aaronl

Several months ago I booked a multi-city itinerary from SFO to Asia using SkyMiles. The first destination is HAN, and my routing is SFO-ICN-HAN on KE.

At the time I booked, the schedules were ideal, but since then there have been multiple schedule changes affecting both of those flights. Now the connection time is down to 30 minutes, which doesn't seem realistic. KE won't even assign me seats, because they consider the itinerary invalid.

The Delta agents I talked to offered me a SFO-LAX-TPE-HAN routing that arrives one day after the originally scheduled arrival. Frankly this doesn't seem any better than missing my connection at ICN and getting rebooked for the next day. They claim there are no other choices available, even departing one day earlier. They told me if I don't like that option, all they can do is cancel the ticket and redeposit the miles.

Does Delta have any obligation to open award space to make this ticket work out?

If I take my chances and fly the itinerary as it's currently booked, what should I expect? Will KE even let me fly the first segment with a connection that short? Assuming I don't make the connection, will they rebook me and provide a hotel room?

jsmith50

I have employees that flew DTW-ICN-HAN in the past few months with the same issue in ICN. Their solution was to extend the layover in Seoul to 23ish hours and flew the ICN-HAN leg the next evening on KE. They checked bags through to HAN and left them at the airport at ICN over night and found an inexpensive hotel room in the city and used the delay as an opportunity to do some sight seeing in Seoul along the way. My understanding is that KE also would not allow the short connection (seems like theirs was around an hour rather than 30 minutes) declaring it an invalid connection.

Good Luck to you!

aaronl

I appreciate the suggestion, but spending a night in Seoul is really not ideal for me. I'm spending time in Seoul later on this itinerary so I'd much rather make it to Hanoi on time.

I just did some digging around to see if I could find availability that the Delta agents were missing. I found SFO-TPE-HAN on CI and VN departing about 36 hours earlier than my original departure. This isn't ideal either but I was willing to deal with it. I called Delta and they were able to see the availability and were willing to change the reservations, but wanted $147 in additional taxes (I suspect they're really surcharges?) per person!! I wasn't willing to pay that much.

By the way, this is especially frustrating because it's the third award ticket (out of about 5 in the last year) where I've recently had similar issues with schedule changes. First Lufthansa rescheduled a flight causing my girlfriend and I to get rebooked on different flights, and there was no longer award availability for me to get back on the flight to FRA I had actually booked. Then United cancelled my flight to Hawaii and the only other flight was 8 hours later. I seem to be exceptionally unlucky when it comes to this. I think I'm going to stick to last-minute travel in the future...

TTT

Delta can open space on their own metal, not partners.

aaronl

Understood, when I asked about them opening award space, I meant on Delta metal.

xmurphy

Call again until you find agent, who will change it for free.

I had schedule change on my last award ticked (less than 2 hours shorter stopover) and was able to switch to different carrier without fuel surcharge payments. Two agents asked for it, third waived it. It was more than 200$ per pax and we were 6 pax, so quite big difference.

Don't forget to mention to agent, that you are changing involuntary after schedule change.

Good luck

aa4ever

They could definitely be taxes (perhaps TPE has higher taxes than ICN), or they could alternatively be some carrier fees. But either way, this seems pretty reasonable. It's not like DL can magically find seats on flights that don't exist. The flights you want aren't flown, so by definition, something less than ideal is what you'll have to take. So decide which is the least less ideal, and go with that (and pay a few dollars extra if necessary).

fromYXU

Flying to HAN without a layover is nearly impossible. Try SGN and buy a cheap fare to HAN.

currentjer

There are other ways to get to Hanoi - for example, through CDG (If you can find AF flights, that'd be perfect) or SVO (If you can get the SU flights, which usually have good avail).

Getting to those connecting points will be a bit more complex - but remember the agents can only force availability on DL flights. In the case of a schedule change, you can afford to be more liberal with your routing.

Otherwise, try CZ, MH, or MU. PM me if you need a little more help with finding a better itin.

MSPeconomist

The OP absolutely should not try to fly this as currently booked. It is an illegal connection as well as an extremely risky and unwise itinerary. You can be denied boarding or not allowed to check luggage through if you have an illegal connection and moreover the airline could refuse to rebook you when you miss the flight. You probably will not be given a boarding pass for the second flight when you check in for the first flight.I wouldn't think the chances of making a thirty minute connection at ICN are good. I've only done TPAC there on DL (and PMNW) metal, but every time, I've had to go through security upon arrival. Of course, it's much worse if yoou must change between the main and satellite terminals.

aaronl

I found availability on OAK-LAX-CAN-HAN on CZ using ExpertFlyer (X bucket). However, the Delta agent I talked to said the CZ segments had no availability. What am I missing?

Even if I can get the CZ segments, I'm not sure it will help much... I think they have fuel surcharges, and my chances of finding an agent who will ignore the tax/fee difference are poor now that an agent made a note on the reservation that I could change the flights without a penalty because of the schedule change, but would need to pay the tax/fee difference.

currentjer

aaroni, I would advise you to call Singapore. They are usually far more professional and efficient when it comes to schedule change problems.

For agents in the US, you will need to more often than not, advise them to long-sell the CZ segments. Otherwise, you might still want to look into other carriers for re-route. If you can get yourself to SIN or BKK, you might be able to hop onto a VN flight.

aaronl

Singapore came through for me! Thank you so much currentjer!!

The agent in Singapore didn't come up with any suggestions on my first choice of date, and wasn't willing to change my origin from SFO to OAK, but she was able to change the tickets to the SFO-TPE-HAN routing I found without charging me fuel surcharges.

After so many futile calls to Delta, I'm pretty happy with that outcome.