I�m currently booked JFK-AMS-VCE with my wife and son. Unfortunately, it turns out I now need to be in Mumbai the day of our JFK-AMS flight.

I can book BOM-AMS on KLM.com that day, and I can also book AMS-VCE (the flight I�m currently on with my family). However, when I try to book the two flights together it shows unavailable, and the KLM phone agents say the same. I�m able to book the exact same itinerary on other days, so it isn�t a minimum connection time issue (>2hrs).

I�ve already split my reservation from my wife and son. Is it possible for me to book BOM - AMS through KLM.com, cancel just JFK-AMS from my DL reservation, and then combine the itineraries across the DL and KLM platforms? The phone agent thought this was possible, but I�m not completely convinced she quite understood what I was asking (to be fair, it isn�t an everyday situation).

Thanks in advance for any insight here.

Edit to add: I can avoid checking bags if that makes things any easier.

 

You are booked on a single JFK-VCE DL through fare and you can't just cancel one segment of it and keep the other. Don't know what the issue is with booking a BOM-VCE fare on KL (could be married segment inventory issue if it meets MCT, would be possible to check on EF if we knew dates), but there is no way to leverage your existing JFK-VCE DL tickets.

 

Do you want to fly JFK-AMS-BOM returning BOM-AMS-VCE (stop)-AMS-JFK?

 

Thanks for the input and the follow-up questions.

My family and I are currently booked on DL46 JFK-AMS on Feb 16, connecting to KL1653 AMS-VCE on 9/17. For the return, we are flying FLR-CDG-JFK, and that will not be a problem for any of us.

What I�m trying to do is book KL878, BOM-AMS on 2/17 (departing after midnight), and then meet my family on KL1653 on 2/17.

KL878 and KL1653 can be purchased individually for 2/17, but not as a linked pair.

Assuming I don�t check luggage, is there any serious problem with just buying these two legs individually?

 

Is your return flight back to the US on the same ticket? Then it�s getting cancelled if you don�t show up for your outbound journey.

Its usually not possible to change the origin/return country of a ticket so the best option I can think of is to try to change it to a multi-city ticket, effectively adding AMS-BOM-AMS between your JFK-AMS and AMS-VCE segments (and move JFK-AMS back as many days as you need). Could get very expensive though.

 

Is your return flight back to the US on the same ticket? Then it�s getting cancelled if you don�t show up for your outbound journey.

Its usually not possible to change the origin/return country of a ticket so the best option I can think of is to try to change it to a multi-city ticket, effectively adding AMS-BOM-AMS between your JFK-AMS and AMS-VCE segments (and move JFK-AMS back as many days as you need). Could get very expensive though.

 

Yes, the return is on the same ticket but a DL rep said I could cancel the outbound and keep the return in exchange for a a meager refund.

I actually tried rebooking as a single multi-city itinerary, but the issue is the BOM-AMS leg on KLM cannot be purchased via Delta at all.

 

This would be 2 tickets on the same airline so even with checked bags should be possible.

As for linking tickets I'm fairly certain they cannot be 'linked together' after reserving. What can be done is to put a note on the file of each reservation that there is another itinerary and visa versa. Since both flights are operated by KL, there should not be an issue in the case of IRROPs missing the connection. It would be difficult for KL to blame KL for your missed connection.

In my experience (on *A mind you) I have even been protected on different airlines and different tickets (AC --> OZ at ICN both *A carriers) one ticket was even an Aeroplan booking. I had checked bags across the reservation , which may have helped.

 

I see some availability in Y for the combination you want but only from certain points of sale, none in J. You could self connect, but I don't know KL's stance on protection in that instance. I don't think there's any way to do what you want by getting them on the original DL ticket though - that needs to be changed to the one-way return.

 

I see. Then I�d ask Delta to cancel the whole outbound and book BOM-AMS-VCE as two tickets. I think it�s likely that KLM would honour a misconnect but they�ve no obligation to do so. At least this way if you�re late into Amsterdam and KLM are complicated you just need to figure out a way to get to Venice and don�t have to deal with getting new tickets home.

 

Thanks; this is exactly what I did. I now have separate reservations for JFK-BOM, BOM-AMS-VCE, and FLR-CDG-JFK.

For BOM-AMS-VCE, I bought each leg separately and my EA later called KLM and says they joined the reservations, but I haven�t been able to confirm yet.

DL had no problem canceling JFK-AMS-VCE for me and reissuing only the return leg. The resulting e-credit was predictably minuscule, but that�s life sometimes.

Thanks to all for the advice.

 

If should be noted that the reservations were only "linked" or cross referenced, not joined. The "link" is just a note in the reservation which can only be read by a human, the computer cannot read or act on a link. Just so you don't get any false hope of something magical happening.

 

As noted, linking is just a notation to agent to read.

KL (and FWIW DL) will both check bags and protect across tickets. As long as both tickets are issued by ST airlines and all remaining flights are both ST marketed and operated. (They will do it also in some cases beyond these parameters, this is just the best way to guarantee protection/interline of bags across tickets) Also the time between ticketed flights must be at least equal to the MCT as if booked on one ticket. (No booking 15 minutes between tickets and then demand they rebook when you obviously misconnect)