GayPMorgan

Hi all,


Back in December, my friend and I bought tickets to go to MAD in late April when Delta dropped prices down to 400$ round trip. Unfortunately, she got let go from her job shortly after and has been struggling to find full-time employment since. Naturally, she will not have the money to go on this trip anymore but I am still planning to go as I we were going to travel with friends from high school who now live in other cities. Which brings me to my questions


1. I assume Delta will not be able to refund or transfer her ticket on my reservation but does anyone know if loss of employment is a valid reason to for an airline to bypass these rules?


2. Do I necessarily have to cancel her ticket if I know she's not going to fly and how will that affect my ticket since we're on the same reservation together? If I don't cancel her ticket will that cause issues for me when I check in for the flight and such?


3. In canceling her ticket, will I myself be eligible for any type of travel credit on my SkyMiles account since I used my credit card to pay for both of our tickets?


Many thanks in your help!

flyerCO

Call and they'll separate the reservations. She'll then have one year from date of issue to use the value. It can NOT be transferred. Only the named passenger gets credit regardless of who pays. If doesn't fly and loses the value then no FF credit. They might waive the cancellation fee, but they won't refund. This is why they offer insurance to cover these things.

Finally if you don't cancel before flight, she loses all value.

Mr. Tickets

Delta won't refund and you won't get any benefit for using your credit card. The credit from the ticket, less the penalty will be valid until the same Date in December of this year that you originally bought the ticket. All travel will need to be completed by that date. Odds are that the penalty to recycle the tickets will be at least $300.00, so not a lot of net value in the ticket.

I would definitely have the record split and cancel your friends ticket. Your reservation and price will not be affected.

Often1

You don't need to split the PNR. Each passenger has a separate ticket. A PNR may have multiple tickets and it sounds as though that is what you have done.

Read the fare rules carefully. Chances are that they will say something such as a $300 penalty for making a change prior to departure and $0 value if a no show. If that is the case, then cancel close to departure. Your friend will still have $100 (in this example) to use within the year.

But, if for some reason, the flight is cancelled or significantly delayed, she may cancel the ticket for a full refund to the original form of payment which sounds like your credit card.

Just a future suggestion as this is a public board, no matter how close a friend, don't book tickets for others. You can help them out by giving them booking information or they can provide your their credit card details. But, in this case it may only be $400, but it could be a lot more - OP is out the cash.

PayItForward

If the intention was to travel together, friends/familes as in this case, there is the other considerations of
- Baggage benefits
- Upgrade benefits
- IRROP issues
These are just the obvious benefits.

flyerCO

However to be clear she must be split off and her reservation cancelled before departure. You can't have one passenger in a reservation flying and the other cancelled. It's a simple process to split, so waiting to hope for a change that grants a free refund is best idea. However do need to split it in order to cancel her reservation and remember to do it before departuee. (Even at checkin counter works)

OP, how soon is trip? DL is one of the best/worst (depends how you look at it) when it comes to tweaking their schedules. Anything more then a month out there's great possibility. Less then a month and usually but not always changes are minor. Note a change in operating carrier - (DL to KL for example), including a change in DL Connection operating carrier (Compass to GoJet for example) will allow for a refund.

GayPMorgan

Trip is scheduled for April 26th outbound. My only thought to not canceling her ticket would be that it would be nice to just sit alone on our connecting flight to JFK and then on the window seat for the 764 were taking to MAD but ill of course split our reservations and have her cancel hers to avoid any issues at the gate.

GayPMorgan

Yea none of my friends are nearly as savvy when it comes to booking flights (digging through ITA Matrix, Skyscanner to stitch together itineraries) and generally when we travel they leave logistical planning and booking flights and such up to me

Bowgie

If your friend no shows, Delta will likely give the seat to another passenger.

There is no need to split the reservation now. A Delta agent will do that automatically when you or your friend call to cancel. A few keystokes to split and a few more to cancel.

MSPeconomist

If the friend has a better seat reserved on the flights, you should try to switch to her seat before or when the ticket is cancelled.

ijgordon

So what you *could* do is check her in for the flight and get the boarding pass, which would effectively give you access to the two seats. The problem *might* arise when you boarded. You'll need to scan both boarding passes, and that might raise a red flag. It's normally advisable to notify the gate agents at that time that you are flying with an extra seat, otherwise the passenger count will be incorrect before they close the door (if they even still do that.)
While one can normally book an extra seat for comfort (or for large passengers), the extra seat is booked as such, not with the name (and frequent flyer account!) of a non-traveling passenger.
You *might* get away with this on the domestic flight, but it will be more difficult on the international flight, because of passport requirements/checks.

You could try to call Delta and see if they'll effectively change the name on the ticket to have it as an "official" extra seat, but they might. It be willing to do that (for free).

flyerCO

Not going to happen due to the many issues with manifests on international flights. Also they would need the passengers permission. Just because OP paid doesn't mean the ticket belongs to him.

VCURamFan

Is there a better way to do this now? Over a three hour wait for a Delta rep and I need to cancel one passenger on a two passenger ticket. Did this last week easily on my own with Jetblue, unfortunately not possible on Delta site.

flyerCO

Try and use the Message us function within DL APP.