I did some searches and could not find any similar postings so here’s my first post.

My fiancé and I are planning on honeymooning in South America from 10/23/08 – 11/13/08. The first part of our honeymoon involves a cruise in the Galapagos Islands which departs on 10/24/08.

I purchased a multi-leg airfare package which had flights from
Leg 1 - Washington DC to Atlanta to Quito, Ecuador (10/23/08);
Leg 2 - Quito to Cusco, Peru (10/29/08);
Leg 3 - Cusco to Buenos Aires (11/4/08, Argentina;
Leg 4 - and finally Buenos Aires to Atlanta to Washington DC. (11/13/08)

I received an email a couple days ago from my travel agent (lowestfares.com) that my itinerary had changed such that Leg 1 which arrived in Quito, Ecuador on the evening of 10/23/08 was now changed to arrive on 10/24/08 at 9:45PM because of a one night layover on 10/23/08.

This change throws our entire trip in disarray as my fiancé and I are supposed to be on our cruise on 10/24/08. I’ve spoken to lowestfares.com and Delta’s customer service (on 3 separate occasions) and all they can offer are flights which leave on 10/20/08, 10/24/08, or issue a refund. The flight on 10/20/08 doesn’t work for us because we do not get back to DC from Phoenix (the wedding location) until 10/21/08. Flying out on 10/24/08 doesn’t work either because of what I described in the previous paragraph. The refund doesn’t work because this itinerary is now 1100 more per person than what I paid for previously and we really are strapped pretty tight on budget as it is.

I’ve asked Delta to pay for the cost of the hotel for the nights we’d spend in Quito prior to our cruise but they refused to do so. I also asked them to put us on a flight run by their partner American Airlines but they also refused to do so. Customer service said that if I wanted to escalate it any further, I would need to write a letter to their Corporate offices. I’m sure their hope is that I decide to just give in and accept the change to fly out on 10/20/08 but that would mean I would have to absorb the cost of rescheduling my return flight with Southwest and also the cost for a hotel for the additional 4 nights in Quito.

Is there ANYTHING I can do here? It’s just so frustrating that we’re getting yanked around like this by Delta solely because they don’t feel as if they’re making enough money on a given flight.