jomomojo

Can't tell where this has been covered yet; thought I'd share this for anyone it might affect in the future.

I've been a GM for several years now, traveling a lot domestically and some internationally, and a big fan (and user) of the free same-day confirm policy.

I just returned from a very long trip, with meetings in NYC, LA, Taipei and Tokyo. Domestic legs were all DL metal; international was CI and KE.
ATL-EWR/JFK-LAX-TPE-NRT-LAX-ATL

I booked on Orbitz since I couldn't get the TPE-NRT leg at DL.COM, and the fare was great $1600. As we all know, though, booking dirt cheap through Orbitz can cause some problems if you make ANY changes whatsoever.

For starters, my meeting in NYC was canceled, and Delta was not about to give me a break and book me direct ATL-LAX to start the trip (at least, not with out a $2K+ rebooking fee). So I flew to Newark, took a bus to JFK, and called to see if I could take an earlier flight to LAX.

After speaking with several different desks, all of who seemed thoroughly confused by my simple "Same-day confirm, please" request, I talked to a stern gentlemen at an international desk who claimed that I couldn't do a same-day confirm on an "international ticket."

"But I'm just going from JFK-LAX," I said. But since this was booked as an ATL-TPE round trip, there were no same-day confirms allowed, at all.

This was news to me. Anyone else had problems with this?

You may like to know that I "played dumb" with the check-in agent at T4 at JFK, and she had one hell of a time figuring it out. After about 20 minutes of fiddling with her computer (and making all the pax in line behind me angry), she insisted that I should be able to get on the flight, so she printed me a separate "flight coupon" with a different confirmation number, so that I could get on the flight.

I wasn't born yesterday, so I knew that if I used this coupon and didn't fly on the next leg in my long itinerary, I'd lose the rest of my trip. But I decided to take that up with the gate agent, who was also thoroughly confused by the situation. She fiddled around for a bit, changed my ticket at no cost, and even put me in BE. She was a real winner.

A similar situation happened for my return trip home, LAX-ATL. I avoided calling SMS due to my previous experience, but the check-in agent had the same "fiddling around with the computer" adventure, but she was successful in putting me on an earlier flight. I'm not sure what she did, but I wasn't as concerned, as this was the last leg in my itinerary.

Anyway, for all you frequent travelers who enjoy the same-day confirm option, I thought this might be of interest. Bottom line is, if someone tells you you can't do it, find someone who'll tell you you can!

IsleOfMan

I've only done this on the last leg and didn't have any problem other than taking the check-in agent longer than anticipated (like you experienced). If you're just making a change to an earlier flight, the easiest thing to do might be to not even try making the change at check-in and go directly to the gate agent of the flight you're wanting to switch to. There are some other occasional up-sides associated with this method as well.

Marylou

I'm glad you brought this up as I was thinking of inquiring about SDCing the outbound domestic leg on an upcoming international itinerary. Are you saying it's not allowed?

I originally booked a 2 hour connection MSY-ATL-CDG. Naturally, there was a schedule change and it's now down to an hour 40 minutes. For a number of reasons, we like a 3 or 4 hour leeway on this itinerary. I'd thought of calling SMS to change us since they moved the dept. time, but:

Prob.#1: The earlier first leg is a CRJ700 which I abhor.
Prob. #2: The next later second leg is AF, the one after that is DL metal but would give us a 7 hour layover.

Complicating matters is the fact that I am on a paid BE (combo of A and S fares), Mr. Marylou is on an award BE which I understand would preclude the AF leg.

So if I gather up the courage to get on the little guy plane, or they change the equiment to a "real plane", I can't do it on the day of departure? I'm just worried that in irrops, the award ticket might drag us both down in the pecking order for rescheduling.

3Cforme

It may be news to you, but it has been reported here often.

woody125

There is a big old long huge SDC thread somewhere talking at length about this. Per the rules you cannot do it. I've tried every which way inbound and outbound and it's never worked. If it did for some of you that's great but that might be because the agent working with you did not know the rules or found some way to bend them.

I would not count on it happening though.

mersk862

I was able to do it on an outbound leg of a MSP-ATL-LHR itinerary - I had gotten to MSP a bit earlier (meeting finished sooner than later) and I asked the agent if she could put me on the earlier MSP-ATL flight so I could have some more time in ATL. 2 minutes later, I had a new BP for the earlier flight to ATL (albeit in 44C on a 757...)

Gargoyle

Was this a CRC agent or a gate agent? The CRC angels seem to be able to work their magic.

Schark

I've SDC'd a return leg on an international flight to a later departure, got to ATL and they had me as a no-show for my original domestic leg and the ticket voided out.

Stopped by the CRC and they fixed it.
Gave me the full Y for the oops and everything was fine.

Wasn't seamless, but they fixed it without much hassle.

OHDL1

Here is a copy from the internal Delta Knowledge Management tool (public information)
"SDC is not applicable if the ticket includes an international segment" and of course as all FT'ers know YMMV.

Erasmus

Not happening. See the SDC thread for the various rants. As always, YMMV.

DukieDrew

YMMV, but yesterday on my return leg DUB-ATL-SFO, when I arrived at ATL I went to a check-in kiosk and was able to change my flight to San Francisco with no problem. I haven't tried the outbound, but this is my second case where I changed the return leg from Atlanta (January on an BE/F award ticket, and yesterday on T paid).

mersk862

Check-in agent working the First/Medallion counter at MSP. Sadly no CRC angels in MSP (the WC agents are great with the NW stuff though!)

ecaarch

This has been my experience as well. I know the rules, the agent knows the rules, and the agent knows that I know the rules, so I don't push it after they say no.

mrkymark

I'm sort of waking this thread up because the original SDC thread is so huge and include so many different scenarios. My question is specific to SDC on

SFO-LAX-GRU (KE)
GRU-LAX-SFO

I want to SDC the LAX-SFO last leg of an international itinerary.
- looks like experience on FT is that as long as all int'l segments are flown SDC is possible.
- anyone can help confirm?
- also I'm really only an occasional DL flyer...So when the time comes can you SDC from the DL website? mobile app? check in machine? Or has to be phone call or Agent?

suvayanr

you can call or do it at the kiosk. Sometimes it's worked for me online, but overall I just call t-3 hours.