Often1

Your predicament is roughly the same as OP's. When you make a change to an inflexible ticket, you pay a change fee plus the fare difference. That might be cash, points, or miles.

In your case, the change you sought meant that there was a fee and likely that the fare for the ticket you now wanted cost more. If, by way of example, the change fee was $300 and a new ticket for the new route cost $400 more than what you had paid, you would need to pay $700.

Same issue for OP, if he wants to drop his SFO-LAX, he will pay the price for the new ticket LAX-PPT + fee + fare difference as of today.

If this was not the case, nobody in their right mind would pay for a flexible ticket.

The tradeoff for OP is that he got a dirt cheap price in return for an inconvenient itinerary.

wxman22

I've had nested PNRs on Delta and it was not a problem, but they were not on the same day.

jordyn

It shouldn't be a problem if the flights are all on Delta. I presume there's no fare rule on the original ticket requiring a minimum layover time, so taking another round-trip during the layover wouldn't be attempting to evade a minimum stay requirement. Similarly, since none of the flights would overlap and OP would intend to fly them all, they're not impossible. Delta's computer systems seem to be the most forgiving of the big three in terms of overlapping flights to begin with, but even AA (who are very aggressive about detecting and cancelling overlapping flights) would allow this.

ATOBTTR

Technically OP wouldn't have to return to SFO on DL. OP could easily fly down on the DL segment, and then return to SFO on AA, UA, WN, etc. and then return back to LAX on the same airline. The two risks here are if the initial SFO-LAX segment on DL gets delayed and OP ends up arriving late for the return back to SFO on the other airline and then again on the return if the OP's later SFO-LAX flight in the evening on another airline is delayed and OPT misses the LAX-PPT leg.

Personally I'd probably just use it as an opportunity to plane watch/photograph at In-N-Out all day, but that's just me.

bubbashow

It makes perfect sense. You are buying a ticket for a city pair that includes a discount carrier. SFO-PPT is flown by French Bee and Delta needs to be competitive to that pricing in the city pair. French Bee does not serve LAX-PPT so tickets are priced accordingly.

josephstern

Right - I've done it plenty between the outbound and inbound. No problems with Delta or other carriers.

But this is within the outbound entirely. I think that's a potentially dangerous scenario that I wouldn't try.

hjz131

I was trying to say that OP can give Delta a call now to drop the first leg, it is possible... I'm not asking OP to wait until missing first leg and then call Delta, that would be awful.

bankops

I do nested tickets all the time. Some years it represents 40%-80% of my travel. AF, KLM, LH, DL. Never had any issue.

To be on the safe side I would actually make sure I flew Delta for the nested part. There is always the risk but when on the same airline and 2 different PNR's they are much more likely to help you out. Fly AA or WN and Delta will point to the exit for sure.

beagleflyer1977

And on the reverse? If I drop the last leg - nothing they can do right? PPT-LAX-SFO. The LAX-SFO leg comes back the next day, I'm just gonna hop on WN and get back that same night.

josephstern

This, I've done several times. No repercussions. But, in theory, yes, they could do something. It's a little similar to the United and Lufthansa attacks on skiplagging:

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/13/69435...-return-flight

greenarmy

Lots of things they could in theory do/try, whether its to kick you out of their Frequent Flyer program, or send a bill to you or Chase for the ticket priced only to LAX, and threaten to take you to court. It is unclear/unlikely that they could enforce any claims on you.

However in practice you are very unlikely to be dragged into anything over this if you are an infrequent flyer of Delta/AF.

Often1

Yes, DL could. But, for a one-off cheap ticket, they are beyond unlikely to bother. Just grab your bags at LAX and rather than rechecking post-CBP, head out of the airport.

beagleflyer1977

Thanks for the input!

beagleflyer1977

I gave up looking on EF, AA, and United for my dates. Went on UR and just plugged in the dates and saw RT for 38k to PPT, pretty awesome deal. In Economy, but still.

flyerCO

If was me I'd probably get a day use rate room at hotel. Other option, if an elite possibly just book a regular nightly rate and checkin early upon arrival to LAX in morning.

$120 is day rate at Hilton LAX and other Hilton family LAX locations.