Originally Posted by Modernity (Post 23525829)

Since this seems an active topic today, I'd like to ask my own question.

Can one drop a middle leg if its on a different carrier?

For example, outbound is A->B on Carrier 1, B->C on Carrier 2, Return is C->D on Carrier 3, and D->A on Carrier 1.

If I wanted to drop C->D and drive C->D instead, can I do that without having D->A dropped?

I've done this before in Europe on a single carrier. I flew LH out to Frankfurt, took a connection to Vienna, but instead of connecting back for the return, flew from Prague instead.

This was a few years ago so I don't know if the rules are the same, and how they work with multiple airlines.

Should I just call the carriers and ask?

Originally Posted by Efrem (Post 23527475)

Here's a not-entirely-hypothetical:

Someone is traveling to China for two weeks with spouse. For a bunch of reasons, the travel dates are fixed with zero wiggle room.

Booking 11 months out, said person got F award tickets in the first low-mileage-needed allocation for the return flight. However, they were not available for the outbound flight. Two one-way award tickets in F or J that bypass capacity controls add up to a whole lot of miles.

Paid one-way tickets on the same airline are fairly expensive. However, paid round trips are much less so. Should this person:

1. Suck it up and buy one-way outbound tickets for what they cost.

2. Buy a round trip with return before the award return flight, so they could (in theory) get back to China a second time to use the reward ticket. Then toss the second half of the round trip.

3. Buy a round trip with return after the award return flight, so the fact that they tossed the second half of the round trip will not be known until they have returned.

4. Buy a round trip on a different airline and toss the second half. This is not as desirable for schedule and FF credit reasons, but feasible if options (2) and (3) are risky.

5. Other?

What does the collective FT wisdom suggest?

Originally Posted by 84fiero (Post 23524695)

What do you mean by "miss the Delta flight"? Are you picking up a separately-ticketed flight in Chicago to somewhere else on Delta?

Originally Posted by aisleorwindow (Post 23525820)

I disagree. I think it makes perfect sense to notify the airline after you fly the first leg. That way they can offload you from the flight before you become a no-show. Not to mention, it's just courteous.

Originally Posted by nrr (Post 23531691)

...If OP paid with cash, the airline (except through litigation) would have great difficulty collecting the "extra" fee.

Originally Posted by milepig (Post 23535117)

As do what, 0000.1% of pax?

Originally Posted by 84fiero (Post 23528913)

Is this all on one ticket number? Maybe those carriers' systems didn't interface so they weren't aware of the skipped segment (just guessing).

I wouldn't count on it working in all, or most, instances.