andifax

Hi,
I booked a round trip EWR-ATL-ABQ-SLC-EWR and upgraded with RUC.
My return from ABQ at 6am has been rescheduled to 8:25am and I’ll not be able to make the connection at SLC at 10am. The only alternative available is to take a flight from ABQ in the afternoon, connect in ATL and arrive at EWR after 11pm, compared to my earlier arrival in the afternoon around 5pm.
I noticed that the earliest option to get in the NYC area is to switch to ABQ-LAX-JFK (getting in at 5pm). Will I be eligible for a refund of transportation between JFK and EWR since my car will be parked in Newark?
Will DL honor the upgrade on the new itinerary given that it wasn’t my fault even if LAX-JFK would be DLONE?

DLASflyer

Probably not. It sounds like this is a schedule change as opposed to a day-of delay/cancellation. In the latter case Delta probably would pay for it but not when you have weeks/months of notice.

LondonElite

I doubt it, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Cory6188

Alternatively, in a case like that, you could absolutely ask DL to switch your outbound to whatever works for you out of JFK, given the schedule change. I had that happen to me once before, where I was booked out of EWR, and with a schedule change, LGA made way more sense on the return - so the res agent happily switched me to an LGA outbound so I could park my car there.

Often1

DL will almost certainly not reimburse the costs nor do anything by way of customer service gesture. Not only is this an advance schedule change, but you are electing the airport change. You are entitled to a refund if you wish and could then book whatever you wish.

As others note, you might look at departing from JFK and DL will almost certainly do that for you if there is space and you explain why.

rylan

They should maintain the RUC for the alternate routing since you are being hit with a major schedule change like that, and the upgrade cert is eligible for D1 as well.

As others mentioned however, you almost certainly won't get reimbursed for transfer from JFK to EWR.

Stripe

Several years ago I was connecting in ATL from BOS and onward to AUS. Sat waiting for a gate and finally pulled in next to the AUS flight, which closed just as our door opened. I and several other AUS-bound pax were able to get onto a flight to SAT leaving not long after. When I got to SAT I rented a car, drove home for the evening, then to AUS the next morning to pick up my own car. I wrote in and was reimbursed for the car rental cost + gas, plus got some bonus miles.

So you can always ask, but they would almost certainly not approve that in advance, and probably not at all since this was a schedule change well in advance of the flight. And there is (from DL's standpoint) a perfectly good option that gets you back to EWR that same day, and as a bonus lets you avoid getting up for a 6 am flight. Your only other option is to accept a refund.

Often1

This is a whole lot different than your situation.

Yours was an IRROPS involuntary reroute.

In this case, OP is asking to be voluntarily rerouted to JFK.

As you note, one can ask for anything. But, this is far from anything anyone ought to expect.

flyerCO

What date are you looking to fly? We can see if there's a non-normal routing available.

DL considers EWR/LGA/JFK to be one airport. They pay for transportation only when one is connecting between airports. (Then generally LGA/JFK at that)

They'll happily reroute to JFK (or other airport within 250 or so miles), but aren't going to pay for transportation.
.Are you needing to fly out of EWR, or booked as was cheapest? DL will also change the departure to same airport you switch arrival.

Often1

No idea what you paid for your DL ticket, but DL will refund your ticket with that change. If the UA services from / to EWR may be more useful and not requiring the miserable JFK-EWR ground transit you are considering.

MSPeconomist

Has the OP considered PHL? It has good train connections and thus could be a better substitute for EWR, especially if OP is based in northern NJ.

Often1

PHL Is a good idea. Given the misery of the JFK-EWR ground transit, I would consider BWI and even DCA (although that does mean an Uber to WAS to catch an Acela / NER).

MSPeconomist

Do you mean IAD for the Uber ride? DCA has a Metro station right in the airport.

SDQBound

And depending on the time of the day you can get faster from DCA to Union Station by metro than by Uber, with virtually no crowd these days.

Often1

I don't advise the use of public transport during the pandemic. It is an emergency backup for someone who has no alternatives.

A vastly reduced schedule with overcrowded trains resultant is not my idea of a good idea when an Uber will run $15-20.