ethernal

I occasionally book conflicting segments because I genuinely don't know which one I am going to fly and would like the chance to get at least an okay seat (aisle) and it's often better from a cost perspective to book 8 days in advance and pay a change fee then wait until 3 days in advance. I've never had an issue with this, but YMMV. These are generally corporate bookings so not sure if that makes any difference in terms of how they handle them.

StayingHomeIsBetter

I hope that all of those who are counseling the OP to go ahead and purchase multiple reservations on DL won't mind the day they have to purchase a Q fare ticket because the last L fares were bought up by someone doing the same... tying up seat inventory and releasing it near departure when only M fares remain.

ethernal

Not my problem, and not really your problem either. Overbooking is already a thing, and these sorts of things go into what amount Delta is willing to overbook a flight by.

luek096

For the travel I do, we have to book ahead of time but occasionally don't know which site to go until last minute. So I would book flights for the same day originated from the same city to two different destinations and pick one on the day of flight. I have done this a couple of times and haven't had a problem with DL so far. My flight time never overlap though. That could be the reason DL never caught me.

flyerCO

Was there a common flight between reservations? Ie same originating flight

abeille

What's the problem with that? A sale is a sale. What if I wanted to bring my upright bass?

flyerCO

There's a process for that. The extra seat isn't booked under the passenger name. It's booked as LASTNAME/EXST Instead.

StayingHomeIsBetter

What I described had absolutely nothing to do with overbooking.

Pax X buys the last L fare seat, not sure he is going to need it, but wanting to hedge his bets.

Pax Y, shortly thereafter, has to buy a seat in a higher fare bracket.

Pax X later cancels the reservation.

Pax Y has been hosed just so Pax X can have the convenience of covering all bases with his multiple reservations.

If I am Pax Y, then it is indeed my problem.

bicker

I understand your concern. However, there are a couple of considerations though that you didn't factor in.

The airline has use of the passenger's money for the period from booking until cancellation. That's legal consideration and value. Remember: Your relationship as a passenger is with the airline, not the other passengers.

Beyond that, I don't think "hedging bets" and "covering bases" are appropriate descriptors in the context of this situation. This is planning due to a personal matter that I won't detail except that it involves a very aged parent and the concern about being able to be there with my family should the worst happen at one specific point in time when other travel arrangements make the logistics especially concerning. It is a couple of months away, and I see no need to take such precautions between now and then, or after that, despite the grave situation. This specific set of circumstances warrants especial contingency provisions that I wouldn't even consider for lesser circumstances.

I also wouldn't have even considered this if there weren't so many examples of people being unable to get to family funerals and such due to such consistently high load levels. Modern transportation is responsible for the diaspora of families around the country (and around the world, for that matter) but we've squeezed the system so much now that gaps are left behind in its service to us at the most vulnerable of times. The airlines aren't doing anything wrong, but if there is a legitimate way, within the airline's rules, to take precautions ourselves, then I feel we should do so. If it was not to be done, then they should explicitly disallow it.

Mr. Tickets

In one of the instances, one flight was MIA/MSP and one flight was JFK/LAX. I can't remember on the specifics of the other
two as it was a while ago. I do know that one of the reservations did not have the frequent flyer number in the PNR and they
caught that. People can obviously book what they want. All I was trying to say is that Delta does see these things. They may
or may not take action. It seems like a lot of people are doing it.

apodo77

jordyn

This is exactly the same as if Pax X isn't sure if they need to travel at all or has plans that change and then cancels once they don't need the ticket. Are you suggesting people shouldn't book a plane ticket until they're 100% positive they're going to fly that exact itinerary?

xliioper

You do realize that most airline's Contract of Carriage terms do in fact explicitly disallow it?

" In the event Delta determines that an individual has confirmed such bookings to one or more destination(s) on or about the same date(s), the carrier reserves the right to cancel all confirmed space associated with the multiple reservations without notice to the passenger or the person making the booking."

ethernal

Delta considers expected overbooking rates on basically all fare classes sold - not just when it gets into an overbooking situation. Either way, not my problem. I'm paying a $200 penalty (change fee) to reserve a seat on a flight I might not take. That seems reasonable to me. If that isn't enough then they should raise the change fee - not cancelling pax on two reservations (which as noted per CoC they can do). In practice Delta seems fine with this.

Mr. Tickets

On one, they called and nicely asked which itinerary was going to be used. On the second one, they did not call. They either texted or emailed and asked the same question.