javajunkie

I travel fairly regularly from my home to a particular destination (MKE). In the past, I was able to book itineraries through ATL and with a little careful research, could get mainline flights at useable times (the nature of my work requires that I typically fly on Sundays and Friday afternoons). Prices would be the same or slightly higher than thru CVG (between $300 and $500 or $600, depeding upon when I booked - and that seemed a fair price). After the schedule changes and the institution of Journey Control, I can't seem to get an itin from the DL website to that city without going thru CVG and nearly all, if not all, flights are on "Barbie Fun Jets" (RJs). Being a "big" guy (6' 1", +250), I'd rather not subject myself to that particular form of torture (though the flts are not too terribly long) if I don't have to. Now, I'd also consider the season when making my booking as CVG doesn't do winter weather very well, and ATL usually has problems with thunderstorms in the summer.

I've tried the Multi-City option to no avail. I get a cryptic error that tells me the "System is Unavailable", or the price is at or above $1K if I try to force a connection in ATL. (not acceptable to my corp travel dept.)

Has anyone else encountered this problem? To this extent?
More importantly, has anyone found a solution?

Thanks,

RamAir

Journey Control is a force that can't be reconed with. You will NEVER get them to change.
The reason that you can't book a 2 stop routing is because of the rounting rules. The routing is not valid along the route so, the extra leg is probably booked into Y/B/M where the routing is valid. Therefore, you are paying for a roundtrip ticket MLK-XXX-ATL and then a full fare from ATL-Your destination.
What you can do is book really early and then change to an intinerary that connects 3 times OR SDC on the day of travel. You might get a few looks or questions however. DL elite status is no longer credited on segments.
SR

Bulldog King

Your problem has nothing to do with Journey Control.

About a year or so ago, Delta streamlined many of their routing rules for various city pairs....apparently in an effort to eliminate very 'inconvenient' itineraries.

Here's the current routing rules for SDF-MKE

ROUTING 455

FROM-TO SDF-DL-CVG/CMH/DTT/CLE/MSP-DL-MKE*

FROM-TO SDF-DL-MSP/CLE/DTT/CMH/CVG-DL-MKE*


As you can see, only 1 connection is allowed.....and ATL is not among the valid connection points.

If you try to force a connection in ATL via the 'multi-city' search feature, then Delta.com would be forced to build an itinerary out of 2 RTs......SDF-ATL and ATL-MKE......which explains the higher fares.

A.J.

javajunkie

Thanks for the feedback.
I hear what your saying. My problem is that it wasn't 'inconvenient' to me. In fact, many times, it was more convenient to me because of the additional schedule options.

But I still think that those streamlined routing rules are a form of JC.

Just a curiosity, how/where did you find those routing rules? PM me if that's appropriate.

TTT

This would have happened before JC, so it is not actually the journey control software that is forcing your connection, but through the "streamlined routing rules" Delta is controlling your journey, so to speak.

As for the routing rules, if you are on the booking page of DL.com (where you have selected all your flights) and click "View fare rules" then a new window will open and you can click "view full fare rules" and in there will be the applicable routing for your trip. You can also use the premium version of expertflyer, the KVS tool and a variety of other online travel/travel info sites to look at the full fare rules, including the routing.

ND76

on those occasions where I wanted to fly a certain routing (i.e., BWI-JFK-LAX) and delta.com wouldn't sell it to me, I have gone to orbitz.com, and found both the routing I wanted and a competitive price for it.

mtparadis

Why don't you just fly the 19-seater on the YX nonstop?

TTT

If it is not a valid part of the routing Orbitz won't be able to issue the ticket either.

javajunkie

I think you know the answer to that question!
Yuck. 'cuz its NOT YX... I flew AL for one RT to MKE and after that I swore "never again".

javajunkie

Precisely. Orbitz offers LOTS of stuff that is often "unavailabe" when you try to purchase.