An even more frustrating situation happened to me two weeks ago. Booked LAS - DFW - ATL leaving LAS at 1:50 a.m. with an evening departure that day from DFW to ATL. My meeting is canceled in Dallas...so at 8:00 p.m. I am in LAS wanting to go straight back to ATL.

Ask to be put on the non-stop from LAS to ATL leaving around 11:00 p.m. Plenty of seats, but would have to pay $100 + huge fare increase. Even though the one flight is only 3 hours before the other... it is considered "the day before"... with no "same-day" standby. So, as a good corporate citizen, I wait the extra 3 hours, connect through DFW and stand-bye for my flight to ATL...arriving about 6 hours later than necessary.

I recognize that the policies are in place to segregate travellers for various fares. However, sometimes extenuating circumstances arise where it is obvious our travel needs change en-route. As a PM, it would be nice to get a "favor" now and then. If the agent were to look, he would have seen that I had 10+ segments booked/traveled within that week. It would be obvious that I wasn't trying to cheat Delta.

There are often times when I give Delta "favors" like booking higher fares to fly with them, waiting for hours for mechanical delays, watiing for hours for missing flight crews, etc. I just wish that there could be some up and beyond "favors" in return. The situation above would have been a great opportunity for Delta to "do me a favor". I would not ever pay for the extreme up-fare. I wish they would recognize that and have the agents empowered to help a loyal traveller get home a little sooner.

Just a rant.