Originally Posted by sbagdon
Called the "point-of-origin" rule, clearly explained on the NWA website... it's a no-no. The only time I've heard this working is if the airline originated the process. There was someone saying that the FNT-DTW leg of their FNT-DTW-??? flight was cancelled, so they drove down (with NW's blessing) and caught the DTW-??? flight... and still got credit for the FNT-DTW flight. Don't know how they dealt with ending up in FNT later, and their car being in DTW.
Steve B.
I had exactly this type of experience a while back on DL, and still had problems.
I was going to ABQ (SDF-ATL-ABQ) and DL canceled the SDF-ATL segment. They put me in a cab to CVG and I caught a direct CVG-ABQ flt.
When I went to do on-line check-in for the return, I got a message to contact an agent (and couldn't check in). They had canceled the return because I had not flown the original itin. Fortunately, they corrected the error and my return was ok.
It happened again on DL when a snow-storm canceled flts out of SDF, but I still had to get to LAX. I checked with the TA who ok'd the change, then drove myself to CVG for my connection (I do have a 4WD).
The return was monkeyed up (since I drove to CVG I didn't need to connect on to SDF on the return), but SMS straightened it out for me as the TA thankfully made a note in my PNR. Otherwise, they wanted to charge me for the change to my itin.
A somewhat similar incident also occured recently w/ NW.
I was scheduled to go SDF-DTW-MDT. SDF-DTW canceled due to mechanical and NW put me on an invol-re-route onto US SDF-PIT-MDT. On my return, NW gave me an upgrade MDT-DTW.