Delta does not want to sell Europe-USA-Russia open jaw
 

Need to fly ZRH-SEA and return SEA-SVO. Should be straightforward open jaw ticket? But not with Delta.

Looks like Delta does not have fares that allow combining Europe - USA with return USA - Russia on a single ticket. You can get two one ways but its pretty expensive.

Talked to the rep on the phone - nothing can be done.

Lufthansa, BA, American and other are happy to sell single open jaw ticket like this for a reasonable price.

Any reason Delta fares prohibit combining Russia with Europe or just someone misfiled fares / did not think about it.

Curious if you can do other similar open jaws ZRH-SEA and return SEA-LHR? I have done many open jaws including ones that are USA-EU and AFRICA-USA without issue. But all of mine always have the same start finish city rather than the same destination city.

Yes no problem open jaw returning to another city in Europe. It's Russia which is not combinable with Europe for some reason. Agent was not able to price any ticket, cheap or expensive.

I haven't been able to book open jaws from Europe to the US for years, i.e. City1 - US - City2, with both City 1 and 2 in Europe.. Would be curious to know how you do it. Works fine in the other direction, i.e. US - City1, City2 - US..

I think you are right. Can not book AMS-JFK-CDG online. This does not make any sense.

Origin must be in one country for open jaws to be allowed by DL fare combination rules. Thus the first example is not allowed, but US-City1, City2-US is fine. ZRH - UScity1, UScity2 - GVA would also be allowed since ZRH and GVA are in one country. Limitation has been noted here before -- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/33278517-post42.html

FARES MAY BE COMBINED ON A HALF ROUND TRIP BASIS
-TO FORM SINGLE OPEN JAWS WHICH CONSISTS OF NO MORE
THAN 2 INTERNATIONAL FARE COMPONENTS AND THE OPEN
SEGMENT AT ORIGIN MUST BE IN ONE COUNTRY. THE OPEN
SEGMENT AT DESTINATION HAS NO RESTRICTIONS
A MAXIMUM OF TWO INTERNATIONAL FARE COMPONENTS
PERMITTED. MILEAGE OF THE OPEN SEGMENT MUST BE EQUAL/
LESS THAN MILEAGE OF THE LONGEST FLOWN FARE
COMPONENT.

Thanks for pulling out the fare rules. I wonder if this is intentional and of yes what was the logic behind it? Open jaws with same origin are more common, but XXX-YYY-ZZZ where XXX and ZZZ are within same / nearby geograhical region make a lot of sense for some trips.

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I'd be quite certain it's intentional (and it's shared among Skyteam members) as the language looks to have been there for quite some time if you do some Google searches for it. Don't know the exact rationale. OW and Star carriers don't have the "one country" restriction in their fare combination rules.

Pretty sure it is to prevent hidden city tickets - which can save a great deal of money.

I've also seen UK/EU combinations at origin disallowed, it was a while ago but I think it was CX. Stopping hidden-city and other games is probably the basis for most such things.

One country rule doesn't prevent hidden city games (which involve intermediate stops, not destinations). I was able to fare this out using ITA Matrix multi-city search. These are just ZRH-SEA and SEA-ZRH T fares with a connection in SVO on the return T fare.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...54441c49d4.png

It wouldn't surprise me if these are cabotage rules of some sort for a US-flagged carrier operating in EU member states versus this being a hidden-city ticketing thing.

There's a rule about the unflown leg being shorter than the other legs (which is fine for this case), but I suspect there might also be a rule that the open jaw can't span different regions. If DL considers SVO to be a different region, this could be the issue. However, I'm just speculating here.

This makes me think there should be a thread titled "What are Delta's most arcane and picayune rules?" :p

I’m currently experiencing this problem as well - I cannot buy a Germany - US and US - Italy ticket from DL/AF/KL. Quite annoying. I find it odd because there are a million reasons why one might want to get a ticket out of BRU and back into CDG/DUS/AMS depending on flight times and train connections, etc.