whoknew89

So I've successfully booked at LAX-SYD trip with a layover in BNE. I reside in DFW and wanted to book at DFW-SYD trip but apparently the online system does not allow that kind of routing.

So my question is if I called delta what are my chances of getting them to add another leg. There is lowest level award availability in first for a DFW-LAX leg and I believe that I'm still within the routing rules for use of 80,000 one-way.

Just thought I'd ask and see what advice or experiences others had.

whoknew89

My LAX-BNE-SYD flight will be operated by Virgin Australia, not sure if that makes a difference.

GoHogsAR

The DFW-SYD flight is operated by Qantas, which is not a member of SkyTeam. That's why you can't book that flight with SkyMiles.

You should not have any problem calling Delta and adding the DFW-LAX leg. I'm travelling to Australia later this year and booked LAX-SYD first, then called back about a week later and added the MCI-LAX segments once I found low availability in F. Like you, my LAX-SYD flights are operated by Virgin Australia.

whoknew89

@GoHogsAR did Delta charge you anything to add the leg? Such as the $150 award change fee or more miles?

3Cforme

You can expect to be charged a change fee unless the miles are from a Plat or Diamond SkyMiles account. Changes to date, changes to flight, changes to routing, changes to origin or destination... all get tagged with a change fee unless there's a weather waiver or qualifying schedule change.

DL has implmented married segment availability on award itineraries. The fact that you see DFW-LAX avaiable, and have LAX-SYD, doesn't mean that DFW-SYD will be available. It's worth asking, however.

GoHogsAR

No, there was no change fee or additional mileage charged. That may be because I am DM and if that's the case I apologize for giving you bad info.

As to the married-segment logic, I was seeing much higher pricing online when I added the MCI-LAX segment (believe it was something like 350K). When I called in with the flights I wanted, the agent was able to price it out at 160K per ticket.

bgriff

Not clear when you booked but usually if you make a change within 24 hours of booking, they won't charge you even if you have no elite status. I would suggest framing the question to the agent in the form of, "I was just able to book LAX-SYD online but the system was giving me trouble adding DFW-LAX, which looks to be available. Is there any way you can add that segment on to my existing ticket?"

You may have to hang up and call again a few times until you find an amenable agent. You may also have no luck ... this kind of thing was commonplace last year but with the new "computer is always right" method of pricing award tickets agents seem to have, or at least seem to have been told to take, less leeway in adjusting these things.

whoknew89

Thanks everyone for all the advice. @bgriff, your advice worked flawlessly. At first the agent was reluctant to waive the $150 change fee since it had been three days but after explaining that I had attempted to call over the last few days but had to stop because of the long hold times she agreed to waive it.

She was able to manually get the DFW-LAX leg added with the same number of points. So happily I'm first class all the way.