49penguins

Booked RT SMF-LIH tickets through Korean on Delta, connecting in LAX. SMF-LAX delayed & we would have missed our LIH flight so Delta re-booked us on Hawaiian airlines. Got to Hawaiian flight in LAX as it was boarding, handed over the paperwork Delta gave us showing "boarding pass" our seat assignments & the phrase "FLT COUPON REQ". Hawaiian informed us the tickets were booked but not paid for and that a flight coupon was a seperate voucher from Delta. We had no other Delta paperwork. We paid for the tickets out of pocket (it was the last flight to Hawaii that night, no time to cross LAX & find a Delta rep).

I've contacted Delta requesting reimbursement for the flights. Today Delta Corporate Customer care says they have no record of us being issued vouchers, besides 4 meal vouchers, and that they are not responsible because the flight was "protected" under Hawaiian. If I have issues call Korean because it was issued on KL ticket stock. We start our return trip tomorrow & I'm thinking the next step is talking to the Delta team at SMF (who booked us on Hawaiian but failed to issue the vouchers to pay for it). If that doesn't work call Korean and explain what has happened. Thoughts? Am I SOL? With Corporate Customer care throwing around words like "protected" and telling me they don't know what did or did not happen in SMF & they can't do anything I feel completely lost. Thoughts & ideas from the pros appreciated- even if it's just "hey you're SOL" like I said, at a loss.

fti

Wow. Good luck. What DL needed to do was to print paper tickets for you. That is what FLT COUPON REQ means. I am not sure that "Delta didn't pay for it." They just didn't go through all the proper steps.

What you need to do is check with Korean to see if the flight coupons are unused or "open." If so, that might be your recourse. Checking directly with the DL agents at SMF is a good start. Hopefully someone there will recall the situation.

My guess is that with Korean in the mix as well, you will have a really hard time getting this settled.

flyerCO

The DL agent at SMF needed to reissue your ticket for the new HA flight. It sounds like they only updated the reservation, but never issued the ticket. When you contact DL ask why the ticket was never properly reissued. If it had been then you wouldn't have had s BP that says flight coupon required. This means that you needed a paper ticket or for someone to update the reservation with a ticket number so a new issued BP is linked to an e-ticket.

It doesn't help having KE in the mix. Why did you buy a DL ticket with KE?

49penguins

Booked via KE miles. Chase points to KE miles to get the best mileage redemption rate for tickets to Hawaii.

flyerCO

Saying this is an award would have helped. In general DL can't endorse another carrier's reward ticket to OAL. KE would be needed to do this. Thus the DL agent updated the reservation, but then it either failed to reissue a ticket or DL reservation caught it was an award and wouldn't reissue.

49penguins

Wonky, but that actually makes some sense, didn't realize award tickets were handled differently.

MSPeconomist

I thought rebooking during IROPs on the day of departure was the responsibility of the operating carrier. If so, this would be DL, not KE, although DL might be less willing to rebook a partner award ticket onto a flight that isn't operated by a partner of some form, ideally a JV partner.

OP should check that the remainder of the ticket and reservation is still valid since not taking the first flight usually remains that everything else is cancelled.

btonkid12345

OP - did you say it was ticketed on KE or KL? I thought you said KL (meaning KLM) and I'm not sure how a third airline entered into this mix.

I wouldn't have boarded the original flight if they made me pay (by the way, can you share about how much it was so we get a sense of the order of magnitude of what you are attempting to recoup)?

Did you take any photos of the boarding passes with "FLT COUPON REQD" that DL gave you at LAX before handing them over to Hawaiian? If so this is good evidence to rebut DL stating that they have no evidence of the rebooking.

This would likely be best handled for you at SMF, but is going to be incredibly complicated to get Hawaiian to issue you a refund for a IRROP rebooking DL did on a ticket you booked with Korean miles but was possibly issued on KLM ticket stock.

The DL folks at SMF are your best bet, but MSP's point is right - best for you to verify your ticket home is still valid, because if the ticket was never reissued and it seems you never boarded a flight, it could have cancelled the remainder automatically.

luv2ctheworld

Good luck OP with this. Sounds like a pain to get resolved given the myriad of finger-pointing and excuses possible.

I do wonder about whether the award ticket having any major relevance so close to departure. I presume by the time of departure, DL would have already taken the ticket as theirs and have operational authority on what can be done with it.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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DLMiddleSeats

Flight Coupon Reuqired is for paper tickets...other than the occasional zed fare and some infant tickets I haven't come across paper tickets in a long time.

I don't know if it was because it's a reward ticket or not but I can easily see where something would go wrong on a KE ticket with a DL flight offlining to HA. And honestly pick any 3 non JV carriers and you're likely to run into issues.

Without looking at the ticket itself it's hard to say where the communication breakdown happened.

DL may have reissued the ticket properly but the conversion from KE stock to DL stock with HA flights may not have been communicated to HA in a timely manner...airline systems are OLD...even if they have a fancy new GUI the underlying systems are from the 70's.

ijgordon

The original post spells out "Korean" three times, and mentions "KL" once. You guess which is the mistake.

MSPeconomist

I assume the OP meant KE = Korean, not KLM, although KLM could make it slightly easier due to the JV. I don't think any aspects of the closer DL and KE partnership have been implemented yet, starting with codeshares that I assume would require regulatory approval.

3Cforme

There have been IATA processes for involuntary reroutes (that cover award tickets) going back at least twenty years. I would have found the most senior (age, not rank) staff at the Delta counter and been confident they would know how to do it.

jrl767

guessing you didn't notice "Got to Hawaiian flight in LAX as it was boarding" in OP's story? this was real-time IROPS; probably -- hell, certainly -- not enough time to hunt down the senior DL staff in a different terminal

49penguins

Definite KE, my bad. I checked in for tonight's flight via Delta app, boarding passes in my Apple Wallet now, will print paper ones as well though.

I still have the physical "FLT COUPON REQ" "boarding passes" DL SMF issued for the HA flight for each of us showing the seats, I plan to present those & the receipt from Hawaiian showing we purchased each of the seats DL booked.

FWIW I paid HA $1,745.20 so that's what I'm after.