carcassone

I called 1-800-241-4141 which is suppose to be their international number. After an hour wait, an agent finally connected only to find out that he's domestic and had to internal transfer to the international dept. Of course, I got disconnected. This happened twice. This is ridiculous! (I also called 800-221-1212 with the same results.)

What's the secret to getting an international agent? Is there a secret number? I'm a skymile member if that help.

All I want is to know the cost of changing an outbound flight. I know I can do this online but I'm afraid to mess up so I'd like to talk to an agent. But this seems impossible after more the 2 hours wait, twice!!!!

I'm almost tempted to run down to the airport and see if a desk agent can help.

dlflyer00

flyerCO

Singapore call center rocks when US is swamped due to weather. No wait. Not that there's a direct correlation, but will it remain now that DL pulls out of SIN?

PeggyJM

Unfortunately, I doubt it. My understanding is that they are closing the Singapore station, so I wouldn't think that they would keep the local call center.

btonkid12345

There is no domestic versus international number. It all goes to the same bank. The agent likely had to transfer you to reissues (which is more specialized in ticketing and payment) and the reissue desk has international reissue agents (and domestic ones at a separate desk too, if the person who answers you first isn't manual reissue trained for domestic).

Do you know the price of your new flights? It will be simple: take your old fare for the outbound segment, subtract the new fare and change fee, and the difference is the cost. The new fare should be available on Delta.com.

You won't mess it up if you try clicking the "Modify Flight" button inside the trip. It confirms the changes multiple times before finalizing, with costs broken down, and allows you to back out if you want to.

You can also go to the airport, but know that even if they can tell you the price difference themselves, if you agree to it, they have to call international reissues themselves to get your new ticket issued.

ijgordon

Right - just to add some explanation for OP, the rules of most fares state that if you're changing the outbound segment, you basically have to purchase a new ticket at whatever the current price is. You'll obviously get the credit for your existing ticket less any change fee.

Prateek Mehra

They really need to add other ways of contacting them or an ability to return calls when there is >10 minutes of wait time!

flyerCO

It should offer a callback. However if the queue is to large it can't handle it apparently.

carcassone

Thanks everyone for letting me vent. I have never modified a reservation myself (other than Southwest). I have heard that changing an outbound flight is like booking a new flight all over again and I don't want to lose my inbound flight since that flight is very full.

I did do some poking around pretending to book a new reservation and the new fare was ridiculous expensive, which is why I wanted to talk to an agent.

My original RT was JFK to MLA via CDG, which I booked 6 weeks ago for $985. An opportunity came up in that I can spend a few days in Rome before getting to Malta. Who can refuse that?!
The new fare for multi-city route, JFK to FCO, FCO to MLA, and keeping the same inbound flight was $3,000!!!
I then tried a new fare for open-jaw JFK to FCO and keeping the same inbound flight and it was still $2,400! (This is silly since I can purchase the same one way directly from Air Malta for $86.)

Long story short, on my second call to 1-800-241-4141, after waiting an hour, the 1st agent picked up, only to have her "transfer" me to "international" and waited another hour until 2nd agent picked up. First thing I asked is if he's an international agent which he replied yes (phew! and I promptly insisted that he write down my phone number in case we got disconnected).

After explaining what I want changed, he quoted me a net change fee of $143.80 for changing to the open-jaw JFK to FCO outbound and keeping the same inbound!!! I have no idea why I was seeing difference of thousands of $ while he can do it with $143.80. (I was checking the new fares during the 2 hours wait time.) Of course I had him double check and triple check the itinerary. He even said the fare for this route is cheaper which is why the final charge is less than the $300 standard change fee.

I'm not sure if I had do this myself on the web I'd get the same low change fee since I never tried. I just know that new fare for the same booking online is literally thousands more during the time I waited.

Next time, I'll try the DIY method since it seems benign. 2 hours wait time is simply unacceptable.

ijgordon

Hmm, I wonder if the original fare on your return segment was still valid, but inventory availability was causing it to price a brand new reservation in a much higher booking class. Perhaps the agent was able to keep your original booking class on the return since you already had that segment reserved.