jonsail

Mrs. Jonsail and I booked thru Holland America's Air Department TATL premium Delta flights to and from a Seabourn Cruise. As usual we got great prices by being flexible on our arrival and departure dates and willingness to have two transfers each way. Unfortunately, something came up and we could not depart on the scheduled date. Seabourn was great and applied our payment to a different cruise. However, we were advised by Seabourn that the Delta flights were a total loss and that once we missed the first leg of the first flight everything was forfeited 100%, including the return flight even if we could still make the cruise by buying new tickets to get there. I have no problem with Delta offering greatly discounted tickets that have this penalty. I am aware that I had trip cancellation coverage thru the credit card used to purchase the flight thru Holland America but our miss was not covered and again, no gripes about that. I was also advised by Seabourn that it is sometimes possible to get a good deal by purchasing the two halves of the RT separately so that missing the "getting there" flight would not void the return flight if the airline were advised that the "getting there" flight would be missed before actually doing a no-show. However, in this case RT tickets were purchased.

Once I knew I would miss the first leg of the "getting there" flight, does anyone see anyway I could have gotten some sort of credit from Delta by advising before the no-show that I couldn't make it? Always good to know for the future. Thanks.

Intl359Widget

Have you tried calling Delta to see if the ticket is eligible for a re-fare with a change fee to keep the orignal value of the ticket plus the add/collect of the new itinerary?

TTT

This. I would suggest calling Delta to see if they could offer you a credit of some sort. They may be willing to show leniency whereas the travel agent is going to follow the rules.

Often1

1. Don't trust a phone call to your travel insurer. Instead, read the policy word-for-word. Satisfy yourself that you are not covered.
2. Don't trust a call to DL. Instead, read the fare rules for your tickets, word-for-word. Satisfy yourself that it is not possible to refund or change the tickets, perhaps for a fee.

Often, but not always, the tickets sold through cruise lines are consolidator tickets. Those are generally completely inflexible and, if not flown as ticketed, If that is the case with your tickets, the cruise line is correct and you cannot change them or retain any credit. But, you cannot know this for certain without reading the fare rules.

As to cancellation, it is standard for almost all air carriers that if you no show for any segment, all subsequent segments, including the return, are cancelled. Whether any or all of the segments retain any value is, of course, a matter of the fare rules.

This is a long and boring task. But, if you paid significant money for the tickets, it is worth the time.

daloosh

As Often1 above points out, the cruise line airfare tickets may be a volume discount bulk rate provided to the cruise line, and often has highly restrictive terms, particularly about changes. Some cruise lines offer a less restrictive air ticket, but at higher cost. The cheapest fare will not allow any changes, no seat assignment until day of flight, include multiple stops, and the cruiseline may even change your air carrier by flight time. That change could put you on a carrier that you don't collect frequent flyer miles with. As you probably know, Delta's Basic fare has many of these limitations, for a relatively small savings in price, things like no seat assignment until check in, no upgrades, no priority boarding and no changes or refunds.

ChinaShrek

You should also post your question and situation on cruisecritic.com if you have not already done so. There are separate forums dedicated to each cruise line and many cruisers have experienced similar situations as your own.

kmersh

Granted, I was not the passenger and it was for a death, but a patient came in DOA and after the trauma of loosing his Mother wore off a little, the patient's son explained to me that he and his wife were scheduled on to depart for a cruise four hours later and obviously now that was not going to happen.

I said call the airline and while it was a bulk fare, DELTA told the patient's son that if they could fax or email (not sure about email) either a note from the treating physician (which was me) or a death certificate, they would give him a credit for the value of the ticket.

I wrote a note and I assume it worked as I was told.

CPMaverick

The short answer is get a copy of the fare rules when you purchase. That will tell you exactly what the terms of your ticket are.

General advice is to call the airline before you miss the flights. Some flights can be canceled for credits before the flight date, but there is no recourse after the flight date.

flyerCO

Call the airline. The cruise company can only follow rules, they can't deviate. DL can allow deviation. Of any airline, DL is best about granting waivers in exceptional circumstances.

cruisr

formeraa

Overall, Delta has been the most generous airline with regard to serious illness and/or death of a family member. They have allowed my Mom full credit for tickets on at least 4 different occasions over the past 10 years (and My Mom has no status with Delta). So, it won't hurt to call and ask. My Mom did call BEFORE the flight in every case. A Doctor's note or funeral home information was required to be submitted each time.

jonsail

As the OP, thanks for the advice. In fairness to Holland America/Seabourn, the flights they get me always come with full rights to earning EQMs and the airline's miles for award travel. I can go on the airline's website and select or change seats and pre-order meals.

writerguyfl

Back when I was at Disney World, we sold packages that included airfare. We sold both wholesale (aka bulk) and retail fares. Wholesale fare were deeply discounted primarily because they could not be changed in any way. If you had a wholesale fare, I think the likelihood that you'll recover any value is slim.

While it's worth trying, I think you'll hit a brick wall if you call Delta. If you purchased a wholesale fare, the airline will likely tell you that you need to contact that wholesaler (the cruise line). Not sure about cruise lines, but our wholesale contracts prohibited airlines from making substantive changes to the PNR without our authorization because it screwed up our system. (Same day changes due to IROPs or standby were okay.)

I think cruisr is correct in stating that the cruise line air department is going to have the biggest influence in getting Delta to make an exception. The trick will be finding someone at the cruise line willing to take on your case.