Sam Drucker

Considering booking round trips from USA to Bangkok for wife and daughter to take care of some family matters, probably in economy (U) class.
We can only guess about the return date, and its quite possible it may need to be extended. So my questions pertain to the process for rebooking the return.

If the trip needs to be extended, they should know that they can't make the original return date at least a week before; knowing what date to rebook to would be the problem. If they contacted DL a week before the original ticketed return flight to tell them they cannot make it, would DL require them to choose a new date to rebook to at that time? Or could they hold off on the rebooking part until they were more sure of the date?

Obviously, if DL forces your hand to rebook a new return (when you're not yet sure about the new return date), the wife and daughter could be looking at multiple change fees at $300 each. So I'm just wondering what actually happens in this scenario?

CarmenOM

They can hold the return open. I had this sort of situation a couple of months ago. I had flown the outbound, then found that I needed to extend the return date but didn’t know exactly what that new date would be. The phone agent canceled the original flight but didn’t rebook.

dfflyer

It’s a simple cancellation with fee, and funds will be available minus any change fees when you go to rebook. After you add in the cancellation fees and late last minute booking out of bkk, I’d imagine the return will be much more expensive than the original round trip, but it’s definitely an easy thing to accomplish.

btonkid12345

At some point, you will have to commit to a return date.

If you commit to a new return date AFTER your original return flights depart, Delta will give you the leftover value on the ticket minus a change fee, to use towards a NEW TICKET. This means the new ticket could be an expensive one way fare with very little leftover funds applied to it.

If you commit to a new return date BEFORE your original flights depart, if your new dates have the same U class of service available, you will just pay the change fee and no fare difference.

Maybe better for you to purchase these as two one way fares and not worry about multiple change fees, if the return is really this fluid.

MSPeconomist

This is my understanding of how the change costs will work. However, one way TPAC tickets can be extremely expensive, and Thailand *might* be a country that requires a return ticket for admission. If this is true, DL wouldn't even allow the passengers to board without a ticket receipt for acceptable travel out of Thailand.

Hence what the OP wants to do is to purchase nonrefundable RT tickets with reasonable change fees. The plan would be to pay the change fee once and try to otherwise avoid paying any additional amounts by rebooking the return after the outbound flights have been flown, of course hoping for availability in the same fare class.

Would it work to initially purchase the RT class U tickets with the return date as far in the future as possible based on availability and the maximum stay permitted by the fare rules and then move the return date forward (rather than back) once the return date is known? This would avoid the undesirable method of cancelling and using residual funds while still giving as much flexibility as possible.

Note, however, that cheap RT fares in some markets might impose a maximum stay of about 30 days, so be sure to look at the fare rules carefully, although this should be caught when one searches for tickets with the return far in the future (but of course not too far for tourist admission without a visa or whatever rules apply in this case) and notices that prices are consistently higher farther out in the calendar for no other apparent reason.

ekozie

Does repricing the return after flying the outbound not use historic fare data? I've always been a touch fuzzy on exactly when historic vs. current fares are used (though some credit must be due to DL agents, many of whom are just as fuzzy as I am).

Sam Drucker

Thanks to everyone who replied. Definitely gave me some points to consider when planning for this. Reading the rules on this topic can be a jumbled mess, laced with abiguity!

flyerCO

This should be correct, as long as still comply with fare rules, excluding AP requirement.

GagaPilot

Just a data point as someone who visits Thailand annually: I've always flown roundtrip, so can't say whether DL would have an issue boarding someone on just a one-way ticket. However at BKK immigration I've never once been asked to show proof of return/onward travel. Although it is technically a legitimate entry requirement into the Kingdom of Thailand to be able to show it. YMMV.