Question - Disclosure of Connecting Flight?
 

Hi all,

I hope I'm in the right place.

My boyfriend's itinerary was to fly from Washington, DC to California to Taiwan on Delta. When he boarded the plane, the DC to CA flight was actually DC to Memphis. When he asked the front desk, he was told that he would stay in his seat while others boarded-on to fly to CA. He thought this was weird since it wasn't in the itinerary but was okay with it. However, once the plane landed in Memphis, he was told to get off the plane so they could clean it and that he could board it again in 50 minutes. It took over eight hours to fly from DC to CA!

I wanted to know if Delta (or really any airlines) are allowed to do this without advising you on your itinerary. Please let me know if you have any websites that would have this information.

Thanks!

It's perfectly fine, airlines do it all the time.... its called a "direct flight"

Usually same flight number and somewhere it might say "1-stop".

Whether you are allowed to stay on the aircraft at the stop depends on the flight crew... usually if the crew stays the same, they will allow you to stay onboard. IF the flight crew changes, sometimes they ask everyone to unload "as there will be a change of flight crew". Some might say it's a security thing...

Did you book on-line. When book the flight it indicates stops/connection and ground time. Was this a direct flight from Washington to California. If so you should not have to get off in Memphis. If it was a connection, you have to deplane.

Direct flights do not always mean you get to stay on the aircraft.

Nor does it mean that you're actually staying on the same aircraft. For example, Delta 008 from IAH-DXB is considered a "direct" flight. But you are not taking the same MD88 from ATL-DXB as you did from IAH-ATL.

Can be quite annoying, actually. A few years ago I was on a 777 LAX-ATL that was supposed to continue to TLV (I was getting off in ATL). We ended up diverting to BHM. When we got to ATL the ATL-TLV leg had already departed on different equipment. Talk about some irate pax from my flight who thought they were all set, even in the event of a delay...

Matt

Thanks for the responses. Here are the answers to some questions.

The flight was booked online using Delta.com. The itinerary did not indicate a one stop or connecting flight. It was a direct flight (no stops) from DC to CA.

So is a direct flight allowed to have a stop or connecting flight without stating that in the itinerary? That just seems very misleading.

Thanks!

Welcome to FT ---

If you have the flight number, it should be easy to check whether there's an intermediate stop and it isn't unusual to have a change of equipment if there is one.

Bob H

A DIRECT flight uses the same flight number, this is different from a NON-STOP flight.

I'm assuming that this was DCA-LAX on DL 2143, during the reservations process it shows the non-stop flights on top and 1-stop flights below. The reservations page shows DCA 6:34am - LAX 11:46am 1-stop . Also the flight status page shows the same 1-stop information.

Actually the DL.com reservation page will show direct flights with one stop. They will not show a stopover but it will show up in the 1-stop category and state that it is 1-stop. It does not, however, show the stop itself on the itinerary which often confuses certain fliers. There are a number of such transcontinental flights.

To add fuel to the fire, for a direct flight with an intermediate stop, the mileage and segment accrual is the same as if you were flying N/S between the two destinations. You do not get the benefit of the intermediate stop for excess mileage/segment.

In other words, if flight 123 were routed DCA-ATL-MSY, you would 1 segment and 850 miles (approx). If you flew the same itinerary on two different flight numbers, 123 or 345 from DCA-ATL and 567 from ATL to MSY, you would accrue 1100 miles and 2 segments.

I would certainly be annoyed if I didn't know my flight had a stop, but wasn't the arrival and departure time on the itinerary? He shouldn't have been shocked about the total flight time if that was the case.