przeclai

So, this may be a bit wordy, but I'm in a somewhat complicated situation with Delta right now. Any help would be greatly appreciated because I'm getting quiet lost between what Delta's telling me and what I've been reading online!

For reference, my current itinerary is as follows:

Depart December 18/12 PVG>NRT, 8:40AM- 12:40PM local time. Layover for 2hrs and 5min. Then NRT>DTW 2:45PM-12:20PM local time. Layover for 1hr and 45 minutes. Then DTW>YYZ 2:05PM-3:20PM. (This is a non-refundable ticket, originally purchased as RT fare. I've already used the first half to get to Shanghai)

First off, I guess I should give a bit of background. I'm a student currently studying abroad in Shanghai and I want to be able to travel to multiple places in Asia during December/12. I was hoping to finish up my travels in Japan before returning home to Toronto. However, I've encountered a few problems in my planning.

After looking at my current flight schedule, I initially thought that I could pick up my flight flight from NRT no problem. After calling Delta they told me that because I bought a round trip ticket I have to depart from Shanghai and arrive back in Toronto. I'm okay with this (though I'd still prefer to fly from somewhere in Japan), but that made me think of extending my flight by a few days so I had more time to travel back to Shanghai. I asked the agent about this and she said she could move me to December 25th or 26th without having to paying the difference for the flight, but there was still a 250 dollar change fee. I told her I'd have to talk to my family and hung up.

Before I called Delta back I reviewed several old emails from them regarding schedule changed. I noticed that my flights had been shifted around quiet significantly since I originally booked them. All the changes are as follows:

The Initial Flight
Leaving December 18/12 PVG>DTW 10:10AM-11:15AM local time. Layover for 2hr and 35 mins. Then DTW>YYZ, 1:50PM-3:00PM.

August Changes
Leaving December 18/12 PVG>DTW 5:40PM-6:10PM local time. Then DTW>YYZ 1:15PM-3:05PM. (the whole thing was screwy, but I didn't notice when I first received the email!)

I called Delta back and again asked them to change my flight to another day. They mentioned the 250 dollar fee so I brought up the schedule change I'd experienced (referencing my initial booking vs what I have now, not the second change in August) and asked if I there was any way I could get that fee waived. The agent immediately told me that it would have to be same day travel to do this. So, since I had been looking at other flights through other airlines as well, my next question was to ask if there was a possibility to cancel and get a refund. She told me that she could put in a request and some people in the US would review my case. However, I wasn't guaranteed a full refund and that once she put this request in, I wouldn't be able to get my flight back if I decided I didn't like the results. So, again, I told Delta I'd have to think about it and call back.

As of right now I'm at a loss on what to do. The more I think about it the more I want to be able to travel more at the end December. I want to be able to depart later and fly out of Japan if possible, but I'm okay with leaving from PVG still. Being a poor student, I'd prefer to avoid that change fee since it can go towards other flights throughout the region. What is my best route when calling Delta back this time around?

Thanks!

NWA/Deltaflygirl

You've alrady used the first half, so you'd be entitled to a partial refund at best - and yes, there's no way to reverse it so you'll be on the hook for your own OW back if you went that route - and yep, the very BEST you can hope for is maybe a Single DAY (as in the next one) as a sched change courtesy -

My advice? Pay the change fee and fare difference and do it before the fare increases too much for the dates you want.

xliioper

"If a Delta schedule or routing change has delayed your departure or arrival by more than one hour, you may be eligible to select an alternate flight at no additional charge. Note that the below conditions may apply:

•Your origin, destination and travel date must remain the same

•Alternate flights must be available, and you can only modify once as subsequent changes may result in additional fees

•Voluntary changes to other flights not impacted by a Delta schedule change may result in additional fees"

MSPeconomist

I agree. The $250 fee to change dates on international discount tickets is standard and you have no reason to change the dates of your travel significantly due to your schedule changes. Starting the return from Japan will probably increase the fare substantially.

Why not buy a cheap RT between Shanghai and Japan if you want to visit that country? You could even leave some of your luggage in Shanghai and retrieve it before flying out. However, before doing this, make sure that you have a MULTIENTRY visa for China and that your visa will not expire in December.

OTOH, I would seriously suggest using your current situation to explore other areas of China before returning home. It will be easy to visit Japan another time.

Stripe

I'm confused. If I reconstruct your booking history chronologically I get this:

Since the August change left you with an impossible itinerary (you arrive in DTW after your YYZ flight leaves) you would have been in a better position at that time to push DL to be more flexible about changing the date or origin. Your current itinerary has no such problem (only a 1.5 hour difference in the PVG departure time from your original booking), so DL has no obligation to accommodate any changes.

MSPeconomist

If there's any hope of free changes, it might lie in the fact that the OP is now connecting through NRT, presumably because the PVG-DTW nonstop doesn't operate on that travel day. This might permit moving to the 19th or 20th to get onto the nonstop to DTW, IIRC on the 777, with one fewer connection. It also wouldn't leave quite so early in the morning.

However, I suspect that the 5:40 pm departure on the intermediate schedule was a mistake. At first, I assumed that it might be a connection through HND or something, but the length of the flight seems consistent with a nonstop. AFAIK DL runs its PVG departures more toward morning and rather close to each other to economize on staff costs.

przeclai

Thanks for the responses. Sounds like I won't really be able to change the flight like I wanted to. Oh well. I guess I will try to call back and push the fact that I'm now leaving out of NRT like suggested though!

tentseller

Changing PVG NRT DTW YYZ to NRT DTW YYZ is going to cost you much more than $250 which is the fee for changing PVG NRT DTW YYZ to another day if same fare class is available.

If you show up at NRT for you flight without flying PVG NRT you will find you complete itinerary cancelled and you will be stuck at NRT facing the cost of a very expensive one way walk up fare home.

Since you do not want to payout any fees the suggestion is fly Dec 18 PVG NRT DTW YYZ.

przeclai

Just an update:

I called Delta today to see what they could do and they changed my flight to December 27th. I explained all the schedule changes to them and they said unfortunately I would still have to pay the change fee, but they did upgrade me to economy comfort for the long flight from PVG to DTW.

xihuang91

By that means, about 100 dollar change fee if factoring the price Delta they sell their EC ticket on this route for. Not too bad, could be worse.
FYI, also based in Yyz, a current UofT student.