I've currently got a round trip flight (in a few days) from my home town to SF for work. The single reservation has both me and my wife this time around (two people flying in, two people returning home). Turns out I had to extend my previous trip to SF so I'm already here!

I'd like to simply not step foot on the plane for the first half of my trip. My wife will still get on the plane, of course. We'll enjoy our time in SF then both fly home. That's the plan, at least.

I have a few questions:

(1) I know different airlines have different policies about what happens to a trip if you simply skip your first leg. Assuming I'm the only person flying and I don't use any part of my trip, I'm pretty sure VX immediately cancels the return leg. With that said, my wife is going to use our PNR so will the return leg get canceled for me, for her, or maybe for both?

(2) In the best case I'd call VX and give them a heads up so they could remove my name from the first flight. This is a win-win for everyone: they can sell the other seat and I have no worries about getting home. Sure it would be cool to have a credit for my first leg but I don't really care about that. What bothers me is they won't do it - they require a "change" which means a change-fee AND difference in fair (yes, the One Way is now more than my original Round Trip). So it is going to cost me more money to simply not step on the first plane. Does anyone have any magic words or things I can, of course very nicely, ask to help get things changed in my favor? Has anyone done this before? I've had lots of change fees waved and by my reading of FAA regs this is completely within VX's discretion to say, "sure, here's half your money back as a credit and you're return leg is still good. Your wife still has a RT."

Advice appreciated!