are trying to work with the airline (United) to find him a new flight. The first part of his flight is Air India to Dubai. The issue is that the Air India flight time was changed and now lands less than the three hours United apparently requires for a layover in order for them to let him use the current flight from Dubai to Dulles. I’m willing to let him take his chances, but I guess this is a policy. Right now, there would be a two-hour, 15-minute layover.
I remember seeing other posts about SU over the years. Any experts out there on how to make this work? I don’t expect to hear back from SU for 48 hours, but I feel like there’s something I can be doing in the meantime to work around this issue. The flight is less than three weeks away. I’m worried this will cost ds lots of money. Or that he’ll never make it home, which is irrational, of course.
TIA
He may end up with a 26 hour layover. If he gets to Dubai on time, they may let him get on the next flight 2 hours later, but it’s likely his luggage won’t be with him.
My daughter and brother had a short connection time in Turkey last year, but it was with the same airline so it was allowed. I saw it and said ‘they’ll never make it’ and of course they did not. Plane was still sitting there, but door was shut. So they had to wait until the next day, Christmas, to get on the next flight.
You are helping on all fronts tonight! 
The main problem I see is that this is going to cost him a lot of money to make a change that will work. To me, the obvious easy solution is getting a slightly earlier flight on Air India, one that gets him there with the required three-hour window.
Air India and United are both in Star Alliance. Since the schedule changed, it shouldn’t cost you/DS any money to change his flights. He may end up with a much longer connection in Dubai or even a completely different routing, but probably still with Star Alliance, unless you really press the issue. While you are waiting to hear from Student Universe, you could be checking with United about routing options.
I agree with CincyGal. I’d be on the phone to United. Why let SU be the only one to talk to United? Good luck!
Relieved to hear both airlines are in Star Alliance. That should make it easier.
I was worried about getting too many cooks in the kitchen, which is why I haven’t called United. I was going to give SU a day before I went into full-press mode.
Good luck. I have no suggestions, but I do remember very clearly an evening I spent attempting to change an international booking I had made via Orbitz for D2’s travel to Vietnam for her study abroad. I was on the phone for a few hours and was at the same time petting my old dog, who was dying, and died early the next morning. I was not very happy to be on the phone for so long at such a time.
We had a problem years ago using Student Universe. My daughter was an intern at a summer art program in France that she had previously attended as a student. The program requires that everyone meet in CDG in Paris for a six hour bus ride to Brittany where the program takes place. She booked with Student Universe and then about two weeks before the departure received an email that her initial flight was cancelled and they rebooked her on a different flight through Heathrow that would arrive in Paris several hours after the scheduled bus was leaving CDG. They weren’t very helpful in making a switch to a different earlier arriving flight but they ultimately did. My sense at the time was that their target audience was students looking for a vacation and a few hours here or there might not be an issue but not for students needing to be arriving somewhere specific by a designated time. We never used them again. Actually with any travel and international travel specifically I now always book with the carrier. I do research on Kayak and Expedia but book directly with the airlines. If there is a problem of some sort or another, passengers who book directly will be given priority in rebooking over Expedia or other third party bookings.
@Youdon’tsay - Hope you and your son are making progress. International travel can get complicated. Good luck1
Good news is that they were responsive and already sent ds a new itinerary. Bad news is it won’t work. Good news is that it will work if they can get it for 24 hours later. Hoping to find out tomorrow that it’ll work.