Originally Posted by
mare0114
When I try to book this pair on Delta it comes out to $4,451 (vs. $2,354) if I booked DL flights both ways. I go over to VA and the same itinerary prices out at $4,040. The interesting thing is that on VA it shows me the pricing of the separate legs and the JFK-LHR leg on DL is showing $2,723 with the LHR-JFK leg on VA at only $1,317. This makes me think that if I try to mix the DL and VA legs on either website it is pricing out as two separate one way tickets.
Originally Posted by
exwannabe
That may well be true (other than the V Aus slip), but I would think they could easily combine on a half round basis w/o any legal issues.
My guess, based on the OP's description, was that the fare class availability and fare rules aren't aligned for the right availability to be there for the interline round trip ticket. I didn't mean to imply that DL and VS can't legally sell round trip tickets on the two airlines with one way fares based on round trip purchase; I meant that they can't collude to align fare rules and availability to ensure that round trip availability matches.
In fact the (full) fare rules for the DL Z fare JFK-LHR on the OP's dates say this (emphasis added):
THE FARE COMPONENT
MUST NOT BE ON
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
ANY DL FLIGHT OPERATED BY VS.
AND
THE FARE COMPONENT MUST BE ON
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
ANY DL FLIGHT
ANY AF FLIGHT
ANY AZ FLIGHT OPERATED BY AZ
ANY AZ FLIGHT OPERATED BY AP
ANY KL FLIGHT
ANY BE FLIGHT
ANY HA FLIGHT
ANY AS FLIGHT
I expect that restriction in the fare rules will go away once the joint venture is approved.