Unable to Delete Segment on a Basic Economy Ticket - Any options?
 

I booked a family vacation to SJO (xLAX) in Feb on a Tuesday using a Basic Economy Fare. It now turns out that I (1 of the 4 tickets) need to go to LAX a day earlier. I called Delta to ask them to cancel the outbound segment and to buy a new ticket just SEA to LAX and then I was going to join the family on the rest of the trip but they are refusing to do that saying basic economy fares are completely and utterly unchangeable and even the software prevents them from making any changes. I spoke to a manager in CVG. I would have to buy a whole new ticket from SEA->SJO with the new details, which is currently pricing out at $2500.

Do I have any options here? Any suggestions welcome because this is quite a bind. I'm silver but that didn't get me anywhere

--tim

sorry, but you are indeed stuck with the ticket as purchased ... short of a weather waiver or day-of-departure IROPS, no changes, no refunds, no credits, nada

two words: travel insurance

not sure if your calendar is compatible, but Alaska has a 930pm LAX-SEA on Mon 4 Feb ($101 saver, $131 Main Cabin, $279 F) and Mon 11 Feb ($79 saver, $109 Main, $254 F) ...

I'm not worried about the SEA-LAX section. It's the LAX-SJO part that costs another $1000

my suggestion was to fly back home on Mon night so you can use your DL ticket as booked, leaving SEA early Tues

This crossed my mind except my meetings are all day Tuesday. The flight to Costa Rica is at 12:30am (wednesday). I couldn't go to the meetings and get back in time to make the flight back to LA.

If you booked your ticket as a roundtrip, missing the SEA-LAX leg will cancel the rest of your ticket, not just the LAX-SJO segment.

If you do not have to travel with your family, I'd suggest pricing a LAX-SJO-SEA open-jaw ticket for yourself ASAP -- and not necessarily on DL.

This is my problem. I'd need to fly all the way back to SEA to avoid missing the SEA-LAX segment.

Not sure about the return, but I see LAX-IAH-SJO for $180 on UA, arriving 3 hours after the DL flight.

Unfortunately, this is why DL provides specific warnings about BE and then makes you check a box stating that you understand the specific BE restrictions. The ticket is inflexible. If not flown as ticketed, it is cancelled and retains no value.

You mentioned "meetings". Presuming that you have an employer paying for your travel, in the ordinary course, making this right is a cost carried by the employer. Unless your travel insurance is "all perils" it is unlikely to cover a change in work-related meetings.

Some of the suggestions above make sense, especially those which may be inconvenient but get you back to SEA in time to catch your new outbound. A miserable series of flights, but a solution.

I would seriously consider asking if the colleagues/clients would be able to switch "all day Tuesday" meetings to Monday afternoon / Tuesday morning; that way you could be on a jet back to SEA by early afternoon

You bought a ticket from A-B-A on a certain date.

Now you want something else.

Sorry - you bought a RT ticket at a certain price on a certain date.

Simple logic might make you think you can just swap it out. It is not that simple. You want to drop something you agreed to. But, you agreed to the first purchase. Period. End of story. End of contract. End of purchase. End of agreement.

This is normal in the airline business. Totally normal.

I am sorry about this though.

I would just add that if all travelers are booked on a single itinerary, ask the airline to split off your reservation from the others. That way if you no show, their flights won't be affected.

Are you sure you can't get back in time? There are a lot of flights LAX-SEA. @jrl767 posted an option that sounds pretty good, and cheap. You dismissed him, but you seem to have been confused (stating you don't care about SEA-LAX, when he was showing LAX-SEA).

It seems totally reasonable to finish a meeting in LA during normal work hours and get to SEA before midnight that night. Now, you might not get to go home, but that's not 100% necessary is it?

PNRs are shared but tickets are separate. There's no need to split the PNR. His no-show isn't relevant to the other tickets in the reservation. (Unless he were the primary user of a companion fare.)