muhakas

Posting here on the off chance someone has an answer . .

The only way I can get from my west TX town to my mom's in ND on a conjuncted ticket is to fly two airlines: United and Delta (used to include American until the death of AA and Delta's interline agreement last September).

On March 14, those tickets were still in the $900-each range. On March 15, they went up to $2000+ EACH and are still pricing out in that range regardless of date, for the next several months.

Anyone have any idea what happened? I have asked Delta and United agents, and they have no idea.

Yes, I can fly into a town 75 miles away (not on Delta) and rent a car and drive, which is what I'm doing for the summer trips. But that's not as attractive an option in winter. Plus, I fly with an almost-5-year-old. We've been paying a premium to fly on those conjuncted tix and get to our destination w'o the extra drive, but spending $4000 per trip is not economically feasible.

Thanks!

wrp96

It's probably related to this http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ity-trips.html

fti

What if you booked the tickets separately? Would that reduce the price?

mnbp

Yet another side effect of this:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-air-lines-skymiles/1757922-delta-refused-comment-change-pricing-multi-city-trips.html

muhakas

Thanks--read that article, and it doesn't seem to be applicable b'c my tix are conjuncted and involve two airlines.

Two tix may be cheaper, but we'd have to pick up and re-check luggage and would have no protection if we missed a connection from one airline to the other. That's why I've been paying extra for conjuncted tix, after AA nearly ruined a trip to Hawaii.

kop84

I'm guessing looking at DL's available airports in West Texas it's even further to drive to ELP or SAT than the 75 miles in ND?

muhakas

Oh yeah. There is no feasible drive-to option in TX.

Delta pulled out of west Texas a couple of years ago and made my life so much more difficult . . . Sigh. Keep hoping it will come back. Delta may not be perfect, but it's miles ( ) better than the other two major airlines with which I've become familiar by necessity.

My almost-5-year-old still walks by the defunct Delta counter here and asks if "our friends at Delta" are coming back, and she fusses when we get on a non-Delta plane.

Often1

These don't sound like conjunction tickets. Just straight connections with interlining. Is there any chance that you have more than 4 hours at the connection point and that this is causing the ticket to price as a stopover?

muhakas

As I understand it, conjuncted means two or more non-code-share airlines, all on one ticket and itinerary, and the airlines involved have an interline agreement. So my UA/Delta flights are on either 016 OR 006 ticket stock.

No long layovers.

I have to use Orbitz or a travel agent, and my agent has no idea what's going on either. Given the timing I think it might be related to that multi-city issue, but I don't know why.

fti

Actually conjunctive tickets mean tickets that have two (or more) ticket numbers for one itinerary. It stems back to the days when there were paper tickets with a max of 4 segments per ticket. So a "conjunctive" ticket was one that used more than one ticket number for the same itinerary.

You have an "interline" ticket which means multiple airlines on one ticket.

xliioper

The new END-ON-END combination restrictions also apply to interline tickets tickets between carriers. It is likely the combination is pushing the DL fare up to a B fare or some such which does not have the restriction. You can find the combination restrictions in the fare rules. Only way to currently get around is by booking separate tickets (which unfortunately means no checked-thru luggage).

muhakas

Thanks for the clarification on conjuncted.

Where can I find the new end on end rules, and when did they go into effect?

muhakas

I found the new rules for one way fares, but not for round trip . . . .

muhakas

And here's a different take on what conjuncted means . .

https://pro.delta.com/content/deltap...e-policy-.html.

fti

From your link:

"* A single ticket also means a conjuncted (i.e., conjunctive) ticket. Conjuncted tickets are sequential in number on same ticket stock. It is not possible to conjunct tickets from different airlines."

Actually that is exactly how I described it above - two or more ticket numbers ("sequential").

In this case, you can through-check luggage if you have a single ticket (up to four flights) or a "conjunctive" ticket (more than four flights ticketed together with sequential ticket numbers). You can have more than one airline/flight number on conjunctive tickets, but the tickets have to all be issued at the same time validated on the same airline ticket stock.