flyerUSA

Rules question - full disclosure, I am wondering how much I can get away with.

Let's say I have a ticket from JFK-ATL-LAX. My layover in ATL is 3 hours. I leave the airport to pop in on a friend...but I miss my ATL-LAX segment.

Will Delta let me rebook on the next flight?

What if there are no further flights in the day and I have to go back the next morning?

"Let me rebook" means...with fee? For free? Would I be able to ticket a new segment over the phone? Would I have to be at the airport to do it? Anyone have experience?

JohnnyRockets

As 3 hour is more than sufficient, whatever excuse you use they will see right through it.
As a DM they will tell you SDC/SDS on the next flight. I don't think they can push it to the next day for free. They might waive the change fee but I think fare difference still applies.

You should either hope for IRROPS or SDC to the last flight out. I don't know do they still allow SDC to break the '4 hour' layover these days, but in the past I've done it several times in ATL.

orca15

On the other hand (and this is what keeps me flying DL as a DM) I have inadvertently missed a flight because I forgot to change the time zone on my watch and sat through boarding while in the ATL SC. They just booked me on the next available flight without drama.

scracer14

Last year I did something similar but realized 10 minutes before departure. Fortunately the gate was only 100 ft from the Sky Club. Unfortunately the GA closed the door at T-8 and myself and 5 other PAX missed the flight. All of us were re-booked on the next flight, and the two of us who were diamond had our upgrades cleared as well (we were standing in line at customer service together).

Ever since, I have religiously obeyed the 15 minute rule...

MSPeconomist

I'm always afraid that someday I'll do this in DTW. After all, Michigan is the Midwest, so they should be on Central time.

flyerCO

+1

Detroit is in the Eastern time zone. Detroit is in the Eastern time zone. Detroit is in the Eastern time zone. I get why they play that over and over again.

MSPeconomist

Exactly. It's counterintuitive, especially when one is jet lagged and exhausted.

StayingHomeIsBetter

Full disclosure... I feel that anyone trying to game the system like this should suffer the greatest consequences that the system can provide.

Someone may need that seat that you are maliciously planning to hold in abeyance until the last moment.

Yes, maybe the plane will go out with empty seats anyway. Maybe some standby passenger will take your seat when it becomes available at the last minute.

Or, maybe someone at home will give up trying to book that flight (a flight he/she needs desperately) because it is showing sold out.

Whatever happened to people having the common decency to consider how their actions might impact others?

Hint: any post that begins with "I am wondering how much I can get away with" sends up a red flag.

DL-Don

In multiple languages!

Yachtman

I thought this website was ALL about how to game the system?

Beckles

What's counterintuitive about a city further east than Atlanta being in the Eastern time zone?

MSPeconomist

Michigan is part of the Midwest, not the northeast or mid-Atlantic states.

flyerCO

Theres a line between using the rules to benefit yourself and scamming/breaking the rules and expecting a result. The first is fine, the latter prohibited by FT TOS.

flyerCO

Really no difference, less then 1 degree. Also as MSP points out MI is considered part of the Midwest. They dont play that timezone nessage for the geck of it.

Often1

All of this depends on OP's risk tolerance. There is no such thing as a layover and he is not on a stopover, he is on a connection. A 3-hour connection is 2:15 over the MCT, so DL will see this as a fraud, largely because DL gets tons of these at ATL because tickets to/from hubs are expensive and there are folks looking for 6-7 hours at ATL who book a connection and then "miss" it.

So, maybe his onward segment and any remaining segments will be cancelled and won't have any value if he has a typical discounted ticket and does not cancel prior to departure. In that case, he will need to purchase a walk-up fare and perhaps wind up in a middle seat near the lav if he's lucky.

On the other hand, OP may catch some agent's sympathy and, if he does, he will be rebooked.

On the other hand ATL-LAX flights often overbooked, so next available may well be sometime the next day and OP will be stuck with hotel & meals for the overnight.

So, bottom line is that even if the last 999 people who did this got away with it, OP may be the 1,000th and hit the agent who just got dinged for helping a passenger commit a ticketing fraud and therefore is sensitive to the issue.