Originally Posted by
ChickenHead
Yep, I saw that. Doesn't exactly address my question, though. It says I can't change the routing of a segment, not of the ticket. I'm talking about eliminating that segment entirely, leaving the two surrounding segments intact.
I also saw
this post in this thread, which refers to cancelling a segment in the event someone can't make a flight.
Common sense would dictate that this is nothing but a win for the airline, so it should be allowed, but of course I realize the rules have little to do with common sense sometimes. I was hoping someone here had some direct knowledge or experience on the matter.
If your reservation is still on-hold and not yet ticketed, I believe that you can drop a segment without issue.
However, it sounds like you already ticketed the explorer award, in which case unfortunately all routings and carriers are fixed for the distance-based explorer award. You cannot add, remove, or change any of them.
Your only alternative, if you haven't flown any of the segments, is to do a complete cancel-and-rebook of the trip.
The post you linked talked about canceling a segment before departure to avoid voiding the entire reservations, but you would still have to take the flights in sequence - it's not just a matter of canceling one segment and picking up your trip on the next one.
As far as a comment on whether this is a "win" for the airline: if they allow these kinds of rule waivers, they may also find that lots more people book unnecessary segments, since that would allow them to drop segments at will.