Booked on two conflicting flights?
 

Hi All,
I'm just looking for some verification that nothing bad will happen here since I've never had this come up before - my wife and I are booked on a companion ticket returning from a long weekend trip, but I've had some work demands come up. I'll be flying out on a newly booked work ticket a couple of hours earlier instead of using my original ticket with her. Of course there's no way to change or refund the companion ticket flight. This shouldn't cause any problem for her should it? Should I check in for the flight I'm not going to use? Will I get miles for the segment I no-show for?

Thanks!

I think there's a non-zero chance that she could be removed from her flight if you're not on the jet with her, and I think that chance goes up substantially if you don't check in for that flight ... the rules of the companion ticket are fairly explicit in requiring both passengers to travel together on the entire itinerary

No

No miles if don't fly. Also since it's a companion ticket, they may refuse to let her fly w/o you.

And, if the second (worked related ticket) is on Delta, they may well find both reservations and cancel one or both. (Many recent discussions on this and varying opinions as to whether Delta will find and take action).

It sounds like maybe HE is on the companion ticket, and the wife is on a paid ticket? If so, she would be fine.

Wow you're all freaking me out. I'll talk with the corporate travel agent and maybe call Delta to see what they say. The second ticket hasn't been booked yet, but it would preferably be on Delta.

Calling DL might just have the effect of calling attention to the situation. Sometimes it's better to let sleeping dogs lie.....

BTW, within the last week or so I had conflicting tickets (actually one paid with money and one paid with miles on the same flights) that sat that way for at least a couple days. I first booked the award tickets in coach (planning to use the DM free cancel/redeposit if needed for flexibility) and then saw a good FCM fare when my plans looked more certain, so I purchased that. Then DL's phone lines were tied up when I wanted to call to cancel/redeposit the award tickets at the end of my 24 hour free cancel period on the FC tickets. So I held two tickets longer than planned and nothing happened, including when I called to cancel the award tickets.

Don't call DL, speak with the corporate TA.

DL's COC expressly prohibit impossible ticketing. Even if you were both on fully paid cash tickets, conflicting tickets are a problem and DL spends a good deal of money on software to find this stuff.

Bear in mind that a typical corporate TA won't have a clue about companion tickets and if it does have a clue, it is not paid by your employer to sort this stuff out.

If your employer is changing your plans, it ought to be making you whole and booking "legal" tickets.

Thanks for all of your help. I think this last piece of info makes it too risky. Because I'm a dork I looked at the COC, and this would fall under the realm of "fictitious tickets". I'm not going to try it.

I did chat with Delta - I figured it was just a hypothetical at this point since the conflicting flight wasn't booked yet. They couldn't say what would happen for sure at the airport, just that I am supposed to be there with my companion. She had never heard of anyone getting pulled off of a plane but thought it was within the realm of possibility. Oh well, damn companion certificates - I'll have to be more careful when I use them in the future.

it's happened ... luckily NOT at the connecting airport

there's nothing wrong with companion certificates per se, but you do need to be prepared to play by the letter of the rules ... and stuff happens in terms of schedules (yours and airlines') getting hosed by things that weren't anticipated when plans were made

I ended up with two paid tickets on the same day (within 2 hours of each other) from different destinations. It would have cost me more to change the first ticket that to just throw it away. My travel agent flagged it and said they would notify Delta, but both flights showed up in my itineraries even after I boarded the earlier flight.

I'm in the same situation. Have an international itinerary, and on the return leg I'm hopping off at the first airport back in the U.S., throwing away the final leg then taking a separate ticket elsewhere.

It was more expensive to modify the int'l ticket to discard the last leg. The DL agent advised me to just no-show for that flight, and that she would remove my seat assignments. She said it wouldn't be a problem with the duplicate flights departing at the same time (one DTW-JFK and the other DTW-MIA). We shall see.

As we all know, Delta agents can be the worst place to get correct information. YMMV

Totally agreed. I'm waiting to fly the first segment of the int'l itinerary to see if I can then drop it for free. Don't like it just sitting there, possibly causing problems.