Are there any consequences to dropping the 4th leg?
 

Here is my problem. I booked myself on a nonstop flight from AAA-BBB about 3-4 months ago. Sometime later, DL changed the flight to go AAA-ATL-BBB. So now I am stuck with taking a connection and adding over 6 hours to my journey each way. I can suck it up and do that on the way out but on my way back I need to be in another place (say DDD) and flying back from ATL to AAA (my original return destination) and then catch a whole new flight from AAA-DDD (probably again through ATL) is a complete waste of my time. When I called SMS to explain my situation, they refused to do anything that would be workable for me other than say I could get a full refund. I'd take the refund but now fares on almost all other airlines are waaay up (which is why I booked so early).

My question is - on my return leg, if I just fly the BBB-ATL segment and then not fly the remainder ATL-AAA but instead fly from ATL-DDD? Is there any way DL would know or catch on? Have folks gotten away with it before?

As long as the 4th leg is the last leg of that ticket, Delta's not going to care. Don't check luggage on the return.

however, checking in can be an issue. I tried to do SJC-ATL-MGM and then MGM-ATL-MCO (i know, piss poor planning on my part) but I wasn't allowed to check in online for my second trip, or even in ATL because my last segment wasn't completed.

Thanks for the replies guys!

I will be having luggage but since I am coming from a TATL flight, I'll be picking up my luggage in ATL to clear customs. So hopefully that shouldnt be a problem.

The checking in is a good point. Maybe I just wont add my skymiles number to my last flight and give up those miles. Or take them in NWA (they should end up back in my account post merger) which means I give up my 25% bonus and a possible upgrade. Or maybe ... shudder...I'll just fly Airtran.

Were you able to finally take the flight though?

yes, i got off the plane in MGM, told the gate agent i needed to check in and she printed out my boarding passes and i got back on the plane i came in on.

Be careful there. After you've reclaimed your bags and gone through customs in Atlanta you have to re-check your bags, even if you plan on leaving the airport. Presumably your bags will be tagged to your ticketed BBB destination. While Atlanta has a separate re-check belt for bags that stay in Atlanta, I'm not sure what would happen with your bags if they are still tagged to the BBB destination. I'm also not sure what would happen if you just tore those tags off. I'm fairly certain that they do read the tags, because different arriving flight's bags get routed to different claim belts on land-side.

I'd try to get the check-in agent at AAA to check your bags only to Atlanta if I were you to avoid any trouble here. If you can't get them to do that, I think your next best choice is to remove the tags once you get through customs and hope for the best.

Hmm... You make some good points. Yes I'll try to get the checkin agent at BBB to tag my bags only to ATL. However if s/he does not then as a plan B, is there a physical DL Rep who actually helps folks with checking in or rechecking the bags as they come out of customs? Is someone is there, then I can just tear the tags off and have him/her check in my bags again to my new final destination - DDD and also give me my new boarding pass. if there is no one present, then I do have a problem.