"It is what it is"
 

Another frustrating phone call with SMS. I currently have a reservation all in Y for August MSP-ATL(!)-ANC on one day, ANC-ADQ another day, then ADQ-ANC-ATL-MSP returning all on another day.

I saw that MSP-SEA-ANC opened up in F with AS so I called to see if I could change to these flights, assuming it would cost 10K more miles to do so.

Well, not so fast. The DL computer is now pricing the flights at 47.5K miles. 22.5K MSP-ANC-ADQ (as expected) but now they want 12.5K each for ADQ-ANC and ANC-MSP, even though it is a direct connection, and even though when the ticket was issued months ago, the almighty DL computer only charged 12.5K miles total for the trip back from ADQ via ANC to MSP.

The agent was nice but said that the computer priced it as such and "it is what it is." He put me on hold for a while but to no avail. Came back and repeated, "it is what it is."

Just unbelievable.

I am so hoping that MSP-ATL gets so overbooked that they need volunteers. Then we will get VDB compensation and get the non-stop MSP-ANC flight. It will teach them a lesson!!

Try to get through to IXXRES or IRRRES (Manual Ticket Issue or something) who can do manual price overrides in the (very frequent) cases when then tragically broken and underpowered DeltaMatic prices things wrong or just gets confused and can't price things out at all. It may take an hour to 6 (yes, really) to get your ticket re-ticketed then, but it is doable.

and after all your DL miles are gone, you can repeat it back to them "it is what it is"... having CSR's who are no longer enabled to help fix a problem for an elite traveler is not an airline I want to fly...

Changing an itinerary prior to the departure of the first segment requires a reprice of the whole itinerary. Have you verified that seats are available at the low lever on the return?

Just a thought...also I would call back and try again.

It is what it is
:-: best in class :-:

i'd flip if some goon told me that incredibly overused cliche.

I've noticed this too on some trips...Delta IT seems to love journey control a little too much and gouge us some more. Extremely frustrating.

They are not canceling and rebooking the return flights. The only flights they are changing are the first two. So yes, the fare class for low level award is obviously still there on the return since it was there when I booked and those flights are not being changed.

Maybe I don't understand your question or you don't understand the process involved in making a change to a DL award ticket.

I don't see how journey control comes into play with this. It is taking the exact same return flights that I have booked and now charging me double the miles for them. Journey control/married segments has to do with finding a certain mileage/fare level for part of the trip but when combined with another flight the fare goes up. That does not seem to be the case with me. If anything, I would have thought they would have priced the MSP-ANC-ADQ for more miles due to journey logic or otherwise. But I never dreamed they would reprice the return flights I didn't touch.

I am now on hold for the manual reissue desk and will update once I talk with them.

Feel yourself fortunate. A month ago, Delta changed a low award to Jakarta from NW stock to DL stock. Nothing else was changed except to change the ticket from 012 to 006 because I could not fly without the change. My account was suddenly lighter by 120000 miles. My call eventually reached a supervisor who promised to fix it. Since DL employees are not empowered to do anything (employee, please raise your hand so that we may schedule you to the use of the bathroom), it had to be fixed by another department via archaic message channels. He assured me that it would be fixed within two weeks.

Two days ago, I had cause to speak with an agent because the web-site would not allow me to book 2 revenue tickets to Sydney. Since my account was still missing the stolen miles, I asked for them to be reinstated. Yes, I explained that I thought it was outright dishonesty. About 15 minutes later with the help of the agent, his supervisor and some ghostly other employee in "the place where we reverse all evidence of theft" my miles were again back in the account.

Lack of empowerment is reminiscent of the worst of Eastern European bureaucracy during the cold war. It is time to rectify this situation, unfortunately, I have over a million miles in my account. I guess, I could book two awards from LAX to NRT which would use up all the miles in my account but then I would have to buy a ticket on Southwest to get to LAX and back.

Great example, knowing firsthand about this bureaucracy having lived in Vienna for 15 years, on the doorstep of Eastern Europe, during much of the cold war.

Even the manual reissue desk now says they have to contact someone else to see if they can make the change. Lack of empowerment to the Nth degree!

Update: after checking with the other department, the verdict is the same - they want 12.5K more miles per person than they should. Stupid but so be it. We're not changing.

Oh yes, of course. The Manual Reissue desk can not actually issue the tickets. Of course not. That would be too logical! And this is Delta we're talking about here. A true class act: in a class of its own (when it comes to inefficencies to the extreme)!

The sequence is:
1. Call in.
2. Talk to a "Platinum" or "Diamond" (or whatever tier you may be) agent. (Thankfully, after just a few second hold usually.)
3. Be told that "we can not price this out, I need to get you to Manual Reissues."
4. Be on hold for a good 10-30 minutes.
5. Talk to a Manual Reisuses agent who will tell you that "I can not reissue this ticket, please hold while I contact the internal Help Desk."
6. Then stay on phone with the rep from Manual Reissues while (s)he is on hold with the Internal Help desk (while the Internal Help rep is on hold for the Help Desk for the Internal Help Desk, I wouldn't be surprised!). Be updated every 10-15 minutes that they are "still on hold" and "have nothing to report."
7. If you are using a cordless phone or cell phone, be ready to switch phones. The hold can be anywhere from 45 minutes to over 5 hours (my personal record is 6 and a half hours until a simple ticket reissue could be done: I called at 9am and was off the phone just a bit after 3pm). Good idea: call in the morning, as if call in the evening you may be on hold until the next morning. When you call make sure to have half a day open to stay on hold.
8. Be prepared for the Manual Reissues agent to say that it "should be fixed" only for it not to be, and them needing to call back the "internal help desk" yet again (or, sometimes if the first "internal help desk" agent isn't helpful, the "manual reissues" agent may be honest and say something like, "I am sure that _____ is right, let me call again and speak to a different internal help desk agent" - so internally within DL it's the same as to customers externally: sometimes need to call multiple times to get someone who is willing and able to help).
(9 - optional. If you ask the agent what it is, they will likely tell you that DeltaMatic is giving one error after another and they need to go up the chain of command to get an override for each error. Each time the internal holds are a good half an hour or more. And after one error is bypassed, another one comes up -- and the process begins all over again. Repeat that to the Nth degree. It's not only waste of customers' time, it's waste of the Delta employees time being on hold with a customer while on hold with some internal help desk, that is (I suspect) on hold for some other department. If the reservations agents were empowered to price tickets out properly and ignore the deeply flawed DeltaMatic pricing logic (or rather, lack thereof), Delta would save $ Millions in lower labour costs, I'm sure.)

Back to your specific issue, they should not be repricing out the whole iteneary, only verifying that the changed flight(s) are of the same mileage level (presumably low). I've had it happen multiple times when they try to re-price out whole iteneary and I have to remind them that, no, it is already booked and confirmed, that only the changed flight(s) availability needs to be verified.

There isn't a problem, unless you consider a price you are unwilling to pay, a problem.

I will say it's strange to see a moderator of a Delta forum respond this way.

You find it strange that a moderator is being honest? This is not a Delta site, no affiliation whatsoever so I guess I do not see why you think it is strange. This is a site to talk about Skymiles both good and bad.

Aw, jeez, I can see I'm not alone with oddball award ticket "pricing" issues today.

All I can say is that I've been a CO plat for over 2 decades now. Sure, odd issues occasionally come up booking award travel there -- especially when you're trying to cobble together some limited award availability. But they always manage to get it to work. If there's a routing you have to take because the better routings are unavailable, they give it to you. Somebody fixes it. And if better seats become available later, and you ask for them, you get those, too.

I can see that's not necessarily the case with DL.

Of course price that one is unwilling to pay is a problem when the airline touts 25K mile awards all the time then makes them next to impossible to obtain.

Apparently you don't understand the role of moderators on FT. Unless they specifically say that they are posting with their "moderator hat" on, they are just like you and me. They have a right to their opinion. And sometimes the truth hurts.

I have *never* been elite with CO but am planning on status matching this fall. I have *always* found them to be way more flexible in their routings for award tickets, not to mention their availability. Way more low level award options compared with DL. The main downside is no stopover allowed on domestic award tickets but I will live with that.