Consolidating two flights into one
 

Hi FlyerTalkers -

Quick Question-

I am leaving for the beach tomorrow morning. I had originally booked two flights so that I could get back to the office next Monday. Then, I planned to return to the beach for new years day.

Here is my question: Can I consolidate those two flights (i.e. two itineraries) into one, longer one? I no longer need to be back in the office. Will Delta care if I simply drop the return leg of the first flight and drop the outbound leg on the second flight? I don't expect compensation, and hey, it's one more seat they can sell on each flight.

Any insight into how this is handled would be appreciated.

Thanks

You can drop last segments, but not originating segments. If you miss a flight in an itinerary, everything else on that itinerary will be canceled.

Sure, you can do this.

Call Delta. They will reprice the NEW itinerary and let you know how much MORE it will cost you.

And there's a decent chance the repriced ticket could be less!

If you don't fly the outbound leg of the second itinerary your return flight will be automatically cancelled. You can call in but it will reprice the itinerary at today's prices

How do you figure?

It's possible. I just rebooked my New Year's trip for a lower fare.

Here is how I would handle such a change in travel plans:
BTW: Do you have Travel Insurance?
One can get reimbursed by travel insurance for changes in plans, with reasonable explanations of why such changes occurred ie change in work plans/ needs.

a. Travel on the outbound of my 1st original ticket (in your situation you have probably already taken the flight)

b. On landing at my destination, call Delta to change the return of flight 1 to the Jan 2.

AI would also check 1 way fares (on Delta and all other airlines) back from the beach airport to my home airport.

Take what works out to be the cheapest for you.

c. Cancel the 2nd ticketed itinerary/ reservation.
You will either get a e-credit voucher less cancellation/ change fees or the ticket will be worth nothing after cancellation/ change fees.

It is always cheaper to re-price the return trip, once the outbound has been flown.
In this case, with 2 separate tickets and potentially 2 change/ cancel fees, maybe most economical to either:
1. Re-Price the return of the 1st ticket, after the outbound has been flown.
or
2. Purchase a new 1 way ticket from beach airport to home airport + cancel/ throw away the return of the 1st ticket and the full 2nd ticket.
If the OP is lucky, he/she may even get a sympathetic agent to cancel free of charge the 2nd ticket and re-price the return sector of the 1st ticket.

If the sum of ticket costs for the two separate trips are more expensive than the repriced trip (plus change fee).

We don't know the city pairs nor trip durations but for arguments sake assume the original trips were $300 each, $600 total. Les a $150 change fee, that gives us $450 to play with. If the rejiggered itinerary is anything under $450 a partial refund would apply. I can easily see this applying in a bunch of circumstances.

The problem here is that the OP has two tickets and thus will need to pay a change fee for each ticket.

The prices could still be such that two change fees could allow for overall lower cost (I just pulled numbers out of the air). Lower probability of overall cash back but still is possible. (Plus I'm not sure they would necessarily be adverse to charging only one such fee.)