PilgrimsProgress

Had a DL award on SU metal ARN-SVO-LAX with about a 30 hour stop at SVO. When checking in at ARN I only got boarding pass for first leg and baggage was checked through to LAX. I arrived at SVO the following day to check in for my flight to LAX ...

The SU checkin in agent says there is a problem with your ticket go to SU ticket office. Initially the agent says there is no problem with your ticket, the checkin agent is wrong, then he says your flight was actually for yesterday so I can't help you, you need to buy a new ticket. I showed him my printed itinerary stating the flight was for today. When I pressed him, he said you can talk to the TA who made reservation. When I pointed out it was DL he says ok talk to DL. When I ask where is DL office he says I don't know. After walking around and asking information I found out it is across and around the corner from SU ticket office. How did the agent not know?

DL agent says your ticket shows yesterday's flight, I can't help you, you need to buy a new ticket. I show him my itinerary and tell him that it is possibly ticketed wrong, and if it is ticket wrong by DL then DL needs to fix it. He says today's flight is full anyway so I can't help you. So I said I don't need to fly SU, can you put me on any flight. He says let me see what I can do and finally puts on me on that day's SU flight somehow and I am the last to check in. So it sort of ended fine.

My questions are:
1) If I had to buy a new ticket SVO-LAX would DL have reimbursed the ticket?
2) It seems that even though my itinerary was right (and every time I looked on the DL site it showed the right day) the ticketing was for a different day. Is that the best possible explanation? My sequence no. on the flight was 11 even though I was the last to check in so it seems there is something screwy with the ticketing?

Trying to figure out how to deal with it if such a situation ever crops up again. Hope not though ... looking for insights from the veterans here .... thanks!

mnCO

I would make them give me sooo many miles. Last thing I want is to think I'm stuck in Russia. Sure it all resolved itself the way it should have, but they gave you the run around.

suvayanr

I think something was weird with your ticket. 30 hours would cause a fare break in the ticket. If you bought it as a low level award the connection should only have been 24 hours or less

davetravels

Edward Snowden may have an extra room to rent.

btonkid12345

This. A 30 hour connection doesn't make sense.

On your first point, DL may or may not have reimbursed you. Depends on what their investigation found. Much easier for them to reimburse you if you bought a DL operated flight or SU operated flight.

However, I would never pay if the ticket didn't match my reservation. Even at SVO, where complicated situations like this could easily become a challenge. I would force them to fix it, and if they couldn't at the airport, ask them to find a way to call the US DM Desk (in your case, GM Desk, whatever US Desk they can find) and have THEM fix it.

Case & point: I was in a European outstation. No DL or KL agents. KL PUSHED BACK 28 minutes before departure time. Outstation verified this to DL DM Desk, who used that to rebook me without cost. The outstation at first wanted me to buy a new flight too. If it isn't your fault and you can demonstrate that, you should never buy a new flight and expect to be reimbursed later.

davetravels

The OP says this is an award ticket. There's nothing unusual about a 30 hour stopover. One of 2 thingz......

1) It simply priced out in miles as an open jaw with an additional segment and additional one way miles from ARN/SVO, as opposed to a round trip.

Or

2) A schedule change caused the overnight to go over the normal 24 hour maximum stopover allowance.

PilgrimsProgress

Just to clarify ... I went back through my emails and i have an emailed itinerary from DL, an emailed itinerary from SU, and a PDF itinerary from SU all 3 showing the flight on the correct date (the date i showed up to the airport) with status CONFIRMED. Furthermore, SU kept sending me emails for schedule changes for that correct flight. If the ticketing was incorrect BOTH of them SU or DL should have fixed it. However the level of customer service was similar to how prison guards deal with criminals. None of them wanted to help or fix the error. Although the DL agent later relented. I doubt this type of service would see the light of day in other parts of the world.

Case in point: similar situation occurred in a western european airport Few years ago. Ticketing airline and operating carrier were different. My boarding pass would not issue. The agent at the ticketing office said there is a problem with your ticket but it's not your fault, we are going to fix it and you are going to be on that flight. Sure enough after They spent 5 mins in the back office i had my boarding pass.

SU and DL in SVO were marching to the beat of a different drummer. They absolutely did not want to condescend to help. Asking to speak with a supervisor or someone in the US would have created problems IMO.

And the cherry ... The flight was delayed over an hour, the IFE did not work on the entire aircraft for the duration of the almost 13 hour flight, but wait there's more, they lost my baggage. SQ it's not!

btonkid12345

Yes, the service is poor in SVO. I respectfully disagree on your quoted point - I had an issue in SVO and asked for a Red Coat and it was quickly fixed.

DL Reservations can also assist with any ticketing issues whatsoever if the local ticket office was being unhelpful. You would have rather bought a new ticket and fight for reimbursement, than escalating there and having it corrected and not an issue in the future?

fpmurphy

That should have been a red flag that something was wrong with your assumed layover.

PilgrimsProgress

Originally i was told baggage can be checked through if the connection was < 24 hrs but check in agent at ARN said she could check it through. That did not cause me to conclude there was something wrong with the ticket because of the overwhelming documentation confirming the correct flight.

@ btonkid12345 - the last thing i wanted to do was buy a new ticket. Both agents insisted that was my only option. I did not want to pick a fight in that country. And i did not have a working phone to call the US.

Mainly i posted here to learn lessons for the future so your comments are quite valuable, thank you!

btonkid12345

I wouldn't want any airport to have my checked bags for such a long stop - especially not SVO.

Sometimes you have to politely, professionally, "pick a fight" to get things accomplished. I am not trying to attack at all - I am trying to learn alternative approaches too for when stuff hits the fan. Thus, I am trying to understand how and why you did to see if it optimizes efficiency/outcome.

FYI, I was not suggesting calling from your phone. Ask them to provide you a phone as a Medallion to fix the problem if their local agents refuse to help. This usually helps moves things along as they would rather get you out of there then write up why they made a call to a US number when the ticket office is there to help avoid such calls, and help passengers, especially Medallions, fix problems.

rubenswm

Fingers crossed for you. SVO is a miserable place to be stuck..

Quinlanty

SVO on SU is probably one of the worst places to have ticket problems or get stuck.

Often1

First, nowhere does OP say that he had a connection at SVO. He states that he has a "stop". Thirty hours is a stopover and there is nothing odd or wrong with those. They occur on cash and award tickets as passengers choose. Chasing that is a red herring and means nothing. Nonetheless, the bags should not have been checked through a stopover and that was trouble waiting to happen, whether OP had BP's in hand or not.

Second, "itineraries" are meaningless. Go to the e-ticket receipt (the one showing actual e-ticket numbers for each segment, including the SVO-LAX). That is all that matters. Particularly when it comes to officious bureaucrats, two can play the game. "Here is my ticket #XXX-YYYYYYYYYYYYY" on your flight for today, you must issue me a boarding pass" is the polite, but stern approach.

Third, when it came to DL, same thing. Show them the e-ticket receipt. If it is in error, it is DL's error and DL's problem to fix. "I have a ticket which you issued." Don't use terms such as "itinerary" and always make it about "you." Fortunately SVO is staffed by DL, so ask for a Red Coat (or supervisor / manager if you get a blank stare). It sounds as though DL's system did screw up, but it was for DL to fix it. If there were no seats on the SU flight, that is the end of that option. But, it doesn't mean buying a new ticket.

Fourth, if you find yourself somewhere without DL personnel or people who are DL contractors who simply cannot assist, pick up the phone. Enlist the phone agent's assistance. Expressing outrage and all that is not helful. Just focus on fixing the problem and deal with the screwups later.

Finally, forget the petty IFE stuff. That is an SU issue and it permits DL to focus away from the larger issue.

spudley007

My biggest issue with booking another airline's flight on my DL ticket is when something goes wrong like this, nobody seems to want to take responsibility and just help you out. Yes, there are exceptions, however, the easiest thing to do is say you need to check with DL. I encountered this yesterday in SYD and Virgin Australia's agent said I needed to go to the DL ticket counter. When I pushed the issue, she sent me to the manager who fixed the problem in about 5 minutes and I was on the flight. Bottom line, have your ticket and press them to help you out. Glad the OP made it home.